I bought this beautiful machine in the September end-of-season sales. It arrived the day after The Circuit of Kent Sportive, at the tale end of a glorious long stretch of hot sunny weather. As soon as it arrived, the weather changed; exactly the same thing that had happened when I bought my Giant Defy Composite 2 last year! With the cold wet weather and other things conspiring against me I wasn’t able to ride it until this evening, 10 days after I got it! That was the longest time off my bike since way back in March.
The ride is wonderfully smooth. It’s very comfortable, even over rough ground, and yet the frame is really stiff. The di2 electronic shifters work well and add to the feeling of luxury. I think I’m going to love riding it!
Only when I’ve have had more time riding it, and over some of my favourite routes, will I be able to comment further on its performance.
Currently I feel that the handlebar stem is too long so I’m going to try and change that.
Edit (22/9/13): I have now changed the stem from 120mm to 90mm and it is much more comfortable. Although, when I am down on the drops I can see the front wheel hub in front of the handlebars – this usually indicates that the stem is too short. However, another metric for measuring correct bar placement (when placing your elbow touching the front of your saddle, your outstretched fingers should be just shy (1cm or so) of touching the bars) indicates that the new position is correct!
Edit (03/11/13): I have now ridden several hundred miles on this bike and I love it. So far I have:
- Fitted new wheels – Campagnolo Shamal Ultras with Michelin Pro4 tyres
- New cassette – 12-30, replacing the original 12-25
- New stem – 90mm
- Ultegra 6700 carbon pedals
Issues:
- Headset rattle (fixed here)
- Di2 battery indicator test didn’t work (fixed by re-inserting battery).
- Di2 sometimes doesn’t shift to small chainwheel
Hi,
Just wondering about the fit of these bikes. What frame size do you have and how tall are you?
Cheers,
Gareth
Hi, I’m 1.75m tall with 78cm inside leg. I went for the 52cm frame and it’s just right, although I did have get a shorter H/bar stem – 90mm instead of the stock 120mm. I felt slightly too stretched reaching the bars.
Cheers
Hi,Was just reading your comments.Thanks for posting.I am a little shorter than yourself and also feel I might need a shorter stem on my lovely new 3.0. I have my seat set just about as far forward as It can be.I’m thinking 90mm but when you mention how to measure from seat to bars this must depend on where your seat is set.I’d very much appreciate hearing how you’ve been getting on since changing the stem !
Hi Rob, Sorry for late reply. Gmail had marked all my blog emails as spam – I only just noticed!
I’m glad you got one! Great bike.
Yes, the 90mm stem is fine for me. In fact I feel really comfortable on this bike in general. I even like the stock saddle, although I’ve bought another one that I’ll be trying soon.
Cheers,
Vince
Hi vince , picked up my clx3.0 in Dec sales in black an fluoro yellow, its a piece of cycling modern art, cycles pretty well too! after reading your blog, i changed the stem and happier with it, I didn’t get on with the prologo saddle so opted for a spez romin evo pro which so far so good. Planning on changing rear cassette to a 11-28 next, did you replace / lengthen chain to accommodate your 12-30 ?
Hi Kevin. Yeah they certainly are beautiful bikes. The 12-30 cassette works with no problems. For a couple of rides I put on a SRAM Apex PG1050 11-32 (while I was waiting for the 12-30 to arrive); the chain couldn’t stretch to cope with big chainring and the 32 rear sprocket, so I made sure that I never used that combination, but other than that, it worked fine. Could be used in an extreme situation once in a while I guess.
Hi guys, I noticed you mentioned you Say you picked your clx’s. Up in the sales.
Any recommendations on where to get a deal on one?
Can I ask what you paid?
Cheers. Russ
Hi Russ, I got mine at Wiggle but I don’t think they have any left now. They were going for £2.5k in the sales for the di2. There are a couple on ebay by the looks. You’ll just have to keep Googling!
Cheers fella, the search continues!
Hi Vince went with a 12-27 in the end with a new kmc lightweight chain, also upgraded brake pads to koolstop black as the std shimano pads were a bit hard, all tuned up and ready to go first sportive next weekend. Bike Bought from chain reaction, it’s 105 running gear, last one and got a 50% disc Russ, just lucky. Cycle surgery now selling them.
Just got mine delivered from Merlin cycles!
managed to get an Ultegra DI2 model for £2499, well chuffed.
Rides like a dream!