Is Standert Worth The Hype Kreissäge RS

Overpriced. What's so special about these bikes? Influencer brand. If you have Instagram, you've probably heard of Standard. They're a Berlin-based brand that only make bikes out of metal. This is their new Chrysler RS, an aluminium racing bike. It's just more than meets the eye. Welcome to First Look, the series where we check out new and interesting bits of tech and give you the rundown on the things that actually matter. Let's get into it. Oh, before we get going, this video is not sponsored. This is Standard's bike that they're just lending to us. We're not being paid, and it's going back afterwards. The bike we have is a size 50, made out of Deda Aegis tubing, handmade in Italy. The frame is aluminium with some scandium added to improve the properties. It has 35 millimetre tyre clearance. It's got a bladed carbon fork. It's UDH, Dura-Ace groupset, top of the range Scope Artec wheels, Pirelli P Zero race tyres in 30 millimetres, and polymer one-piece bar and stem. So we have the 50 centimetre frame. It's got a Garmin mount on it, a bottle cage, and no pedals. And just bear in mind, this is the most top spec a bike can basically be. It is top end absolutely everything. So I would probably expect this to weigh about four kilos. So let's see where we're at. 7.55 kilos. Do with that what you will. Wowee, this bike is stiff. The handlebars are stiff. The seat post is stiff. It is firm. I guess you would expect that with modern alloy. It feels like a race bike. You push, the bike goes forward. There's no lost anything apart from oxygen in my lungs. Feels good, feels fast. Of course, what you get as a result of stiff alloy is some harshness, which I was kind of hoping would be negated by these monstrously fat tyres, which Francis pumped to 60 PSI. But there's definitely some harshness still there. ♪ Dame la comida buena, chicharrones, yeah. ♪ ♪ Dame un pizze de cerdo, frijoles negros, comida rica. ♪ ♪ Dame la comida buena, chicharrones. ♪ Francis hasn't done the seat post up, so it slipped. But whilst I'm here, I would like to appreciate that the seat post clamp beautiful design, lovely and neat. Little, is it a cat? It is a cat, isn't it? We usually get the animals wrong. There's a little cat on there and also a cat on here. It's, I appreciate little things like that. Little Easter eggs. All right, 2,000 euros for a frame set. That is a lot of money for an aluminium frame. There's no getting around it. Builds from standard start at 6,299 euros with Ultegra. Why is it expensive? Because it's nice? Scandium in the tubing makes things more expensive. This is Deda Aegis, their top level of aluminium tubing. What is scandium? Scandium is a rare earth element whose use is almost exclusively reserved for adding aluminium to form an alloy with incredible properties for building bike frames. Most notably, the addition of scandium to aluminium allows the production of tubes, which are not only thinner, which means lighter, but are stronger than regular aluminium. That was from their website. It's rare, so it's expensive. And maybe makes a bit of difference. You're also paying for marketing, class paint jobs, and it being made in Italy. I'm not saying there aren't better value options out there. There definitely are. But you're not buying this for value, are you? This bike is listed as 2,000 euros, which, if you live in the EU, is how much you're going to pay. If you live outside of the EU, you are also going to pay whatever relevant taxes, customs, import tariffs are available for your region. So if you're in the UK, this bike, after changing the exchange rate currently, it's going to actually be about 2,100, maybe 2,200 pounds. For the frame set! For the frame set. Just make sure you remember to do a calculation of taxes, imports, et cetera, et cetera, for your region if you are going to buy this frame. Sizing. Right, there's some interesting stuff going on here. The TLDR is, it's somewhere in between a racing bike and an endurance bike. It's going to suit lots of people, and for a change, it actually goes quite small. The long version is, there's seven different sizes, ranging from 48 to 60, and it's very modern geometry, so the seat tube angles are steep. This means the reach figures on the geometry chart aren't as scary as they look. Essentially, the bottom bracket has been moved back in relation to the rider and the wheels, compared to most other road bikes. We found this on the Ridley we tested recently as well. If you want to know more about steep seat angles, there's a really good video that goes into more detail than this on the Overbiked Randonneering channel. Worth checking out. The 48's going to be really small, which is great, because there's not enough small bikes out there. I end up artificially creating positions like this on my personal bikes, with an inline seat post or getting the saddle as far forward on the rails as possible. But when you do this on a normal geometry bike, you do affect the handling. You end up further over the front wheel, because your body has moved in relation to the wheels. So there's more weight on your hands, and therefore more weight on your front tyre, and that can affect your cornering. In the Chrysler's case, it will still handle great, because you're still in the same position in relation to the wheels, and you'll get all the potential benefits. A more open hip angle, potentially better quad engagement, potentially you can get lower at the front without being uncomfortable. Of course, there's different adjustment possibilities still, with saddle set back and different seat posts. The only real limiting option is the bar options that they offer. But even here, you could just spec your own, so it's not a disaster. This one-piece bar and stem is from Polymer, and it comes in a 36-centimetre width and a 38-centimetre width, and that's it. So it's fairly limited, but I guess narrow bars are the thing now. Right, we all know it's an Instagram bike. It's cool, it's trendy, it's got a very trendy, soft pink colour and cats on it. It's just cool. Or is it? Is it actually lame? This is what we've spent ages debating. I can't work out if it's the coolest bike that's on the market right now, or actually the lamest. How can it be so far onto each end of the spectrum? What I can tell you, though, at the very least, is even if it is an uncool Instagram bike, at least it is a very good bike. You're not going to waste your money buying the bike. You're not going to think it's a junk bike. It doesn't ride properly. It's a good bike. Cool or not? To be decided. I'm torn. Oh, that's Perriers, the guitarist on that song. What song? Torn, by Nanny and Brulia. So who is this bike for? It's a long, relatively low bike, although a fair bit less aggressive than a lot of other race bikes, but it's going to be fast. It's stiff. It's probably going to survive a crash better than a carbon bike if you do crash it, and it has some aero properties. Of course, you could race this at a high level. You'd be absolutely fine. Maybe it's for someone who likes a more classic-looking bike, but with some modern design choices. There's no big, fat aero tubes going on here, but there are modern features like disc brakes, wide tire clearance, and good design choices, in my opinion, a round seat post, a normal steerer, and a threaded T47 BB, which some home mechanics are going to love. This might look like normal round tubes for the most part, but if you look closer, there are some nods to aero, like the hourglass head tube and the fork, which is kind of bladed. Are these things going to make the bike faster? Yes. Should you care? The fork looks cool, though. That's arguably more important. On a negative note, the tubes are welded together and it hasn't been sanded down that nicely. I mean, you can see how blobby the welds are. At this price point, should we be expecting better? Perhaps. Yeah, they're not the best. We've definitely seen better on alloy bikes than this. An example of it is the Massacan, which we looked at not that long ago. It was much more refined, I guess you would say. Aluminium bikes are not known for their comfort. It's a very stiff frame, so when you ride over bumps, you feel them. Having massive tyre clearance really helps with this. And to put things into perspective, my personal bike is carbon, but I can only fit 25 mil tyres on, and this is significantly more comfortable. So at least there's that, I guess. To add to that, we're also switching between, today, a big, fat carbon aero race bike and this. And as soon as you switch between the two, the carbon race bike, which on paper isn't supposed to be that comfortable, is so smooth in comparison. What annoys me, and this is nitpicking, what annoys me about the setup of most of the bikes that turn up when they are in for review, is that the shifters are set up to look good for photos and not be good for human beings. So the levers on this bike are set up to look flat, as are the ones on the other bike that we're testing today. And what that does is make your whole position extremely uncomfortable. I would recommend moving these up so they're a little bit tilted off horizontal towards you. So you have something to lean on, and therefore every other part of your bike becomes more comfortable, including your saddle. Do they taste all right? Oh, he bit it, he bit it, he bit it. That's Dura-Ace. I thought you were very cute. I thought you were my friend. Back to my point, I get a sore ass when bikes are set up like this with the shifters tilted over and you end up in a horrible position. And then as soon as I move them up, which we should have done before riding, it goes away and I'm happy. I'm not happy right now. Do you want another bite? So what else is there in the market in this kind of category? If you're interested in this bike, you're probably into something a little bit different. We tested another small bike brand called Massacan a while back. Again, they have data frames handmade in Italy, this time with a bit of a rock and roll vibe. They do make a carbon bike too. And if you wanted something not that different, the Specialized Allee Sprint might be an option. It's alloy, stiff, racy. Check it out. We have a set of wheels called the house wheels, which are kept in the studio and we switch them onto a bike when we're reviewing it just to see what the frame feels like without the inevitably very expensive set of wheels that gets sent with the bike. In this case, I think there's going to be lots of difference because those wheels, the Artex, are like a million quid. These are DT Swiss alloy rims with Pirelli sport tires. So less supple than what was on there before. I tell you why, it's not actually as bad as I was expecting it to be. There's just a lot more vibration. The bumps themselves are not entirely unpleasant, but there's just so much more vibration coming up through the wheels, into the frame and into my body. Are you going to be more comfortable on something else? Well, yeah. So what is the summary here? It's expensive alloy and some people are going to have a problem with that. But on the other hand, some people want nice things made in certain locations, perhaps closer to home. Some of it is taste and some people have different tastes to other people. Is this the best alloy gets? I think it might be. It's Italian made, light, stiff, looks great and has a bunch of practical design choices. You will be paying a premium for it, but remember it's a smaller company out of Germany run by cyclists. And perhaps if you're going to spend a little bit more money on something, this is the kind of company you'd want to go for. And finally, always remember the best bike for you is the one that you're going to look at in your kitchen and go, oh yeah, let's get out on a ride. Maybe that is this bike for you. I'm still torn with this bike. It's really weird because one hand, I absolutely think it's brilliant and lovely and looks beautiful. And then on the other hand, I kind of don't care. And it's just a bit, it's just a bike. I don't know what to do with it. The bike comes in definitely the best packaging we've ever seen. Obviously they're a direct to consumer brand. So they used or they've designed really good packaging. So when it arrives with you, the box is very manageable. It's got holes and handles everywhere. You pull the bike out of it and it's got its own little stand. It is very well considered. It is fantastic. I would argue it's better than Canyon who are the kings and queens of direct to consumer. The standard stuff is fantastic. I think the thing I'm really weird with this bike is I want to want it. It looks cool. It looks amazing. You just see it against the wall. Then you go, oh yeah, that is absolutely great. I just don't, I wouldn't spend my money on it. I don't care what you think. And I do.