Dawes SST-AL Pictorial Review

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On Friday the thirteenth of February I received my tax refund. At 11am that morning I placed my order for the Dawes SST-AL (52cm) from bikdesdirect for $359.99 USD delivered. I was looking for a way to rekindle my interest in cycling, which had fallen off some in the past couple of years. I figured riding fixed could do the trick. Since it had been 10 years since I last bought a bicycle (my road bike), I was pretty excited about getting another bike. At 11:40 I received a UPS tracking number. Bonus points for the quick shipping!

My budget for the bike ran about $500, so right after ordering the Dawes I went to ebay and picked up a Cateye Strada wireless cycle computer, and a cheap pair of Wellgo 823 clipless pedals. The bike comes with clips and straps, but since I already ride a pair of Wellgos on my road bike I decided to get the same for this bike so I could be sure I could use my only pair of cycling shoes with both bikes.

I had it shipped to my office. I ordered it the Friday of Presidents Day weekend, so with their 5-day shipping estimate I figured it would be at best Thursday or Friday of the following week when the bike arrived. I was stoked when it arrived at my office on Tuesday(!) morning at 9:30. That's a little under 4 days for delivery, across a holiday weekend. The bike got to me so quickly that I had to wait a few more days to get my clipless pedals and cycle computer. The box was in pretty good shape, so I wasn't worried about the condition of the contents.

The thing felt pretty light. Opening the box was a pretty good wrestling match; once it was open, I could see everything tucked tightly into place.

The seatpost is a Kalloy Micro Adjust 27.2x300mm in black, mounted with a nondescript black saddle. Since I already had a Fizik Pave' saddle on hand, I've been using it in place of the stock saddle while riding.

The wheels looked nice, and the packing job was thorough, with cardboard, foam, and clear plastic taped or zip tied in place to protect all the shiny aluminum of the frame and the black components. I admit that when I placed the order I was concerned about the level of care that would be used in packing. Everything came through just fine. There was the seatpost and saddle, a parts box, and the mass of the frame and wheels. The rear was already installed, while the front was zipped in place. Interestingly, the front also had the left crank slid in place between the spokes. It made for a solidly packed mass with little room to move around. That's good, since there's no one to inspect the bikes between the factory and the customer.

The parts box had the pedals, the 17-tooth freewheel (the 18-tooth fixed cog was installed), and a rear brake and brake lever with cable and housing. Also included was a laughable "owners manual" with a few pages of (very) generic content.

The welds are not especially pretty, but that's something I was willing to accept for the deeply discounted price at bikesdirect. The axles were covered to prevent them punching through the sides of the box. I took a good look at the rims and other components before beginning to assemble the bike.

The headset is a Cane Creek -- I was glad of that, though I'm sure it's low-end Cane Creek. The whole head tube was loose on arrival, but there was no apparent harm in that. Contrary to what you may have heard on the web, the Dawes stickers are all under the clear coat. The only sticker on top is that "Made in Taiwan" sticker on the head tube.

Here's a shot of the welds where the top tube and seat tube meet up with the head tube. Keep in mind that this is a 52cm, so everything pretty much runs together here.

With the handlebars in place and the headset tightened down it was starting to look like a bicycle. Initially I left in the full complement of spacers. I've taken about half of them out while adjusting my fit. The handlebars are 44cm C-C, which is a full 6cm wider than the bars on my road bike, and likely too wide for anyone who buys a 52cm frame.

I bolted on the front wheel and installed the seatpost and the clips and straps, and voila, it's a track bike. There's no toe overlap at this frame size, and there's plenty of clearance in back for fenders, with braze-ons for racks and two water bottles. I didn't put on the rear brake right away, but of course this bike has cable guides on the frame, so I was sure I would install it soon. In this picture everything is still stock. At this point I was ready to go for my first ride.

The clips and straps took me back to my high school days. Everything on the bike was pretty tight. The only thing that slipped was the rear cog when I backpedaled to slow down. For the rest of the ride I stuck to the front brake for stopping. We're a little too close to winter here still, so the 30F temps and light drizzle meant the first ride was short.

Since I didn't have any track-bike specific tools yet, I tightened the cog by standing on the pedals. I carefully used a hammer and nailset to tighten the lockring, which tightened about a quarter turn. The crank and all other parts were already all the way tightened down. Since I bought the bike mail order, I've been trying to be nice to my LBS by going there to buy a lockring tool and a chain whip, as well as a Topeak bag mounted under the saddle to carry my spare tube, 15mm wrench, and multitool.

I have a day job and the days are still short, so I can only ride on the weekends, but right now I have about 70 miles on the bike, including a couple of rides of 20 to 25 miles. This picture shows my bike as it looks now after a few modifications. The provided rear brake is installed, and a few new components have been swapped in. As I mentioned before, I already had a Fizik saddle I intended to use, and my clipless pedals and cycle computer arrived from the land of ebay. I knew the handlebars were silly wide, and after I road it a few times I realized that I missed the hand positions afforded by brake hoods. So I returned to ebay where I picked up a 40cm Nitto Noodle handlebar, some Tektro R200 aero brake levers, and Cinelli macro-splash cork tape. My LBS had the 38g Bontrager composite water bottle cage. Now the bike really felt like it was mine. I was amused, after I thought about it, to realize how closely the setup of the Dawes mirrored the setup of my regular road bike. So far I'm pretty happy, but I'm still making adjustments to the fit to find the most comfortable position.

Many thanks to the fixed gear folks over at bikeforums.net where I lurked for about 6 weeks prior to ordering the Dawes, and where I continue to find inspiration.

I need to put some more miles into this setup to be sure it's right, but I find it more comfortable than the stock parts. I'm a roadie by nature, and most of my rides are 20-40 miles on flat to rolling hills. My only shorter rides are tooling around town with my kids.

Riding and working on the bike has been an education in fixedness. On my road bike my cadence is generally 90+ ... on the fixed gear, particularly on hills or into the wind, I'm forced to generate a lot of force at lower cadences. It's a different kind of workout.

As delivered, the rear wheel fits at the tight end of the track ends. There's some kind of black, protective plastic on the right chainstay.

The stem is solid but uninspiring. It's 110mm; I may swap that out for a 90mm soon.

And here's a closeup look at the Tektro R200 aero brake levers I switched to. They're heavier than the cross levers that came with, but I like riding on the hoods. Since I'm on a budget I wanted cheap, and I knew the Tektro levers would work with the stock Tektro brakes. A note for anyone else considering this upgrade -- I needed new brake cables and housing because the existing ones weren't long enough. The hoods mount far enough out on the bars to make both cables several centimeters too short. I did keep the stock rear brake cable and cut it down to use as the front brake cable so that I only had to purchase (again at the LBS) a new cable for the rear.

I live in a town of 1800 people in the middle of Illinois corn and soybean fields. All of my riding is on blacktop chip and seal roads. I don't ride in the winter, so I'm just getting used to being back in the saddle. This makes it hard to compare the comfort of the Dawes vs. my road bike, which I still haven't ridden since early December.

The 48x18 gearing is good while I'm learning to ride fixed, but I may knock that rear cog down to around 16 teeth to increase my top end. I haven't made up my mind yet whether that will cause me trouble in the open on a windy day. Give it a couple of months and the corn will be over my head on both sides of the road, and that will help some with the wind. Bikesdirect states that the crank length varies based on frame size; these cranks are 170mm. If a future edition of this bike comes with a carbon fork, that would be a nice enhancement over the current design. I hesitate to add an aftermarket carbon fork due to the cost.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments; I'll try to answer them. I'll also come back with an update that gives the full list of changed components with their costs.