Coustellier Bike

wheelbase- 1060ish. bb height- high, probably zero drop stays- short, around 15 even. standover- more than a mod. weight- beefy but stiff as a mofo.

matt if you are looking into a new bike, this is one to browse at for sure. i cant believe how well this bike rode when i hopped on it. if i were not riding a desalvo (that will kick an equal amount of ass, y'all will see or at least on paper it will) i would absolutely be riding a coustellier about the third week of january.

 

o yeah, warranty- they were talking about a year and price will be comparable to the koxx bikes. like i said about the weight- you wont care after you do about... well after you build it up and look at it cus it will ride so nice that it will feel pounds lighter than it really is. to give you an idea, my SL desalvo weighed 3.2 pounds for the frame and built into a 21ish pound bike, the coustellier set up for their practice bikes was around 26 pounds... it "rode" lighter and better than my bike.

 

To change the subject slightly.The ZOO is supposed to be 550 and weiging in in the red corner wearing the neon green decals at about 4 1/4 lbs.With a wheel base of 1060.
It's a crowd favorite.

 

like the water in the brake lines--- that was supposed to be on the downlow... like way lower than the low down. and the antifreeze was lowere than even that! way to go.... :rofl: just j'in

 

about this bike,
and the woodman and the pure 1060 et all.

Before wheelbase became one of the most contentious points on a bike no one really talked about it from a performance standpoint and it seems like no one has really found the sweet spot yet.

To give an example of the opposite, chainstay length has been debated and refined and now it seems pretty unanimously that 15" even is feasibly about as good as it gets, and not bad.

Im about to buy a longer wb bike, Ive always felt my zebdi a little too short for my interests in riding. Not being able to just testride the latest frames and designs I- like most other trialsiners- have to guess wisely.

Now the question that goes with this bike
The bike was designed from the sons' inputs and is then either their preferential wheelbase or, they use one or more specialized frames for competeing that have differing geometry for the various courses and the production frame is somewhat more of a one size fits all design.

My reason for asking is because I admire the talents of these brothers and I think Im going to use them as a pattern, ie, ratio of my height to theirs times (X) this frame's wb = the wheelbase that will fit me as their bikes fit them~ eh kinda, I know. If thats lame I dont care. :eek3:

Im really leaning towards a pure 1080 even though just a little while ago I wanted a woodman. The reason Id like to go with the echo is for the whole centimeter more and a higher bb, infact the chainstays might be shorter too :joshers:

 

They are supposed to use just one frame for what I know, the frame is different from the ZOO! copy (look at the rear triangle). Is it worth the extra money??? Thats up to you- I think I would be fine with the ZOO! model, I'm an extremely light rider...I don't break anything except forks Someone concerned about breaking a frame should look into the koxx or coustellier if they want the new top o tha line UCI dealy bob. I've spent considerable time on a crescent, koxx 1065, koxx 1100 and koxx mod... the extra lenght helps a ton in every aspect of PURE trials. Don't expect to have fun riding it around town. This will be the same wtih the pure 1080 or coustellier.


From your choices, whatever you get should be mint (I'm drunk so sorry if any of this is unreadable)

 

dingus- they ride one bike for comps and one for practice. the comp one has some crazy stuff done to it but the practice one has more run of the mill stuff. keep in mind their average, normal parts are still crazily nice though. they do not ride more than one bike with different gemetries. that would get way to complex. they would have to get used to multiple geometries- no dice. they pick one that works for them and roll with it.

the father with the help of the sons input cooked up the whole koxx long bike theory. if you look at the old koxx bikes from when bruno was riding them, they are all short. on the longer side of short but still short. when the coustellier brothers came along and papa coose designed the geometry for the LB 1065, the whole wheelbase revolution in uci came to be.

when it comes to riding uci trials, the coustellier brothers know their business. i trust that anything they lay down in design is the best that it can be. they mean business and they wouldnt implement something into a design if they didnt feel it was the ONLY way to go. this bike rides so very nice. only thing out there i have ever straddled that beats out my current DS (though the xtp is a slick rig, riding that thing feels goooood). the coustellier is going to kick some ass for trials riding. dont expect to do anything other than uci comp style riding on it though.

 

what rolls better: long or short?
its not that obvious

 

the long bike should roll better. I don't know for a fact just yet, but it seems to me that the "long" bikes get their long wheelbase by slackening the head angle a few degrees. has anyone measured the effective TT on these newer bikes yet? when trying to get a feel for a new bike, you can't go by wheelbase alone. It's somewhat deceptive to refer to a Koxx as long...especially when some people are coming from an XC type background...I generally think of long or short bikes with reference to the length of the TT and not the wheelbase. For example, a typical 18" XC frame has an effective TT of about 23 inches, where my Specialist is 24.75...certainly a long bike. It sure would be great to get measurements from frame manufacturers with relavent geometry information. That's why i'm going to start keeping track and put up a "database" of sorts with all kinds of information so we can try to make more informed decisions about frames we wish to purchase.

-S

 

Too a point, short rolls better...The only reason I say this is with a WAY long bike I had problems reaching the handlebars on super steep roll downs! You get used to it, but i would be barely holding on to stuff when I rolled down big things (I was all about rolling down things at one time, fences are FUN!)

 

Andrew, while using that super long bike, were your bars lower than they were on something like your Crescent?

 

I went through 4-5 diff stem/bar set ups on the crescent and 2-3 on the koxx, at different times one was higher or shorter or longer or whatever...but yes higher bars should make it easier- the length of the bike still dictates the difficulty. How could I prove this??


I had a mod stint this summer, I spent a month on a monty x-lite and about that much on a koxx lb mod. The monty I could roll down anything, with the koxx I would have problems doing those kind of moves- it dictates mostly rear wheel only, which is fine


I wonder how the ZOO! rides...cough cough...

 

Interesting. I don't have much experience with long wheelbase trials bikes, but I've found that steep roll downs are much easier on my long wheelbase MTB. It's long wheelbase AND long top tube, which would seem a bit counterintuitive if it weren't for the long travel fork and high bars. I can definitely see how a long bike and low bars would make steep roll downs somewhat of a bitch but I still wonder about a long bike and a "normal" bar height. Also, I want to get my hands on one of those lucious long Koxx and measure the actual length of the cockpit. :greddy: Seriously. I do. Since top tube length is so subjective on a trials bike, I'm thinking of something along the lines of a C to C measurement from the BB to the TT/HD joint.

 

My 2 pence is go long with a short stem and compensate with a steep rake on the fork.This will keep your bars over you axle instead of too far back.

 

I totally disagree, I say go for a shorter WB (1040-1060) and a longer stem (around 120mm). The further the handlebars are over the axel the more leverage you have to pivot the nose. Leverage = control & precision.

Personally I ride a 1060mm WB with a 120mm stem but could do with another good centimeter or perhaps two. I'm 6'.

 

well bloodhound, the coustelliers seem to have no problems with long bikes and short stems...of course short is subjective. It's all personal preference, whatever works for you the best.

 

you are much better off having your bike length come from the wheelbase than from your stem length. with proper bar positioning and a comfy stem set up (a short one i mean) you will have just as much control, if not more than with a short bike and long stem. thats the set up im on right now- 1040-ish wheelbase with a 120mm stem (and i am about 5'7") and though it rides nice, it doesnt even compare to the benifits of having that same net length only with more of it in the wheelbase.

the coustellier bike is amazing. giacomo has several inches on me and when i got on the bike it felt like pure gold. whenever the best rider in the world gives me a tip i tend to listen, oui?