Rose Xeon CDX 3100 Di2

There seems to have been a fair bit of interest in this bike, mine finally arrived today after having ordered it back in March. Just a few comments on what I’ve seen so far, in advance of the review of the SRAM version being posted on the site.

I’ve gone from a 2013 Cube Agree GTC to the Rose Xeon CDX 3100 Di2, so my exposure to other bikes is limited – I can only comment on my own frame of references.

Bad stuff first:

– Had to wait 3 months for the bike to turn up.
– When I placed the order I made a number of customisations (silly things mostly like red bar tape and red tyre walls). These weren’t available so I got a fairly curt email explaining this and detailing replacement items. The replacements were fine – they upgraded the saddle at no extra cost even, but (I’m guessing) they re-keyed in my order. The actual order invoice I received from them didn’t list the red bar tape customisation (as I’ve just noticed) so it’s turned up with black bar tape. I’m not sure whether I got the 40cms bars I ordered or the default 42cms ones either (where do you measure from?) – again nothing in the invoice. If you make customisations to your order, make sure it’s on the email invoice they send you!
– The Di2 battery cable wouldn’t stay connected to the internal battery. I’ve spent a couple of hours messing about with this today and ended up having to dismantle and re-seat the battery. I was at the point where I thought it might have to go back, when I finally got the connection to “click” properly. It’s been fine since, but the jury is still out here.
– The freewheel on the DT Swiss wheels is *really* noisy. I’m just used to my silent Shimano wheels I guess. It’s one more reason to keep pedaling I guess!

Good stuff:

– Weight, I don’t have super-accurate scales to weigh the built bike with pedals, saddle bag, bottle cages etc on it – but it’s considerably lighter than my Cube.
– I had a limited amount of time today so I only did a rudimentary bike-fit and then took it out for a quick 10k blast. I love the Di2 shifting, it will take a little getting used to I’m sure – but it’s leagues ahead of the Tiagra on my other bike. The brakes work really well, I’ve not done much proper descending on it yet – but it was certainly 1-finger braking on the roads near me. The bike felt fast, I got a few PRs on some roads I ride all the time – but this is too small a sample to draw any objective conclusions from.

Random/undecided stuff:

– I’m not really sure whether this bike is any more comfortable than my Cube – I’ll do a long ride on the weekend and see how I feel after!
– It’s bigger/more upright than the Cube (as expected), but I’ve not really done any proper fitting yet.

I hope that’s of interest to someone. If not I’ll keep it to myself in future!