My Steelman custom stage race has about 500 miles on it now – enough time, I think, to form an educated opinion. I'll start with first impressions and move on to performance on the road.

First impressions: The first thing I noticed upon assembling my carefully packaged bike was the overall quality of the welds and paint. The welds are barely noticeable and the paint is skillfully applied. The shifting and brakes were adjusted perfectly and someone must have pre-stretched the cables, because I have yet to make an adjustment after a month of riding. Bottle cage mounts and cables are another thing I noticed. The bottle cages are perfectly placed for my reach. As well, none of the cables rest on the tubing, meaning that the paint won't rub off over time from cable abrasion. Even with properly cut cables, this is problem on most every production bike I've seen. A minor detail, but one that indicates Brent has put a bit of though into frame building.

Fit: After a few minutes of saddle height adjustment (Brent had already leveled the saddle), I took the bike out for a 20 minute shake-down ride. I noticed Brent had me sitting a bit longer in the cock-pit (as he had said he would), but everything seemed to fit very well. No toe overlap, even though I had indicated I don't mind toe overlap, was a nice feature given my previous bike had about an inch of overlap. All things considered I was very happy with my first impressions of the fit. After a number of miles, it became clear that the fit was absolutely perfect.

Performance: I ask Brent to design a comfortable, well-mannered, as-light-as-makes-sense, road-racer built to my weight (I'm 150lbs). My previous bike had an aggressive geometry and was a superb crit racer, but given its geometry and aluminum construction, it was very harsh, a bit squirrelly in the corners, and especially touchy on steep descents. In other words it was your average mass produced compact frame… The new bike weights the same as the old one even though we're talking steel vs. Al. And, that is the only parity between the two machines.

I can find nothing this bike does poorly! It is the most comfortable bike I've owned – even when compared to a previous carbon bike. The bike has great road feel and a lively ride that I've only experienced in a steel bike. It descends and corners on rails. Absolutely no unexpected behavior at all. I initially thought that I might be giving up some cornering performance, but after testing the bike on a known corner, I am satisfied that I have lost nothing and actually have gained some stability. For those that like data – my local crit course has a slightly downhill corner that I can take at 32mph max using the entire road. The Steelman easily takes the corner at the same speed. Out of the saddle I get no BB flex, and again experience the lively feedback of steel tubes selected for my weight.

Summary: Great job Brent! Keep my measurements on file, because this will not be the last bike you build for me.

-Trey