HASA 2012 Carbon Road Bike Shimano Ultegra Groupset

I used to race a few years back, and now I've made a return to the sport for fitness and health. I know what good gear is like, my old Columbus tube bike was and still is an excellent piece of equipment, fully kitted out with Gippiemme groupset and Wolber 'single' wheels. Unfortunately as the chainrings and running gear wears out there is no way to replace the bits. The options were to replace all of the running gear and wheels with an Ultegra quality of componentry... or buy a new bike. I decided to join the 21st Century and purchase a Carbon frame with all of the nice new bits...Enter the HASA ...It is made in Taiwan, but then most of the best, high quality Carbon frames are made in Taiwan now, so that is in effect a big plus. This bike is a full 3Kg lighter than my old treadly and you can feel it as soon as you mount up, the bottom bracket is SO stiff that ALL of the power is fed to the back wheel, no flex at all. The Shimano Ultegra gears, shifters and derailliers are faultless and smooth, as you might expect. On the downhill stretches this bike ran out to almost 90km/hr with absolutely no bad traits and the cornering is fantastic(I had been a little aprehensive about the handling qualities of Carbon Vs Steel) Light and responsive but very definate is how I would describe the handling and I never felt as if I needed to 'back off'...Another BIG thumbs up here. On the uphill sections the very svelte 7Kg or so total weight combined with the incredibly stiff bottom bracket made even the 17 degree Checker hill seem quite do-able...Very definate thumbs up there. In summary, this is not a 'cheap' bike, it represents EXCELLENT value for money. However, if you do buy this bike then you must be prepared to go over the entire bike (chain and all) and make sure that every nut, bolt, clamp and screw are properly torqued...If you can't do this yourself then take it to a good bike shop, where for a small fee they can set it up for you..a small price to pay for such a high quality piece of equipment. I would buy this bike again, I can't fault it. Oh yes, the service and communication from Cycling deal are second to none, my bike was accidently supplied with the wrong size cranks and the staff at Cycling sent a new set straight away..Fantastic customer service.
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