Ride Review: Kinesis KT610 Time Trial Bike

I went to Cartimar three weeks ago to treat myself and buy a new frameset and wheelset after selling my telephoto lens. I planned on converting my road bike to a time trial bike which will be my "official" ride during duathlons and triathlons. I planned on getting a Kinesis KT415 and an American Classis 420, as those were the components that would fit my budget.

Upon arriving at Christy's, I instantly felll in love with the Kinesis KT610 which I saw hanging on the store's show area. The price was a few thousand higher than the KT415 but this was the latest Kinesis TT Frame model, and it sure looked mean. When Aling Christy confirmed that they have a stock of the size I was looking for, I didn't have any second thoughts on getting the frame.

The frame had a seat tube angle of 75.3 degrees and a head tube angle of 72 degrees, which to me was perfect.

The next thing I looked for was a wheelset. They didn't have any stock of American Classic 420, which was good as I was having second thoughts of getting that wheelset due to reports of problematic front hub. After some looking around, my eyes zoomed on an FSA RD600 deep section wheelset. After asking for the price, it was a done deal.

The FSA RD600 wheelset was a great match for the Kinesis KT610 in terms of color. The matte black/gray/white finish of the frame blended well with the black and white combo of the wheelset. 

Christy's offer a lot of second hand, good quality items at good prices. Seeing these items, I thought, why not have my frame and wheelset built up to a full bike? 

That was the start of my new time trial bike.

The other components were priced really reasonably and were made up of the ff: Tiagra FD and RD, Tiagra 9-speed cogs, Diacomm Brake levers, Dura Ace bar end shifters, Profile Design Carbon crankset, Vision Tech aero bars, Kinesis headset, generic stem and a generic basebar.

The whole bike weighed 20lbs.

Impressions

I took the bike for a spin at my favorite lapping route, Club Manila East in Taytay, Rizal. Immediately, the other cyclists were impressed with the Cervelo-like design of the frame. After learning how much it cost, they were much more impressed. 

The bike handled well. Dropping on the aero bars came all natural to me when I encountered some headwinds on my first lap. I could feel the frame cutting through the wind due to its aero design. I accelerated from 25kp to 33kph with little effort.

What I like about Club Manila East is that it offers both headwinds and crosswinds. With my roadbike, crosswinds were a nightmare. I could feel it slowly blowing me to one side and there were times I had to stop for my own safety. The KT610 and FSA RD600 combo handled this well. I felt the crosswinds, yes, but haven't gotten any feeling of crashing. It was as if there was a protective barrier between me and the wind which softened the impact of the gushing wind on me and the bike. 35kph with crosswinds? Piece of cake!

I pushed the bike to 42kph and checked for vibrations. Nothing. The bike was so stable that if my legs could do 50+kph, it would respond well.

I rode through some rough pavements to see if the bike would jar me to bits. The bike was all aluminum and I thought that it would be more jarring than my Merida 901 on rough pavements....it wasn't. In fact, it rode softer. Probably because of the design of the seat tube which curves from the bottom bracket to around 5 inches of the seat clamp.

I enjoyed riding Kinesis KT610 and I realized I just purchased a bike which would fall into the "bang for the buck" category.

After doing 30 kms., I rested for a while. The beauty of using a TT bike is that it doesn't crush your legs after doing your workout. After averaging 33kph for almost an hour, I felt I still had the strength to do a 10k run....I, however, saved it for another day.

Upon dismounting, I noticed the sweat marks on the frame of the bike which were very visible. This was the only setback I saw. With the frame having a matte finish, the sweat "pooled" in microscopic ponds along the frame and dried up, leaving marks on the bike. This, however, could be easily wiped off by wet rags.

The Kinesis KT610 and the FSA RD600 are two of the most affordable bike components I have found so far. These are not heavy on the wallet but are good enough to race with and impressive-looking enough to pass as high-end components. Of course having a Cervelo P3C would still be better, but that's if you have more than 200K to spend on a bike. For under 70K, you can have a great professional TT bike in your garage with the KT610....not bad eh? :-)

Deo P.