Strengths: Very light and so far very strong. (I use it on my Ridgeback Genesis Day 01 road bike and I am 260lbs). Deadens the buzz from the road. I have been riding the post for 5 months now and no sign of breakage. (And believe me, I check often with horror stories like the one above).
Weaknesses: The head clamp can be a bugger to set up and seems to take for or five rides of re-tightening before it would settle down. The post also needs to be clamped down just so at the seat clamp. Just enough to stop slippage but not enough to crack the post.
Overall: The head clamp is a work of art that looks so fragile but is so strong. I read all of the horror stories but thought what the hell as I have some pretty light and supposedly fragile stuff on my mountain bike that has been fine for me. Read all of the instructions and have patience setting the thing up and everything should be fine. I was so impressed that I bought an Alien TI post for my mountain bike.
Strengths: Wide, light (for width), durable finish, allows space for bar ends without cramping the control area.
Weaknesses: Bugger to ride true single track with them as they are wide and I snag my bar ends with branches and stuff. You also need a good strong stem as I first noticed flex in mine through the leverage I could put through these bars. But this is a small price to pay for being able to run bar ends and grip shift and have space.
Overall: These are fine strong bars that have set a trend that others are beginning to follow. (See Specialized and Bontrager ranges).
Strengths: Feels super light against most mountain bikes (22lbs all in). The flat bars are a god send. The wheels look great. I tried road bikes with drop bars without taking it steady at first, and had twinges in my back for weeks.
Weaknesses: The steering felt twitchy with the narrow bar, 90mm stem and short fork rake, but to get the fit as close to my mountain bike as possible I fitted a 600mm bar and 120mm stem and this brought the steering close to my mountain bike,(90mm stem with 80mm forks).
Overall: I swapped the saddle for the same as my mountain bike and I am fitting a carbon seatpost to take out some of the road buzz.
For the money this bike is fantastic, with kit and looks that still appear on about £150 - £200 more. I noticed a Marin with similar set up and the same wheels for £850.
I may change the fork for a carbon model later on, but only because they are the road bike version of RS sids, not becasue this bike needs them.
'HALF PIPE LETS YOU RUN SHORTER BRAKE LEVERS = MORE CHOICE'
Strengths: They work just like the standard attack shifters, but you don't have to move your hands to shift. As the half pipes have smoother grips you can get your hands closer to the brake levers allowing you to run more choices of levers. (my first reason for trying them).Improved shift feeling on earlier SRAM models. Cheap and light. Reliable. Easy to set up
Weaknesses: Gripshift need wide bars as they push brake levers inwards. Can be broken on installation by the ham fisted.
Overall: I was converted to gripshift from STI well before halfpipes due to a thumb injury but these shifters just make things better. Yes they do rotate ever so slightly under the hand if you try them but I have not noticed this at all when riding. (and if your gripping that tightly, relax man).
