Diamondback Podium 7 may be best known for its mountain bike efforts, but the brand is making a big push into the high-end road scene. It now offers a full line of road models, from the $750 aluminum Podium 1 to an $8,500 Campagnolo Record-equipped carbon Podium 7. We were invited to Park City, Utah to test ride the Podium 7 model.
Fears that the frame was just another re-badged generic carbon design were put to rest when I learned that it was engineered in cooperation with Kevin Quan Studios—an independent bicycle design house in Toronto, Canada. Quant has about ten years under his belt working with brands such as Cervéelo, Raleigh, Cube, BH, Pivot, Parlee, and NeilPryde.
Like many high-end frames, the Podium is a monocoque design with a one-piece front end that’s mated to the stays. The complete bike and frameset utilize Diamondback’s SL design with high-modulus fibers in critical areas (head tube, down tube, bottom bracket) to cut weight and increase stiffness. Claimed weight for the SL frame is 850 grams, while the fork comes in at 360 grams. The standard carbon Podium frame for the 5 and 6 models weighs about 100 grams more.
I found frame stiffness to be race-worthy and solid, but perhaps not quite as stout as one would find on, say, the bikes that delivered Tour de France racers to the podium in Paris. The SRAM Red-equipped Podium 7 ($7,200) I rode displayed a surprisingly pleasant ride, considering how efficient the power transfer is. It’s firm without being harsh, and has a nice liveliness. Our test loop featured rolling hills and flats but few tight turns to fully gauge the handling, but it felt stable at speed and tracked predictably through fast corners.
I did notice, however, rather weak braking. So perhaps it’s a good thing there were no critical corners. The culprit could be a brake pad and rim combo, or cheap brake housing, combined with what I consider to be an unnecessarily tight bend where the internal brake housing exits the bottom of the down tube. Routing this cable out of the top of the top tube would have caused fewer kinks, and likely resulted in better feel and power. Aside from that quirk, the Podium 7 impressed the heck out of me. Priced right, it offers great all-around performance and has a racy red paint job to round out its personality.
We didn’t have the opportunity to test the Podium 6 Ultegra Di2 ($4,500) and 105-equipped Podium 5 ($2,300), but if they ride as well as the 7, they’ll pack a solid value. Don’t expect these bikes in shops until spring of 2013 but in the meantime keep an eye here and in the pages of Bicycling for a full review..
A Second Opinion
Diamondback recently held a Podium 7 give-away, and asked cyclists to submit inspirational essays or videos. The winner, 18-year-old Brandon Formanes, was invited to the 2013 launch in Park City. Formanes is a product of Philadelphia’s Cadence Cycling Foundation and his winning video focused on weight loss and improving his life through cycling.
After speaking with Brandon it became clear he loves cycling tech, reads every review he can find, and demos as many bikes as he can get his hands on. He had this to say about the Podium 7 after our ride: “The BB was amply stiff for me, accelerated nicely, and the bike overall was easily excited—like it was easy for me to throw the bike around. However, descending on the bike required just a bit more input than others I’ve ridden, I had to think a little more about the lines I took descending, and braking was somewhat lacking, although I might be able to attribute that to the carbon wheelset.”
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It now offers a full line of road models, from the $750 aluminum Podium 1 to an $8,500 Campagnolo Record-equipped carbon Podium 7. We were invited to Park City, Utah to test ride the Podium 7 model.
The complete bike and frameset utilize Diamondback’s SL design with high-modulus fibers in critical areas (head tube, down tube, bottom bracket) to cut weight and increase stiffness. The standard carbon Podium frame for the 5 and 6 models weighs about 100 grams more.
The SRAM Red-equipped Podium 7 ($7,200) I rode displayed a surprisingly pleasant ride, considering how efficient the power transfer is. I did notice, however, rather weak braking. We didn’t have the opportunity to test the Podium 6 Ultegra Di2 ($4,500) and 105-equipped Podium 5 ($2,300), but if they ride as well as the 7, they’ll pack a solid value. Formanes is a product of Philadelphia’s Cadence Cycling Foundation and his winning video focused on weight loss and improving his life through cycling.
Source = bicycling
