Kuota Kougar
JesseD
Posts: 1,961
Picked this up last week and am pretty chuffed with it!
Currently in bits as selling bits of it and upgrading bits but will be ready to ride in a couple of weeks hopefully!
Weighs as much as a light thing!
Spec:
Kuota Kougar
Shimano Ultegra Di2
DT Swiss RRC65 Dicut Wheels
Soon to have:
Zipp Service Course SL 80 Bars
Zipp Service Course SL Stem
Shimano Ultegra 6800 Chainset 52/36
Fabric Scoop Elite Flat Saddle
Currently in bits as selling bits of it and upgrading bits but will be ready to ride in a couple of weeks hopefully!
Weighs as much as a light thing!
Spec:
Kuota Kougar
Shimano Ultegra Di2
DT Swiss RRC65 Dicut Wheels
Soon to have:
Zipp Service Course SL 80 Bars
Zipp Service Course SL Stem
Shimano Ultegra 6800 Chainset 52/36
Fabric Scoop Elite Flat Saddle
Obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated!
0
Posts
The wheels are amazing, so light and the braking is much better than any carbon wheel I have used in the past, plus they look great too which of course is the main thing.
I estimate it will be around 7.5kg when built, but more importantly for me is it's stiff and comfortable, can't wait to race it this season!
The Kuota bikes were on my radar a few years ago. Went for a BMC instead. I do like em.
Next is the Chainset, pedals and Saddle, then first decent day we get I'm taking it out for a blast
Kiteloppy - BMCs are really nice, I had one on my shortlist but the Kuota won out!
I am still dialing in my position so the saddle fore/aft will change, as will angle, the bars seem to be at the right height but I have 10 mm to play with in case I can go lower.
I must admit I am really impressed with the build quality of the Kuota, feels stiff in the right areas and pretty comfortable for a race bike, it's also really stable and planted in the corners, this was just from my limited testing last week, but it will have a proper test ride this weekend.
Build is:
Kuota Kougar Frame and Forks
Shimano Ultegra Di2
Shimano Ultegra 52/36 Chain-set
Zipp Service Course 80 bars
Zipp Service Course Stem
Fabric Scoop Flat Saddle
Fabric Silicone Bar Tape
DT Swiss RRC65 DiCut Wheels
Vittoria Rubino Pro Tyres
TRP Aero Brakes
Lightweight Di2 Junction Box Mount
LifeLine Out front Garmin Mount
Weight - TBC but I reckon as it is in the pics we are looking around 7.5kg
Chapeau!
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour
agree - kinda dope ride.
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour
Not cheap mind are they, best I can find is £50 a pop!
May wait to the Vittorias wear out then replace them.
How do you get on with the TRP aero brakes?
My relationship with aero v-brakes is very hit and miss.
Kiteloopy – I only finished building it last week and then went to Brittany on a training weekend with the race team from my club and took my winter bike as the weather wasn’t great, my time on the Kuota has been limited to one short test ride so far but I have to admit the brakes seemed fine to me, I was skeptical about them as I had heard some bad reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised (so far)
Will hopefully get a proper test in later this week, well I really need to as my first race of the season is a week Sunday!
There have been some changes to the bike since I last posted, namely the Stages PM is gone (I went through 3 of them before saying enough is enough) and I have changed to a FSA Powerbox Alloy PM, so far it has been perfect and weight only a little more than mu Ultegra chainset and stages PM. The only other change is the bar tape, had enough of black so went for green camo tape by Cinelli, I like how it looks and brings a little colour to an otherwise all black bike.
I have some more changes planned for next year, the direct mount brake under the chain-stays is being changed from the TRP cr4p that’s on there to an Ultegra direct mount calliper, when I had the Stages PM the Ultegra wouldn’t fit due to the pod on the inside of the crank arm, but now I have changed the PM I am going to upgrade to a better unit. I am also looking to change the front fork that is on there now to a fork that is designed to be used with a normal front facing brake, Kuota do a standard fork which you can buy for £200 that is the same as the aero one apart from the brake placement, IMO the TRP aero brakes are terrible and for crits and road races with technical descents (we have a lot of those over here) I want to be confident in my braking. The last change I am making is to the bars and stem, I am sticking with Zipp but going for the carbon sprint stem and the aero carbon bars.
Looks fast mind you....
Know what you mean about all black bikes, but the other colours available were awful, and the deal I got was too good to refuse, plus as all my bikes are black it's easier to sneak in N+1
And yep it is fast, it's more bike than I'll ever be a rider I hate to say
Might be changing the wheels for next season so am holding off on purchasing any just yet till I know what I am running, am considering got to tubs for racing as I can get a great deal on some 303s or 404s.
The DT Swiss are ok but I find they flex a little too much when I'm sprinting and they aren't great in crosswinds, got blown all over the place yesterday. For a lighter rider on calmer days they would be perfect I reckon.
I didnt know that Kuota sell 'other' font forks. Do you have any photos of them/it?
Oh, get that bar tape off!
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour
A 65mm carbon rim is 'flexy' - are you sure?
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour
I just dont think they are as powerful as normal or direct must brakes and are a bit of a pain to keep centered, admittedly the brake set up would be fine for normal riding or triathlon etc but i want to be able to brake later into corners and on descents etc and I currently find myself barking earlier and losing places then having to work harder to make them up.
I got the bike from an LBS and he said that they can get a Kougar fork to match my frame which has a normal mounting for the front brake, i did a bit of googling and found one on the Kougar on the German Kuota website so i figured it is this one and in the same colourway as my frameset.
http://www.kuota.de/pages/kougar.html
Its just the clubs racing contingent, which everyone can race for however there are some very fast guys in there who can dish it out when needed, this season for example we won the Road Race Champs at senior, and Super vet level, the Crit champs at senior, vet (me) and super vet level as well as a multitude of TT titles at all levels. 2 of our riders went to the Island games.
I raced in Division 2 this year and had a good start to the season winning a couple of races and placing in some Div1 & 2 races, however my father in law passed away in June and I ended up taking a month off the bike to help sort everything and support my wife and her family, so when I came back i had lost a fair bit of fitness and sharpness at the wrong part of the season. I got dropped on the final hill of the Road Race champs after getting cramp and ended up with a DNF, but won the Vets Crit champs and as a team we got 3rd in the 25m TTT and we were on road bikes beating a lot of teams on full on TT bikes.
Very sure, so much so that I had them sent back to DT Swiss who agreed there was an issue and have rebuilt them with new spokes and re-tensioned them.
I probably will sell them as I want tubs for next season and cannot justify having 2 sets of expensive wheels, well not if I want to remain married.
Cool. How many other teams are competing in these championships? What's the standard like?
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour
Plan is to get a good winter and go straight to Div 1 for next year, I will get hammered for most of it but it will raise my level of fitness and racing above where I am at present, I have a couple of target races towards the end of next year so racing with the big boys will hopefully raise my game enough to take the wins.