 In this video today I'm going to share my first impressions on the Seeker Exceed RDC which stands for Race Day Combat and makes this exceed model in a medium which is what I have roughly 180 grams lighter than its counterparts with a more advanced carbon layup. Now before we get into the meat of this video there is three worthy items we need to clear up. Item number one is the old boys have been getting pretty fired up in the comment section because Seeker is also apparently the name of a late 1970s early 1980s porn star named Seeker and it was her 1981 hit which was the same year I was born. Seeker is ready anytime any place that really took her career to new heights. So clearly I was too young to experience Seeker first hand and I apologize this was clearly a big oversize not mentioning this up front. Number two is in addition to the vintage porn star comments I've been getting I've also been getting a lot of people saying that's not a Seeker. Well it is but it also looks like a Factor Ostro or Factor Ostrovam. Now people often make these types of comparisons in my road bike reviews in the comment section and I feel like there is a big community out there that think they're all the bloody same you idiots but this is the first time where I have actually spent a bit of time examining this call out. For me the real interesting comparison is the Factor Ostrovam which I have just out there I personally own and while they're different bikes ones are climbing bike and the other is more of an all round aero race bike the carbon layup and the finish is borderline identical. The Factor Ostrov while I haven't seen it in the flesh examining it online and comparing it to the exceed there's obviously some differences small differences but they look pretty close so I will conclude with saying they're not the same bike but if I had to make a bet if I was a betting man I would say they're probably coming out of the same factory. Now the third thing I wanted to clear up with you if you did not watch my first video on this bike that is I have been given this Seeker Exceed Frameset and these Vortex No Compromise wheels and Cycling 100 where you can purchase these products are sponsoring slash paying me for a select few videos where I'll be linking to their website below but please know I haven't worked my butt off on this channel for three and a half years to lose all my credibility on one product review and also this product here is still costing me more that I'm getting back thanks to the SRAM force access one by group set and other bits and pieces and clearly if you haven't already figured this one out I have full freedoms to say and do as I please for this first impressions and long-term review so now we have those things out of the way let's split this first impressions into three parts part number one the numbers including weight and price number two is the geometry and design and number three is my riding experiences so far now before we go into details on the price I quickly wanted to compare this to the windspace because I know a lot of people out there who have watched my content previously will compare this to the windspace because they're both direct out of china and I've presented both these bikes on the channel this year now it should be noted that when you buy this frame set here it also comes with the handlebars so if we compare this bike to the windspace t1500 with the windspace integrated handlebars the price difference is roughly six hundred dollars USD however what I'm going to present to you with this build will be a lot more the seeker exceed rdc frame set with bars came in at three thousand 230 AUD the vortex no compromise 60 millimeter disc brake wheels also three thousand two hundred and thirty dollars AUD the SRAM force one by with a rival power meter four thousand three hundred AUD the bits and pieces so saddle tires bar tape etc 750 AUD the total is 11 and a half thousand AUD or 8250 USD or 6200 pounds as it stands today in terms of the weight I weighed the medium frame at 885 grams the uncut fork at 385 grams the bars at 350 grams the front wheel at 675 grams and the rear wheel at 785 grams and the complete bike which was weighed with my asioma duo power pedals came in at just under seven and a half kilograms so yes this bike has two power meters at the moment my speed plate pedals have been destroyed so that's why i'm using the asiomas on this bike too part number two is the geometry and design of the seeker exceed so as discussed we have a medium here i'm 179 centimeters in height and if we use geometry geeks to compare this bike versus some all-round and aero bikes that I have either written in the past or owned and also the factor ostro there's not too much to call out for a medium though it definitely has a smaller effective top tube at 535.7 millimeters but you can see the reach isn't too far off the other mediums the stack is also something else to point out which allows the rider to get lower or more aero in the front end and you can see the seeker exceed is more on the modest side a line more with the all-round race bmc versus the factor ostro and the canondale system six so you could conclude with saying that the seeker exceed medium is a little bit on the smaller side when you compare it to other mediums and it's a little bit more relaxed in terms of its geometry versus say your more aggressive aero race bike in terms of tire clearance you should be able to get 30 millimeter tires into the exceed although personally i'm running 25s looking at the frame visually it's clean there's no polarizing features and i don't often talk about aesthetics because that comes down to personal taste but for me it's probably the best looking bike i think i've ever owned now i did take this into a carbon fiber specialist gary mcdonald at carbon steed if you want to watch that video i'll link it up there but here's a couple of things that he said about this bike then we did some ultrasound across it and one thing i'd say about it it's consistent and if you remember the last frame we did was completely inconsistent i think this is consistent it's even it's i'd say well made i would also say there's not a lot of margin for error and you say well why do i say that well i've got 10 bikes that have come in in the last three days with broken carbon so i like to see a margin of error so that if you do have you know hit a bump or the bike falls over that it doesn't snap you know and i don't see this in this i see that it's very thin it's very light but if that's what you're looking for it seems well made so number three is my riding experiences so far can i preface this section by saying i haven't written this bike as much as i would like to deliver this first impressions but if i didn't deliver this first impressions before i have a little break over the christmas new year period i probably would have been murdered and for the on-bike footage you're about to see i've got this cool new device for those of you who are interested in cameras this is an insta 360 go to where you can put this little necklace thing on you can put it under your jersey or in this case it's a t-shirt and it just sticks there and you can ride around and it's going to get some pretty cool footage i'll link to their website below if you want to check them out and thanks to insta 360 for sending me one of these through so to date for me this bike is the real deal literally throwing a leg over this thing and rolling down my street i feel the bike is immediately saying to me let's go find a fast group or bunch ride let's go race the criteria as it should be saying that to me for 11 and a half thousand dollars a u d now i'm yet to race a crit on this bike but i have ridden it in a couple of fast bunch rides and i've cruised on it at roughly 30 kilometers per hour for two to three hours each at a time and some notable things that i wanted to share with you regarding this bike first up the seeker exceed i find is a soft comfortable ride for an aero race bike there's a little bit of flex through the top tube area but nothing that's going to impact most cyclists unless you're a hundred kilogram watt monster the aerodynamic profiles of the frame are clearly not just for show i recently peered a major descent on the local saturday bunch ride on this bike and hitting 83 kilometers per hour the seeker feels solid and gives me confidence i can push it further in a draft the vortex no compromise ceramic bearing rims really come to life i feel like i'm free pedaling more than i typically would be in a draft compared to many other road bikes i've ridden in a similar bunch ride draft situation and these wheels are up there with probably the stiffest wheel that i have ever ridden and to put a little bit of meat on the bone as to why that might be the case these vortex no compromise wheels are made from t 800 or tor a 800 carbon fiber which is said to be over 10 stronger than its t 700 counterpart while being lighter at the same time these wheels also have a unique characteristic being offset spoke holes to match the spoke pattern and spoke angle and like kaden wheels they use something called invisible carbon eyes i believe this is what kaden called and i've shared this on the channel in the past nipple patching where there's more carbon internally surrounding the nipple area to strengthen the relationship between the spoke and the rim and less in between the nipple areas to optimize weight savings there's also replaceable carbon spokes that really finishes off the construction to make these wheels the most impressive rim to look at that i have ever had firsthand experience with so they look the goods they feel stiff they are definitely fast but for this price bracket you would expect that and are they up there with the best wheels going i don't know yet but now the temperamental spring weather has disappeared here on the sunshine coast i can get out there and start doing some speed tests which i'll be able to share with you in the long term review now if i was to nitpick at this bike i feel like the slight negative is climbing while it's on the right side of 7.5 kilograms and has a softer riding sensation compared to other aggressive race bikes i've ridden which i feel like is a real advantage when you slow the bike down for climbing you seem to feel the road a lot more the aggressiveness and responsiveness that i feel with this bike on the flats doesn't seem to be carrying over into a climbing environment i don't know yet whether that is the bike's design and geometry or maybe it's the stiff 60 millimeter vortex no compromise wheels that do get pushed around a bit with notable wind conditions so for the long term review i will ensure i test this bike with different wheel combinations to get a more holistic lens on this frame sets characteristics and of course i really want to get to the bottom of these no compromise wheels are they really worth that type of investment what i've asked cycling 100 if they're able to do so don't know 100 yet to send me the competition series vortex wheels which are about 1500 dollars less we'll take this bike out test the two different wheels speed test i can give you some anecdotal evidence and we can determine are these wheels really worth the extra investment hope you enjoyed the video if you got value out of it please don't forget to give it a like and i'll catch you in the next one you and i we go to