 Now before 20% of you jump off this video for whatever reason, what a dickhead, next, that's better, love your Francis. Just hear me out here for the first minute because I need to apologize. Now yes, this is the Friday vlog series and unfortunately for those of you who love the two parts, we're just going one part today because I need to focus on what has been, for some, a long-awaited, windspace T1500 first impressions. And look, the apology that I wanna make up front is I feel like I've set the wrong expectations for this project. Now if you missed my first video on this bike, which looked a lot different to what it does now, this is what I said. So for the past three to four years, I've been reviewing bikes and I can compare this Aero frame to other mainstream Aero brands such as the Cannondale System 6, the Merida Reacto, the BMC Time Machine, the Cervelo S5, the Specialized Venged and the Chapter 2 Rare A. But after riding this bike for a couple of months now, my first initial impressions are that it does not compare to top of the range mainstream Aero bikes. It's not in the same league yet anyway. And I suppose that is to be expected given the price difference. But I guess buying direct from China, I was kind of hopeful that mitigating the middleman, no major overhead corporate marketing cost, et cetera, we might be able to get a $1,500 frame USD, they're about for the same price as what you would spend for a $4,000 USD frame, but that does not appear to be the case. And there is one resounding riding experience feature on this bike, which I feel lets it down at this point in time, which I'll share with you in this video today. And look, I can appreciate what some of the skeptics may now be thinking. Ah, he's got it in for win space. And look, the irony of that is I got highly criticized. When I first shared the win space with everyone for being in bed with win space when I first started this project, how much was I getting paid and all this hot garbage? So this video will no doubt change a few minds, but please know this win space still has some great riding characteristics, which I'm gonna share with you in this video, but it's not what I was envisaging. And that being the riding experience would be the cherry on top of what has been quite an exciting project from introduction to strip to scan to repaint to build. And now my first impressions. But know this for the long-term review, I'm gonna reset some expectations and we're gonna compare the win space here to other aero bikes in the same price bracket. So I've reached out to my friends and advanced traders who will be providing me with a Merida Reacto 6000 in June, I believe. And I've also reached out to another Chinese brand, Yoelio, I think that's how you say it, who have confirmed over email that they can provide me with their aero bike for review once it's been UCI approved. Whether that second one happens, I'm not exactly sure because the email communication was a little bit cryptic. I hope it does though. And look, if you've got any other ideas, because I'd like to compare this to not only two, but maybe three other bikes within the same price bracket, please put your suggestions below and I'll see what I can do about it. And of course, if you wanna see this turn into a long-term review comparing to those bikes, don't forget to subscribe below if you already haven't hit the bell to ensure you get notified and please make sure you give this video a like if you get value out of it today. So we're gonna split the first impressions into four parts. Part number one, total bike cost. Part number two, total bike weight. Part number three, geometry and design. And part number four, riding experiences including why I've swapped the wheels out and some speed tests I have completed with different wheels on too. So part number one, the total bike cost. So the frame and fork, I'm gonna do this in AUD was 1900 AUD. The hyper 50 millimeter wheels were 1400 AUD. The SRAM Force one by mechanical group set with a quark power meter was roughly 2500 AUD. The windspace bars were 370 AUD and the bits and pieces so the tires, the saddle, et cetera, totaled roughly 600 AUD. So the total was 6,800 AUD and if you took away the power meter we'd probably get it closer to 5,500 AUD which translates to circa 4,300 USD. Now many people asked in the build video about the bar tape which we've since changed because we've now rerouted that cable internally to demonstrate it could be done. But the original bar tape on the build was flex ribbon tape, I'll put a link below and the reason why the cable was left out during the build was because DAX who was building the bike store owner of Topline Cycles suggested for someone that races and uses the bike a lot, leaving a cable external is more reliable for gear changing with the cable not having to endure two times 90 degree kinks internally and having it external also makes it easier to replace. However, I recently took the bike into my local bike shop here Trilogy Cycles and they rerouted the cable internally just to demonstrate to you and show that it could be done. Part number two is the total bike weight. So the frame weight which is a large size or 55 centimeter top tube after the respray was 1,530 grams combined with a fork knocking off a total of about 40 grams combined from the previous weight before it was stripped and repainted. The bike with all the bits and pieces on it including my speed play stainless pedals came in at 8.1 kilograms. It should be noted regarding the wheels and thanks to Matt from VeloChimp who was helping me change the wheels over that the zip alloy wheels which are now on the bike added roughly 60 grams combined. However, it should also be noted that I had some disc brake adapters on the hyper wheels which added almost 100 grams total to the setup. Number three is geometry and design. So the first thing I had to do with the windspace after I purchased it and I did pay for it out of my own money at a negotiated rate was identify an appropriate size. And if you go to the windspace website you'll see their sizing doesn't quite match up with what you typically will find with most mainstream brands. Which I found unusual because you would think if you were windspace trying to take on the mainstream world that you would create your sizing very similar to what a specialized BMC or a giant may be but from what I can gather that doesn't appear to be the case. And look the sizing may actually suit a number of riders out there. Doesn't so much suit myself. And I know a lot of people have sent me messages asking me what size I went because they're struggling to select the right size too. Now for me, I'm 178 to 179 centimetres on a good day in terms of height. And I went with a large windspace T1500 in the end which is a 55 centimetre top tube. Mainly because the stack on the medium which is a 53 centimetre top tube was rather aggressive at 517 millimetres. So personally, I feel like I'm left with a windspace here that's probably a little bit too big for me. Not that it's gonna impact my test and riding experience because many times I've ridden a size up because that's all that's been on offer in order to share a review with you. But I think ultimately what you need to consider if you're interested in buying a windspace is the geometry. And my advice is to go to geometrygeeks.bike enter a bike that works for you right now or has in the past and make a comparison there. That's a great website by the way which I'll link to below. Now in terms of design, this is where one of the great windspace T1500 assets comes out to shine. And that is aesthetics. I think it's a great looking bike. A lot of people compliment me on the bike as well and I tend to agree of course with the carbon steed's magnificent paint job to add. But there's two specific micro design engineering features that I wanna point out to you. Number one is what windspace call their T-TAR which is a drop seat stay. And you can see how the stays really flare out quite significantly according to windspace this large area compresses airflow downwards greatly reducing the turbulence generated. Now I don't know about the turbulence side of things and I'm a little skeptical on that because there is a lot of real estate in the back there more than I've ever seen on an aero bike before but the drop seat stays definitely do their job in terms of improving comfort in the rear of the windspace. The second design aspect that I wanted to share with you is the frog leg muscle chainstay which according to windspace let the cyclist whether it is high speed bending or high power sprint can be stable and rigid. Now windspace should probably look at rewording that one but the reason why I drill into it is because it's quite an unusual feature. I have never seen chainstays flare out quite like this before and while I'm no expert in physics I'm not bad with logic and having tube shapes that don't seem to enable the wind to run its natural flow seems counter-intuitive to aerodynamics 101. I could be wrong but those two design characteristics lead us into the final part of this video which is my riding experience. But can I just say up front this bike is well made. After the inspection at carbon steed and after riding it for a couple of months there are no questions in my mind when taking this bike down a fast descent 80 to 90 kilometres per hour plus. But there was something that Gary McDonald said to me from carbon steed after the inspection that stood out to me. Yeah, absolute. I'd be interested to hear what you got to say once you build it and ride it, how it compares because that's the proof, you know it can be built as well as anything but if the actual design and all that of the frame is crap well it's still, it's no good is it? And when I started to consider what Gary had said and the research that I'd already done and was doing at the time putting into consideration the fact that this is Winspace's first generation aero bike that came out in 2017 from watching videos on the factory tour of Winspace they appear to have maybe one or two product engineers I started to ponder can this bike compete with second or third generation aero bikes from mainstream brands that most likely have in the vicinity of 15 to 20 product engineers that are getting feedback from pro tour teams and potentially have their own wind tunnel testing facilities and so forth. It's a stretch and in my humble opinion after doing this independent bike review thing on YouTube for the past three years I do feel like some people neglect the amount of engineering that goes into these machines yes they're made in China most of them anyway but they're not all created equally. So if I was to sum up my riding experiences in one word with the Winspace T1500 I would call it heavy while 8.1 kilograms isn't a super heavy bike I feel like this bike just feels heavy most of the time obviously going up hills but also on the flats whether that be a false flat decline false flat incline or even if it's just a flat sealed road. Now yes the Merida Reacto top of the range with Ultegra would be close in terms of weight although to be fair that weight you can see there the parts are a little heavier than what's on the Winspace but the weight would be close however with that Merida third generation aero bike the way it's designed the carbon layup the aerodynamic benefits that you get with it it doesn't feel heavy until you hit a steep incline. Now whether it's aerodynamic design flaws that don't enable the Winspace to best manage the weight of the bike I'm not exactly sure but it feels that way from a first impressions perspective and with top of the range aero bikes too when rolling turns in a bunch you often get this slingshot feeling when you roll out of the draft and do your turn then when you do your turn you feel like you can maintain that top end speed for a bit longer but I don't get that same sensation with the Winspace yes it's got some speed to it and it feels like an aero bike but it's not the same sensations that you get with the top of the range aero mainstream bikes and these times up a local hill climb Gindia Drive which is a three and a half minute segment validates my thoughts you can see the Winspace is quite a fair bit slower than the Cannondales I also tested up this same climb interestingly without the Winspace hyper wheels on you can see my time improved by five seconds with the Zip course 30 alloy wheels now I haven't performed any comparisons to the Cannondales on the flats because when I tested the Cannondales on the flats I was wind compromised that day and it just wouldn't be fair however I feel with the Gindia Drive segment it's a great testing ground as it's mostly sheltered from any wind that may be present and it isn't that steep so aerodynamics should still come into play as they did with the system six now I don't want to get into a wheel review here but I changed these hyper wheels out for the Zip course alloy wheels because some creaking developed in the back end of the bike and I did try some grease didn't work so well put some tape in it was pretty much gone the creaking but still a little bit there so I swapped them out completely and put these wheels on and the creaking disappeared 100% and I must say the Winspace bike overall improved by about five to 10% with these alloy Zip wheels rolling resistance stiffness handling everything which I found surprising so if Winspace could improve either the weight of the frame or I believe what may be some aerodynamic inefficiencies then I feel like we could have a top shelf aero race bike here because outside of the heavy riding feeling I get the Winspace manages comfort well it's super stiff without being overly aggressive which I like and the handling is top shelf descending cornering out of the saddle was all very good so that is my first impressions on the Winspace and how it compares to top of the range mainstream aero bikes but I'm now super interested even for my own learning which I'm going to share with you how it compares to bikes that are more in the same price bracket in particular the Merida 6000 because that is a pretty affordable bike so stay tuned for that and as I said if you've gotten value out of this video today don't forget to give it a like and I'll catch you in the next one