Good to know. BTW, does anyone have an opinion on Kestrel? It seems to be an "in" brand.
kestrel is an odd brand. they were the first to design an all carbon bike frame in the mid 80s when people only theorized the pros and cons in using material that was generally reserved for the aerospace industry, with durability and stiffness being the two major concerns. despite being the first in the market, kestrel frames were rather inexpensive and as a result gained a rather large following in the states that lasted all through out the 90s, especially after greg lemond won the tour de france in 86 using an aero carbon fiber prototype from look.
at some point kestrel lost all of its talent and was bought by whatever taiwanese holding company that houses fuji and a few other cycling brands. the quality immediately dropped once the frames were designed and manufactured in taiwan versus the states and the brand slowly faded away to irrelevancy during the 2000s. save for one or two models which targeted the pros, the name basically sat dormant for years and only recently have they begun to quietly rebuild the brand through what made it famous in the first place, selling affordable carbon fiber frames with quality components.
this is all from memory since i was seriously considering buying a kestrel legend two years ago for a fraction of the retail price. the quality problems from the mid 2000s still haunt the brand but ever since the holding company transferred the brand over to fuji, the quality has much improved. i've only heard good things about modern kestrel frames from owners though there is still a stigma from non owners for bikes designed and manufactured in asia despite the latter being the norm now a days.
