By Steve Cooper

• Frame: R6 Double Butted Alloy
• Fork: Carbon Fiber With Alloy Steerer.
• Sram Rival shifters and derailleurs
• FSA Gossamer 46×36t crankset
• Ritchey Pro wheel set with Hutchinson Bulldog tires
• Available in 7 sizes

The call came in Friday afternoon. “The Redline has arrived”, I repeat “the Redline has arrived”. Mostly set-up, the Conquest Pro didn’t take much time to finish building and match positions to my CCX race bike. I did a test ride in Nisene Marks Saturday morning, and then raced today. Whew, that’s fast. Maybe too fast to work all the kinks out – that’s okay, cause this is going to be a great review ride throughout the hectic CCX race season we’re in the middle of.

In the meantime, here are my first impressions.

Spec: 95% Brilliant. It’s all built around a Redline R6 aluminum frame and a Redline carbon fork. Rival derailleurs front and rear with 09’ Rival shifters make me smile. An FSA Gossamer crank in 46/36 with the SRAM 1070 12-25 rear cassette is my gearing of choice. Avid shorty cantis do the trick, unless the front straddle cable slips loose on lap three (totally attributable to the short set-up window). Other FSA goodness includes a carbon wrap seat post, shallow drop OS bars and stem. Tektro top mounted levers are a new treat for me; I think I’m going to warm up to the option of braking from the flats. The Ritchey DS Pro wheelset looks good and tough. And the rubber? It’s a set of Hutchinson Bulldogs, one of the fattest (but not fastest) set of knobbies you can find these days.

page 1 page 2