Kirk Terraplane: Bikefanclub.com

I've had two rides now on my Kirk with the 'Terraplane' seat stays.

First I have to say the Joe Bell paint job is absolutely outstanding! Glass, mirror smooth and any other superlatives that I can think of that relate to truly great workmanship.

Speaking of workmanship, Dave had to cut, remove or modify my seat lug and seat stays to refit the Terraplane stays. I couldn't tell where the original bike left off and the new bike began. The transition was seamless.

While I was waiting for Dave to modify my bike and have it repainted, I bought a Judd frameset and Litespeed Tuscany frameset. Judd was a small builder in Minnesota and built using the legendary Reynolds 531 tubing for his frames. 531 bikes are often thought of as some of the best riding bikes built. The reason I mention these two bikes is I have a very good comparison between the original Kirk, a 'traditional-built' frame, a modern Ti frame with reputed good ride qualities and the Terraplane.

The Kirk, in its' original form, was built to my needs for a comfortable, long-distance, stable bike. Its' specifications were drawn up after many conversations, e-mails and a personal visit and ride with Dave. It suited me perfectly from the get-go.

I built the Terraplane using all the same components and equipment that had been installed on the original Kirk. So nothing but the seat stays and the color had been changed.
The first ride was a 20 mile shake-down 'cruise' to make sure that I had everything dialed in and set up properly. It was done in our local area over familiar roads, which here are rural farm chip-seal roads with abundant frost heaves and irregular surfaces. The thing that struck me immediately was that almost total lack of road noise or buzz. It was very smooth! Much, much better than the Litespeed and much better than the 531-built Judd. I was astonished to say the least, as I remembered the Kirk as being smooth but not like this. While I felt the bumps, the constant chip-seal "buzz" was almost gone. The sharp-edged bumps and jolts in the road seemed to be more muted than before and it felt better than the Litespeed over the same surfaces.

The second ride was a 90 mile ride on a Rails-To-Trails bike path, so I other than a few wows as the path crossed roads there were no revelations revealed. I haven't done any demon descents yet so I can't speak to that part of the handling characteristics yet, though the original Kirk has done some 40+mph downhills very well.

The Terraplane does feel subtly different than the original Kirk. Smoother as I said and the overall ride on our farm roads seems gentler, more compliant.

But my final analysis is that if the qualities of the bike had not changed, if I had noticed no differences at all, I would consider the money I spent to have the modifications and paint done, money very well spent. I think that the Terraplane curved seat stays are worth it to me for just the beauty of them alone. The Joe Bell paint job is delicious. My wife and I keep our bikes in the family room and I find myself running my hand across the top tube of the Kirk as I walk by. It's art.
http://www.bikefanclub.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1430&password=&sort=1&cat=518&page=1

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Steel lover, but then I like Ti with carbon too.
Licensed bike geek.