Calfee Design Tetra Pro

Price Paid:  $0.00 at LBS

Favorite Ride:
BTC & GABA

Summary:
This is a review of a Calfee Tetra-Pro with S&S Couplers. I bought this bike to travel to challenging multi-day supported rides like the BTC or GABA and club riding at home. With Ti S&S couplers, Campy Record 10 drive train, levers & brakes, FSA Team Carbon triple cranks, K-wing bars, FSA Ti BB, Specialized Pave seat post, SLK Gel saddle, Rolf Élan wheels, Michelin Carbon Pro tires, Speed-play stainless spindle pedals, and paint this bike weighs 16.8 lbs. All the extra materials needed to secure the S&S couplers into the carbon tubes plus the couplers adds about 8-9 oz. to the bike. Still, this is probably the lightest coupled bike you can find. All the steel & Ti frames w/ couplers I considered weigh 0.75 to 1.0 lbs. more. If you are going to do lots of travel, an unpainted Ti frame may be a better choice with a little sacrifice in weight.

My previous ride was an old Vitus Carbon-3 with 28 & 32 spoke wheels and a mix of Campy & Shimano components. It was sub-20 lbs. It was a good climber but a squirrelly descender. The Calfee is an even better climber. The very light Rolf wheels give the bike a really light feel in descents and it has taken me awhile to realize the bike is anything but squirrelly – it will go exactly where it is pointed in turns and is rock solid. Of course the frame is plenty stiff enough for me at 150 lbs and does the usual job soaking up rough pavement – though not as well as the old Vitus.

Strengths:
Ultra light, ultra versatile, excellent handling, rock solid, comfy ride.

Weaknesses:
Weighed a little more than I expected. I’m dreading the first scratch in the beautiful fade paint job. It took some modification to the pump handle to get a full size Blackburn CF pump to fit within the left seat stay. This is the only possible location for a full size pump I can see.

Expensive

Similar Products Used:
Vitus Carbon 3

Price Paid:  $0.00 at Roadbikereview Class

Favorite Ride:
Houston MS150

Bike Setup:
Record 10, FSA Cranks. Rolf Vigor wheels

Summary:
Bought new never built up from Roadbikereview classfied ad. Bike is a beautiful Dark green with Black decals. Color changes in different lights to deep purple blue. Great ride light and stiff with a FSA carbon crank.

Strengths:
Stiff and smooth ride. Feels good from the start. Accelerates great. Definitely and upgrade from my Colnago CT1

Weaknesses:
None so far.

Similar Products Used:
Merlin, Airborne Zepplin, Colnago CT1, EPX Nullarbor.

Price Paid:  $4100.00 at orange cycle orlando

Favorite Ride:
horrible hundred

Summary:
Tetra Pro with cobalt blue clear coat, and full Dura-Ace components. Mavic Kysrium SSC's and Fizik Arione saddle.

Strengths:
Tremendous acceleration and a great climber. Wonderful finish and attention to detail. The ride is particularly smooth, and little vibration is transmitted through the frame to the rider. The bike is a great cornering machine especially when riding from the drop position. Every other rider looks at it and admires it.

Weaknesses:
A little twitchy in high speed descents, i.e., 40 plus mph.

Similar Products Used:
Giant TCR

Price Paid:  $0.00 at Sponsorship

Favorite Ride:
US 441

Bike Setup:
Full Dura Ace, Lew wheels, USE carbon post, ITM handlebars and stem, Look CX-7 shoes, TruVativ Rouler cranks,

Summary:
very high quality frame. I have been sponsored by many other frame builders, and the Tetra pro is by far the highest quality frame I have ridden so far. It is light, yet stiff, and very responsive. It also looks fantastic!!!

Strengths:
Lightweight, stiff, great craftmanship

Weaknesses:
none

Price Paid:  $1950.00 at East Ridge Bike

Favorite Ride:
The Blue Ridge Parkway

Bike Setup:
Shamano, Mavic, Speedplay, Thompson.

Summary:
Still loving my Tetra-Pro. Carbon is really a space age material, Craig sure knows how to make it work. Hope he never let's anyone else manfacture his frames overseas like so many others in the industry.

Strengths:
Carbon, Carbon, Carbon!

Weaknesses:
You don't get the ooh and ahh's like a classic steel bike will get.

Similar Products Used:
steel, aluminum