Here's the basics, Baby blue paint, aluminum frame w/ carbon rear end, full Sram Rival, MSRP of $2,175, ready to race. I can just end this review right here but I will go further.
The heart of any bike is the frame. The Masi Gran Criterium is an aluminum front triangle coupled to carbon stays. This combination gives you a nice stiff frame for excellent power transfer, yet gives you some comfort over full aluminum. The aluminum tubes are shaped to provide compliance and stiffness over standard round tubes. Frame weight comes in around 1300g, not super light like the carbon wonder frames but light enough. The carbon rear end probably adds a few grams over straight aluminum but the ride quality out weighs the weight. The fork is a carbon bladed, aluminum crown and steerer combination. The fork weighs in around 750g! This is probably the one thing you might want to upgrade and save 1/2-1lb. But at this price point, all bikes will have a heavy carbon/aluminum fork.
Sram Rival group. Enough said! Unlike other companies, Masi puts on the whole 8 peice group. Yes that includes the cranks and brakes. It's really amazing how much of an impact Sram has made in just a few short years. It is simply because they have put out a quality product that cheap, light and most importantly, works well. For as well as Rival works, its hard to spend the extra dollars to get Force or even Red.
The spec'ed wheels are Ritchey Pro DS. They feature 30mm aluminum rims laced to Ritchey hubs with bladed spokes. A real work horse wheelset. They are not partiularly light but work excellent for a training wheelset but still be raced. I particularly do not care what wheelsets come with my bikes since I have a pair of racing wheels. More and more companies are down specing wheels to provide better components, a better price point or both. I totally agree with trend this since if you are racing, most likely you will have a nice set of wheels or aspire to purchase one.
Bar, stem, seatpost and saddle are pretty standard. Ritchey Pro Bars and stem, Masi branded saddle and Masi branded full carbon seatpost. These things are the first things that come off my bike since I have my own preferences.
Now specs are nice but how does it ride? The handling of this bike is spot on. It handles corners very well, keeps the bike going straight when you stand up and sprint, and won't beat you up on those long rides. This bike has a slightly longer top tube than most bikes in its respective size so its great for those longer torsoed riders. The head tube is also a tad longer. The included headset does have a tall cap so you may want to pick up a new headset with a shorter top cap in Cane Creek IS standard.
Typically any bike review will say it is the best bike ever. Then what's the point of ever reading a bike review if every bike is the best? Masi did their best to provide an excellent bike with an excellent parts package at a very competitive price. They did however had to throw in an aluminum crown/steerer fork, which brings the price down but increases the weight. But I do not think this is a deal breaker since most bikes in this price range have similar carbon leg, aluminum crown/steerer forks.
At $2,175, you get a race ready bike that won't break the bank. The aluminum frame will provide you with a stiff chassis that can deal with the occasional crash that may otherwise destroy the carbon counterpart. The Rival group gives you 90% of the top of the line Red group but at significant price savings. If you are looking for a budget racer, a second crit machine, or even as your main rig (as I have), this is a bike to keep on your short list.
