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Dura-Ace brakes are still stunning stoppers (Image credit: John Stevenson/BikeRadar)
Avanti’s Quantum team (AU$9,499.95, NZ$12,200) is a classic modern road racing bike,
Avanti is New Zealand’s biggest bike company. It’s one of
The Quantum Team is its top model road race bike, the result
Ride & handling: float like a butterfly sting like a bee
The best road bikes enthusiastically assist maximal efforts,
The Quantum team achieves that perfect balance of
It’s most striking attributes are its phenomenal cornering
Point the Quantum Team into a curve and it banks smoothly
That’s a boon when you’re shoulder-to-shoulder in a group
Find a set of downhill twisties and the temptation to see
Something about the Quantum Team makes it easy to keep up
The culprit is almost certainly the Zero aero wheels. The
Some people claim to be able to detect differences between
Not all of that is the wheels, the rest of the package is in
A light bike is an asset on climbs, but the Quantum Team
Nevertheless, it’s hardly lardy, but there seems to be more
Its low-speed handling is perfectly steady, which lets you
There’s a powerful feeling of connectedness between your
You just can’t feel the back end flexing under effort.
Pretty soon you’re digging into reserves you didn’t know you
It’s like a cross between a sergeant major and a standover
This eagerness is about feel and response, though, not
You don’t necessarily have to hammer it, but it’ll always
Frame: carbon for beef and a quiet life
Much of the Quantum Team’s character comes from a handful of
There’s a lot of bike here. The bottom bracket shell is 86mm
The down tube is almost as wide for much of its length,
The seat tube and chainstays are similarly beefy. The right
Up front, the steerer tube tapers from 1 1/8in at the top to
This stiffens for fork against fore-aft flex and lets Avanti
All this material down the bike’s main axis of flex is what
Super-stiff bikes arenothing new; they have been around
What sets apart well-dialled carbon fibre frames like the
A stiff aluminium frame rings like a bell with every bump.
Carbon, on the other hand, can be configured to damp out
It’s not as simple as it being more or less stiff
It’s more that a
They’re still there, but they don’t sting in quite the same
Equipment: New Dura-Ace supports a great gear selection
The heart of the Quantum Team’s fit-out is the 2009 version
Shimano has shed grams from Dura-Ace, which was starting to
Visually, perhaps the biggest change is that the new
Cramming the shifter mechanism into the lever body does mean
The new levers are a bit broader where your hand sits. It’s
What’s not changed is the sheer quality of Dura-Ace’s
Dura-Ace brakes are the one component I really miss when I
This isn’t the place for an in-depth exploration of the new
To our eyes at least Shimano has excelled itself in the
Dura-Ace’s look and feel are a perfect complement to the
It turns out that the wheels account for the Quantum Team’s
The Specialized Mondo tyres are also surprisingly heavy at
Or at least they do when they’re new. Like the white bar
Contact points are taken care of by a Selle Italia Flite Gel
Saddles and handlebars are personal, but the short-drop
The saddle sits on FSA’s two-bolt K-Force Light seatpost,
