If you love gorgeous, custom made, premium quality road and tri bikes, Guru has to be at, or at least near, the top of your list. It strikes me that Guru is doing something that no other company can match - eight premium quality road bikes and six premium quality tri bikes all offering something unique in the marketplace and all available in custom sizes, with custom paint, a variety of build kits and premium upgrades. Oh, by the way, every single frame Guru builds is hand made and then hand painted at its Montreal facility - nothing is farmed out or built off site (except, of course, most of the tubing and fittings which are all premium quality from the world’s best manufacturers - not unnamed Asian sources). Top this off with unbelievable customer service and, in my opinion, you have the best pure bike company on the planet. (I will remind readers that Guru does not pay me to praise its products - just the opposite - I am its customer and have used my personal funds to purchase four of its bikes. I have also utilized its customer service without disclosing my relationship to TgR.)

This review is on my 2004 custom Guru TriLite brilliantly painted according to my personal specifications.  Before writing this review, not only did I go through the decision making process of pouring over every bit of information available on every manufacturers’ bikes, but I then ordered the bike, received it in exactly the two weeks promised (remarkable considering the fact that I ordered custom paint and shipping took almost half of the time), personally assembled it (with the help of Mark, the TgR staff wrench), trained on it and raced it.  Moreover, I read every review I could get my hands on regarding this frameset – remarkably, even though each review praised the bike, none of them really did it justice.

The TriLite is the Twin Turbo of tri bikes; it will flat out fly down the road.  For those of you who, like me, are concerned about the comfort of an aluminum racing bike, don’t worry about the TriLite; it is a remarkably comfortable and lively ride but with substantial stiffness at the bottom bracket.  It climbs and descends as well as any tri bike available (45+ mph in the aerobars is a blast), has nimble handling and responds as though it is an extension of your body.  As this frame is set up (which is no different then Guru can provide), it simply represents an outstanding racing bike. 

Okay, perhaps I like this bike a little too much.  Seriously, though, the purpose of a tri bike is to take you from T1 to T2 in the fastest time without zapping your energy for the run.  This bike does that for me. 

Now to the particulars - build and geometry.

This frame is made with all Dedacciai tubing.  First, the main triangle is made from the incredibly strong (and comfortable) U2 aluminum made with Zirconium, Magnesium and Scandium.  The rear end is a complete unit also designed and manufactured by Dedacciai which is positively brilliant and mounted at the bottom bracket shell via an incredibly strong mono-box design.  With this rear end, you get lightness, stiffness and the elimination of road vibration and impact from road irregularities.  The stays are both in an S-bend shape.  Finally, it comes with a Dedacciai carbon fork to offer perfect balance from front to rear.

The fork is as aero as anything on the market (50 mm deep and only 14 mm wide) and mounts in an integrated headset.  All three of the front triangle's tubes have teardrop profiles including a 68 mm x 30 mm down tube.  While the seat tube is not radiused for the wheel, it is still far superior to a round tube as well as being more expensive to produce.  If you want a fully radiused seat tube in an aluminum racing bike, then the 2005 TriLite is your bike.  Although the carbon rear end isn't exactly aero, it is stiff and comfortable.  The further back you go on the frame, the less important aero shaped tubing is.  For example, seat stays are continuously drafting behind your legs and are very small tubes.  I prefer better performance over better aerodynamics when it comes to the stays.

The sizes available in 2004 were extremely broad.   The 650c frames have 78 degree seat tubes while the 700c's have 76 degree tubes.  The top tube lengths are reasonable to maybe a little long.  I have to ride the smallest frame size available in the 700c (51) to keep from having too long a top tube (its 52 cm).  I am 5'7", have a slightly longer than normal torso and 31" sleeve length.  Anyone less than 5'6" will need to go to the smallest 650c frame (49) which has a 51 cm top tube.  Anyone less than 5'5" should be very careful purchasing a stock size and, instead, have Guru custom build the frame you want.  I have provided at the end of this review Guru's '04 geometry specifications for its tri bikes.  E-mail Guru if you have any question regarding its bikes before purchasing.  You will be shocked at the immediate and informative response, its offer to help you with your purchase decisions, etc.  (The Guru team, like Tony Paventi and Patrick Leger, are simply first class bike guys!)

Paint - it's simply outstanding, few companies do it as well.  People who see this bike in person go out of their way to tell me how beautiful it is (unfortunately, the color does not photograph well).  What I like most is the ability to customize your bike for a minimum up-charge.  On mine, I used one of Guru's designs, but I chose the color of the frame and fork as well as every decal.  The decals, by the way, except for the one on the top of the top tube, are hand painted.

Guru - job well done!

KDG

2004 Tri Geometry