Carbon bike frames make me smile.  However, it is important to remember that simply using carbon tubes does not guarantee a high performance bike.  There are carbon bikes out there that ride like they were made from recycled happy meal toys. 

That said, in my opinion, Kestrel produces some of the finest bicycle frames on the market in any material.  They are one of innovators that helped bring carbon into our collective cycling lives.  No, I don't own stock and, to date, have received nothing free from Kestrel.  They just make great bikes and accessories.

If you haven't read Kevin's article on the standard Talon, I suggest you stop now and do that.  I would second everything he stated about the standard Talon and say that his review is a good stepping off point for discussing the SL. 

It isn't all good with the Talon and Talon SL, so let's get to that first.  You may or may not have noticed that the Talon/SL employ internal cable routing.  As the TgR staff wrench, I can tell you that I've uttered a few ugly words trying to feed cable through the frame.  Once or twice though, in a fit of masochism, I've actually enjoyed the challenge.  Thoughtfully, when you purchase a frame set from Kestrel, it comes with guide tubing run as a sort of conduit that you route the cables through.  I bought some of that tubing so that when I'm replacing cables, I can follow the cable out with the tubing and run the new cable back through it.  I would imagine most folks would never experience this as your LBS is probably doing the work for you.  Remember this when you pull into the LBS on Friday and ask for fresh cables for your race on Saturday.  It sure looks clean and aero but it is a pain to work with.  But hey, if you don't do the work yourself, this isn't an issue.

There are functional issues with internal cable routing.  Shimano's documentation tells you not to use their shifters with a bike that employs internal cable routing.  That doesn't mean it won't work, it works fine in almost all instances.  It does mean that Shimano probably will not be of much assistance if you do have problems.  The only time I've seen a functional problem with the internal cable routing is on very small frames.  The angles at which the cable is routed can become so acute that the resulting friction causes poor shifting and premature cable wear.  In the case of the Kestrel Talon, that begins to happen in the 52cm frame size.  Again, it works, it just isn't optimum.  My LBS offers lifetime free adjustments.  A 52cm Talon will make the most of those freebies in rear dérailleur adjustments. 

There are two issues that need to be addressed in my opinion on the build out of the Talon.  First, brass fittings are used on the frame set where the cable housing meets the internal cable routing holes.  Brass does lasts a long time but gets green and funky as soon as it meets air and moisture.  I guess they had a reason for choosing brass.  Perhaps the green looks good with certain frame colors.  The corrosion eventually (by eventually, I mean within one tri season) makes it difficult to remove the fitting from the frame and difficult to pass cables through.  Of course, the corrosion/greenness/or whatever it is, tends to get on the cables as well reducing their life span and decreasing shifting accuracy.  I've been marginally successful at slowing this process by lubing all of the fittings with a Teflon based lube when assembling the bikes.  Second, the way the front dérailleur cable is routed through the frame allows sweat to flow directly down the cable and into the housing.  Kestrel has done a good job of minimizing this, but it still makes a mess of the cables and housing.

So, that's the unpleasantries.  If I was considering a Talon/SL, I would not let any of the above issues deter me from purchasing one (afterall, I did purchase one).  The positives of riding these frames far out weighs the nit picky things I've listed above especially if you don't do your own maintenance.

Let's Ride

I've ridden a few standard Talons in both road and tri builds, but I owned and raced a Talon SL for a season.  I replaced a perfectly good Cervelo P2K with the Talon SL and I have to admit, I was beginning to think I was wasting money until I rode the SL.  One lap in the parking lot immediately changed that feeling.  The next time I rode the SL was the following morning for a 3 mile shake down cruise.  I was racing the bike the following day and thought a few miles might be wise to make sure everything was tight.  The next morning, with all 3 miles under my belt, I exited the water and took off on the Talon SL for my 18 mile bike leg.  I was impressed on that first ride and more impressed with each and every ride that followed.  The bike is fast (faster than I'll ever be).  It has a direct connection to the road, tracks beautifully and feels like you're riding in an S class Mercedes-Benz - smooth and comfortable.  It wants to go faster and begs for more gear.  It has all of the ride characteristics of the standard Talon, that magic carpet ride, but with the snap and acceleration makes it as much at home on a long climb as it is in a bunch sprint.  Most importantly for triathlon, it loves to hammer down the flats and rollers.

The SL frame set employs Kestrel's "800K" carbon in place of the EMS carbon of the standard Talon.  The SL is lighter and stiffer yielding a lively ride.  If you are torn between the standard Talon and the SL, forget about the weight difference.  3.1 pounds versus 2.4 pounds will not make a difference most of us age groupers will feel, at least not enough to warrant the difference in price.  That said, if you can't spend the money for the SL, DO NOT ride one.  The difference in the performance of the two is vast and immediately noticeable and will probably cause what I call a "guttural purchase".  You'll just start flinging money at the bike.  While I don't believe the weight savings alone make enough difference to warrant the upgrade from the standard Talon (unless you are a weight wienie like me and then, a gram is a gram whatever the price) the performance of the SL makes the price difference one of the best bargains in cycling.  A Talon SL set up in a road build (STI levers on drop bars) can be set up for tri with a forward seat post and clip on aero bars in a matter of minutes and would make a world class ride for everything from the office park crit to Ironman Hawaii.  If you are only going to have one bike for training, racing sprints, IMs and/or road racing, it would be difficult to make a better choice in today's market than the Kestrel Talon SL. 

Miscellaneous Details: My Talon SL

At the time, my road racing bike was a 56cm Trek 5900

My 55cm Talon SL was built out with the following components:

Dura-Ace bar end shifters, rear/front dérailleurs

FSA Pro Team Issue Carbon Cranks

54t Dura-Ace aero chain ring (39t inner FSA chain ring)

Zipp 404 clinchers mounted with Michelin Pro Race 700x20 tires and a Dura-Ace 11-21 cassette for racing

Velomax Ascent clinchers for training

Profile base bar bull horns with Profile Carbon Stryke clip on aero bars and Dia-Comp 188 brake levers

Shimano PD7700 Dura-Ace pedals

Corima Ellipse carbon seat post, facing forward, with a Selle San Marco TriGel Aspide saddle

XLab Saddle wing with Profile bottle cages