Review: The Specialized Langster steel is a classic track bike frame which might appeal to a commuter wanting a classic style track bike. For a long time, I have toyed with the idea of a single speed for commuting, so was keen to test out different options.
I wasn’t bowled over by the look. Of course, the simplicity and clean-cut of a single speed is good, but the silver aluminium frame left me a little underwhelmed. But, that is just my personal preference. Someone else could equally think it looks cool. BTW: Specialized have also done ‘city’ themed bikes (like bright yellow for NY presumably to make it fit in with NY taxi cabs)
Ride Quality
I did really enjoy riding the bike. I loved the feel and comfort of the steel frame and steel fork, it seemed to absorb a lot of the (innumerable) potholes and rivets in the Oxford roads. It’s a long time since I have ridden a steel frame and it reminded me of why steel is still attractive as a frame material and has advantages over Aluminium. For racing, I’m not really interested in a comfortable ride, but for commuting – when I’m carrying a laptop – an absorb ale steel frame would be a real boon.
With a Reynolds 520 Chro Moly steel frame, the bike is not light. It weighs approx. 23.5lbs (10.7kg) which to some extent defeats one of the attractions of being single speed.Nevertheless for commuting, weight is not such a big problem. Even with single speed it felt fairly easy to accelerate away and didn’t feel much different to my trek Aluminium. With a 42 Chain-ring, 16 rear cassette, I sometimes spun out (needed bigger gear) but only rarely. I don’t tend to race around the city too much.
The other aspect of the bike is that it is a track size and uses track handlebars. For me, this doesn’t work for a commuting bike. It is quite an aggressive racing position, but I don’t want this when commuting. Also the brakes are on the top of the handlebars so it takes a while to move from the drop position to get the brakes on top of the handlebars.