M5 CHR Review

---

I was wrong...
It was not too long ago that I was arguing with Kent over the phone with what I thought was a lack of ability with the utilitarian argument. My Corsa and his CA 2 were what I believed a great utilitarian bike. They served up everything I needed. You could go fast and then hook them up with whatever luggage you needed and take off. And, I just wasn't sure about his and others move to a different s-frame platform. Don't get me
wrong, I thought the M5 was amazing and the Zockra was a piece of art on wheels.
What I didn't understand at the time was this...everything.

I rode the M5 very briefly before Sebring of last year. It was just weird getting into the thing. It was so low and I was not set up properly and had my tennis shoes on while pedaling speedplays...yes it was odd. My feet would hit the tire and my steering was bit all over the place as I was so used to the tweener bars of my Corsa. The chain was dropped and right hand turns were a bit weird...the speed was amazing, though.

After many questions to John and Kent and listening to updates from Kent, I just did it...I upgraded. The M5 is fast as I have said before. I have beaten all of my times and I am not nearly as in shape as I was this time last year...not nearly...not even close. I have worked through most of the questions that I asked and will list them here with my answer.

The biggest question will always come to this...the chain. There is a limit to wheel turn in relation to the chain. The tire will hit the chain in a turn...more in a right turn than a left. This has not been an issue at all. I only rub when in 180 degree turns on two lane roads and 90 degree right hand turns on sidewalks. I have only run into this twice and had my chain on the small ring and didn't have a problem. I heard rubbing for 2 seconds. The cool thing is you can run the chain through a tube and not have issues at all. The second question will come to length of xseam.

I don't have any issues and know Jacquie and another Vite rider who is the same height as her and they don't have a problem. M5 has come up with a solution on the website where you can run the seat closer to the frame and this seems to be a good deal. Of course you can always run a 650 on the front and have even more room.

Tiller...for many coming from a stick bike, the tweener bars are a great advantage to them. I loved my tweeners. After a month on the tiller, I would not go back. I love having my stuff close to me. The view is better. I run a 13 or so seat angle and I see better than when I had a 22 angle on my Corsa. The other is stability. I can ride no hands. What? No hands? While I am scared to do it for long periods of time, I can do it. It is very stable. The center bias of the weight distribution makes this bike very stable. Cruising down hills at 40+ is not scary at all. The Corsa starts to get quite scary at high speeds. Even sprinting at 40+ was scary at times with it being so light on the front end especially with a cross wind blowing.

I have wanted to do a long 1200k or 600k Brevet and the Corsa has a 230 lb weight limit. This is a setback. The CA is 250. For a big guy, this is limiting. I was a 230 for a bit and can say this is a limit. The M5 doesn't have this limit. Load it for bear :-) I have read on this forum that in real world conditions the M5 would not be as good as a CA2. I don't believe this at all. In fact, the author was called out on this and couldn't respond. Go to the M5 website and check out what people do with these things. It's pretty amazing.

So, yes, I was wrong! I am sure that in any conditions, the M5 would prevail and there is no doubt a reason some of the fastest of my team members are moving to them. Europeans have known this for some time. I guess we are just slow learners... :-)