New Bike: Vaast A/1

In the middle of the summer, I got an itch for a proper gravel bike. I have several bikes that are perfectly adequate to ride on gravel roads, of which there are none near me, but you know how marketing works. Some random googling found the Vaast A/1 over half off online, a bike that recently got a positive review from those picky folks at Bicycle Quarterly--they compared the Vaast's unique magnesium frame favorably to their boutique steel frames. I'm not one to ignore these overlapping signs.

I clicked buy, and a few days later there was the giant box on the porch:

Vaast was thoughtful and even included a little torque wrench for putting it together. I guess I should care about this with the carbon bits.

Well packed, no issues at all.

Shimano GRX 11 speed with hydro brakes and T47 carbon cranks is incredibly modern for my garage:

Also, carbon fork and seat post. The wheels are aluminum.

I put up some longer rides (for me) immediately when I got the Vaast. It really did encourage me to get out and move. This is the 58cm/XL frame:

Here are those carbon cranks. For flat central Ohio, I would probably go up a few teeth, but it works well enough.

The dropped chainstay allows a tighter rear end with decent clearance. And notice the cast chain yoke. 700c x 38mm tires: I don't think these Maxxis Ramblers will win any awards from BQ, but they roll well enough.

My very old school Rivendell banana bag on a carbon seat post. Hmm.

One of my two qualms with the Vaast is this ugly cable port. It works fine, but it seems like something that was signed off at 4:45pm on a Friday before a holiday weekend. They should have put a litte more work into making this less ugly.

A terrible picture of it, but my other qualm with the Vaast is the low bar height. For me. As delivered, the stem had a stack of spacers under it, but at my 32" seat height, the bars were still quite a bit below the saddle. It's fine for about an hour, but then my hands start tingling. I eventually relented and flipped the stem up. That feels better, but now I worry about the extra load on the carbon steerer. Restless is the heart of the steel fan that is trying carbon.

Qualm #3 (of two) is the bar tape. It's PVC (fake leather), but perforated. My experience in the automotive world is that PVC is generally not tough enough to perforate, and that's borne out here--in less than 100 miles, the tape was tearing and peeling back on the ramps. Too bad, because it looked great until then.

Otherwise, everything else is great. It shifts, stops, and handles with such capability that I kind of slapped myself for spending so much money and time trying to convert old road bikes to 650b. The Vaast does everything better.

I expect these Vaast bikes are selling terribly. It's a metal frame, that looks like plain aluminum (it's magnesium), selling for carbon prices. As witnessed by the deep discount I bought it at. But, I agree with Bicycle Quarterly--it's an amazing riding frame. It has that lively, energetic feel that I want in a frame. I have virtually no experience with carbon road bikes, but I'd be surprised if a typical carbon frame can match this ride.

And I did finally find some gravel! A small path along a field that connected to an apartment complex. There are bits and pieces of gravel and singletrack like this around Dublin, but nothing long or contiguous. For rides like this, it's a lot more fun to ride the mid sized tires of the Vaast, rather than then 48mm ~ 75mm tires I've used on various other bikes. Those are overkill that remove any challenge from this kind of ride, and just feel slower and awkward on the pavement in between.