This company has carved out a niche for itself. While Kestrel is the carbon brand with the marquis headbadge, Aegis is a viable alternative and becoming more desirous all the time.
This company has been around awhile, and its corporate threads have weaved in and out of deals with a host of companies. Aegis—or Graphite Technologies, as it was known back when it was a subcontractor—had deals making bikes for Basso, Profile Design, and Trek, and its principals were once in cahoots with the folks that left to start Kestrel.
T2
The T2 is visually much like Cervelo's P3. In fact, it's not hyperbole to suggest that if you want a P3 out of carbon, Aegis' T2 is it. Of course there are some differences, but it seems obvious that what Aegis tried to do was simply take an extremely popular high-end tri bike and offer it in carbon.
But it's not quite that simple. There are fewer sizes available in Aegis' "P3" than in Cervelo's P3, for example. There is one size in 650c, which is 54cm. On either side of this, at 52cm and 56cm, are models in 700c.
The T2 and the P3 both share a geometric quirk, that the lower the saddle the shallower the seat angle, and a lot of seat post showing means a steeper seat angle. Therefore, determing the seat angle of the T2 is a bit of a guess. If you put the saddle in a more or less neutral position, the saddle will sit at about 78 degrees on the 700c models and about a degree steeper on the 650c model. This roughly equates to Cervelo's P3 geometry with Cervelo's seat post clamp turned forward.
The geometry of the T2 seems to be about right. When measuring the top tubes of these bikes it's not really helpful to take to heart the measurements Aegis provides, because a line drawn from the bottom bracket to the middle of the saddle intersects the top tube well forward of the top tube's rearward terminus. Therefore, the 52cm size doesn't have a top tube of 54.5cm, as Aegis suggests, but more like 51cm (or just over) if you measure the top tube from the head tube back to the point where the top tube intersects the line running from the BB to the saddle.
And this is a good thing, because a 54.5cm top tube on a 78-degree bike that measures out to 52cm would be way too long. It would be better for Aegis to advertise the top tubes the way I just suggested.
I don't see a bike in the T2 line-up that would fit a taller guy, say, guys much over six feet tall. Rather, I think the range of customers from smallest size to largest would be 5'6" to just 6'0".
Don't develop the itch for a T2 unless you've got a pretty good job. Its price tag ranges from $2300 to $2800 just for the frame, add $400 for the fork. This would make a nicely-decked complete bike sell for upwards of $5000 and even beyond.
Aegis has a lot of retailers, but as of this writing (March, '04) if you want a T2 call Bicycle Sports' Tyler, Texas store. As of now, about 6 or 7 out of every 10 T2 models that come off the line go to this single location. They also know the bike quite well. When I endeavored to figure out the geometries of the T2, it was Bicycle Sports I went to for help.
Trident
The Trident has one nomenclature problem: its bikes are sized a little idiosynchratically, certainly very differently than, say, its T2. This ought not be a stumbling block, though. Just realize that you're going to probably buy a Trident that is smaller in its named size than you'd think you should be riding. Taking myself as an example, at 6'2" I'd normally ride a 60cm or so road race bike. I ride a 59cm in a Quintana Roo or a Yaqui, and 58cm in a Cervelo. I'd ride a 54cm in an Aegis Trident (if I was going to ride at 76 degrees, the angle of the bike). Why? Because its top tube length in this size is 55.2cm, versus the 55.5cm top tube I'd ride in a 59cm Yaqui Mariola (my tri bike). Furthermore, the Aegis' head tube in 54cm is actually taller than on my 59cm Yaqui.
What's nice about the Trident is that I can buy this 54cm frame in either a 650c or 700c variety. Being picky, what I'd REALLY like is a 700c version, but with the chainstay length that comes with the Trident's 650c geometry (the 650c has a chainstay length of 39cm—quite nice in a 700c tri bike—but the 700c variety has a 40.7cm chainstay, about what I'd need in a road race bike and a little long for a tri bike).
But, there are mitigating factors to what I just wrote above. I need a much smaller than usual Aegis under normal circumstances, because its head tubes are tall and its top tubes long. However, were I to use an aero bar with a lower profile armrest, especially if the bar had quite a bit of armrest setback, then I'd ride a larger size Trident. Confused? Let me explain. An Easton Attack aero bar has armrests that sit lower to the ground than would the armrests on, say, a Syntace bar. The Easton bar's armrest also sit quite a ways behind the centerline of the pursuit bar. This acts to "shorten" the head tube and the top tube. In other words, if I rode a Syntace clip-on I'd take an Aegis in 54cm, but if I put Easton's bar on the bike I'd ride it in 56cm. Simply put, the Trident becomes a more usable bike for me with Easton's bars than with Profile's or Syntace's bars. The point is, think about which aero bars you're going to put on this bike at the same time you buy one.
A Trident frame and fork will sell for $1600-and-change, not bad for a U.S.-made frame. It can be had in everything from 48cm to 58cm in even increments and again, if you're tall, don't be put off by 58cm. You could be 6'4" and fit nicely on that size Trident. Also, you can get the Trident in 650c or 700c in 54cm, 56cm, and 58cm.
The Trident is a 76-degree seat-angle bike, and this is in vogue right now. We'd prefer to see Aegis go all the way and make 78 degrees, but it's not a huge issue. Just put a straight seat post on the bike and you've almost got 78 degrees (several of Aegis' complete bike kits come with Thompson posts anyway, and these are just the posts you want––the straight ones, not the set-backs). Of course, this strategy means you're correspondingly shortening the effective top tube length, but the top tubes of these bikes are so dang long that this ought not to be a huge worry. Just realize that if you steepen the seat angle you correspondingly shorten the top tube, which means you can't go to a smaller size frame, which means you're stuck with the taller head tube. Remember the remedy: Put on a lower-profile aero bar, like Easton, VisionTech, Hed. That solves the problem.
Aegis offers kits that turn its frames into complete bikes, but only through a particular distributor that offers quasi-EOM kits to bike dealers (lots of niche bike manufacturers use this system). There are any number of ways to better this strategy, including—if you're mechanically inclined and enjoy working on your own bike—buying the parts yourself through a shrewd mail-order search. If you're going to have a dealer build it, though, buy the parts there as well. Just realize that you can pair ANY kit with this bike, so long as the kit is of the same spec.
A whole Trident ready-to-ride ought to cost between $2600 and $3400 (Ultegra v 10sp Dura Ace). Aegis also offers Campy kits, namely Chorus and Record.
