YAQUI

Who is Yaqui? It is Ves Mandaric of Mandaric Cycles, a crotchety Slavic guy who used to build a lot of QR's best bikes and is one of my dear friends. Now he's on his own, and he builds custom steel and aluminum bikes under the Mandaric label. He's well recognized as a premier builder, and in fact Slowtwitch's publisher (me) is in possession of two Mandaric scandium-tubed road race frames, to go with his Yaqui Mariola and Carbo tri bikes (more on them below).

Other than that, "Yaqui" is an Native American tribe in the Southwestern United States, and it's also the name of a pass that leads one from Borrego Springs toward Julian (scenic riding areas in Eastern San Diego County).

But Slowtwitch's publisher is not by any means the most famous or accomplished triathlete to have ridden Yaqui bikes; that honor goes to five-time World Triathlon Champion Simon Lessing (interviewed on Slowtwitch), who went from some big bike contracts to ride Ves Mandaric's bikes for, ahem, nothing but bikes. (He's since gone to Cervelo making *me*—God forbid—the star athlete).

There are three nice things about dealing with Ves Mandaric. First, he's an old schooler who actually builds what he sells, and he's not just a bike builder, but a bike rider, and a university-trained engineer. Second, if you buy a built bike from him then it's assembled by him, not by some Asian factory worker who rides buses, or mopeds, but certainly not bikes. Third, he can make it custom for you, if there's a certain geometry you want which he doesn't offer (not very likely).

Getting a bike from Mandaric is like ordering at an Italian restaurant. You get the pasta you want and then choose the sauce. This takes three "models" of pasta and makes nine possible dishes. Mandaric offers three frames, that is, three tubesets and modes of construction. He's the got four geometries to choose from, and then there are the four kits. This makes something like 43 million available models.

CARBO
MARIOLA
OCOTILLO
GEOMETRIES
PARTS PACKAGES

CARBO

This is Yaqui's flagship. It's made of Easton's Scandium tubing, certainly the most exotic and probably the very best of the #7005 aluminum alloy bike tubing. But it's not entirely aluminum. The arse-end is carbon, at least in the seat stays.

Normally, the seat stays are the things you want to build down in a bike. Making them lighter and flimsier doesn't seem to hurt a bike in any structural way. Conversely, the beefy carbon seat stay complex that goes into the Carbo is so stiff and substantial, that it takes an already reasonably sturdy bike (the Mariola) and makes it stiffer yet in the lateral plane.

The Carbo's tube profiles are honest, that is, the minor diameter of the downtube is less than 30mm, and it's deep front to back, which makes these tubes legitimately aero. But a Yaqui doesn't have that sexy cut-out for the rear wheel. Oh well.

Most of these bikes are sold direct to the consumer, and so the prices are pretty good on these. The Carbo frame and fork sells for $2085, and the fork is a Reynolds Ouzo Pro Aero, its Peleton, or Easton's aero fork.

The Carbo was road tested on Slowtwitch some time ago.

MARIOLA

This bike was also road-tested on Slowtwitch, a year before we tested the Carbo. It is one of the few aero-tubed Scandium bikes being made for triathletes. The Mariola is a lightweight, elegant, beautiful frame, and we don't know why more builders haven't adopted this tubeset. One might think that an aero tube is an aero tube, but I hope we blew the cover off that myth some years ago in an review we did on tubeshapes. There is a huge difference between the minor diameters of the more exotic tubed bikes—like the Yaqui, the Carbo, and the bikes made by Cervelo—versus those tubes which suggest an aero configuration, yet are quite fat.

The Mariola's sizzle is in its tubes. There are some other nice options available, such as the same internal top tube cable guide found in QR's older PRs, almost a lost art. If it was up to Mandaric it would be a lost art, as he hates to install those. For $1,685 your Mariola frameset—with the fork options listed above—will not have this internal guide. How much would he charge to install it? I don't know. You'll have to call him up and ask. Hold the receiver slightly away from your ear for his initial resonse, then wait patiently for the up-charge.

OCOTILLO

I own two road bikes and these are what I ride most of the time when I'm not riding a tri bike (which is most of the time). They're Scandium, necked-down round tubed bikes. This is, in my view, the best tubeset alive today for road riding, and if you get yourself an Ocotillo this is the tubeset you've chosen. There's no carbon in the Ocotillo frame, no shaped tubes, nothing especially aero. As Lynyrd Skynyrd put it in Sweet Home Alabama, "Now Watergate does not both me, do round tubes bother you?" Or something like that.

The Ocotillo sells for $1395 frame and fork, and the fork is Reynolds' Ouzo Pro, a logical match for the frame.

GEOMETRIES

There are four geometries Mandaric offers for his Yaqui bikes. The two "middle" geometires are those with which you're familiar as tri-specific, that is, 76- and 78-degrees with the resulting changes in top tube, head tube, chain stay, etc. On the slacker side is what Mandaric calls his DL geometry and a Mariola with DL is pictured at right. The DL is basically a "Draft-Legal" bike (get it?). This is what Mandaric builds for ITU racers, and he's got quite a few such pros and juniors on his bikes.

Then, finally, there is the DE geometry, named after moi. This sort of geometry is on the other end of the spectrum, and features bikes with seat angles of 80- and 81-degrees, with very long front-centers and exemplified by that bike written about in An Experiment in Geometry. This is the bike I now ride, and I believe you'll find this geometry popping up in bikes made by boutique builders in the U.S. The idea behind the DE is, "If you're going to ride steep and low, why not ride steep/low and at the same time safe/comfortable?"

Anyway, these are your Yaqui geometry options.

PARTS PACKAGES

You've chosen your pasta, selected your sauce, now would you like to have parmesan, gorgonzola or romano cheese on it? Mandaric has four parts options for his tri bikes. Keep in mind that he has very good prices to upgrade from standard wheels to Zipp 404, so if you've got enough training wheels laying around the house, inquire about an upgrade:

ULTRA Kit (10Spd) $2,055
Full DuraAce 10Spd/Syntace handlebar assembly/SelleItalia SLR/Michelin ProRace on DuraAce hubs-Velocity Deep V rims.

KOMPAKT Kit (10Spd) $1,555
DuraAce 10Spd/FSA Carbon Pro Compact crankset+ISIS BB/Syntace handlebar assembly/San Marco ASPide/Michelin ProRace tires/Velomax Circuit wheels

PRO Kit (9Spd) $1,295
DuraAce F+R Der+ 9Spd bar end shifters/Ultegra brake calipers and cassette/FSA Carbon Pro crankset+ISIS BB/Syntace handlebar assembly/San Marco Aspide/Michelin ProRace/Velomax Circuit wheels

COMP Kit (9Spd) $1,105
Full Ultegra 9Spd with DuraAce 9Spd bar Ends/Syntace handlebar assembly/San Marco ASPide/Michelin ProRace/Velomax Circuit wheels

CONCLUSION

What does all this mean? If one was to go whole-hog, and get the DE geometry on a Carbo with Dura Ace 10sp, that bike would run $4140. Not counting an upgrade to 404 wheels, this appears to be as much as you can spend on a Yaqui, unless you want the geometry absolutely custom ($200 extra) or an internal cable guide.

Bang for buck? Choose the next package down, which is also Dura Ace 10sp but with FSA Compact Drive cranks—probably what you should have on your bike anyway. Eschew the carbon rear end and your 10sp Mariola would cost you $3240. I've got a Mariola in DE geometry with Ultegra 9sp and Compact Drives and that oughta be obtainable for sub-$3000 (it's not precisely on the option list, but Mandaric's not going to kick you out of his shop if you ask for Feta atop your Penne Pesto).