Bike at Bedtime: 2014 De Rosa King XS

De Rosa has made some very pretty bikes in the past and our Mat Brett was lucky enough to ride one in the Italian hills.

De Rosa’s King XS is one of those bikes that just looks right. This, the 2014 model features a carbon frame that is constructed using a combination of T1000, T800 and XN10 carbon fibre and the double triangle frame design got a slightly sloping top tube.

Naturally, for an Italian bike on Italian roads, our build came with a Campagnolo groupset. Only the best would do, so Super Record EPS was the order of the day.

While most cranksets from the big manufacturers have moved to 4-arm designs, we think that this 5-arm spider with the carbon fibre cranks was one of the nicest designs ever made. Seeing as he was riding in the hills, Mat had a 50/34T chainring combination.

One of the features that Campagnolo fans love about the Italian groupsets is the ergonomics of the hoods. The curved design is certainly very comfortable and that’s more than welcome on longer rides.

FSA provided the bar and stem with the compact drops allowing Mat to get comfortable when flying down the technical descents.

Interestingly, De Rosa opted to place the rear brake under the bottom bracket, a move that was popular with brands that were either aiming for a reduction in drag or a comfort gain. De Rosa took the chance to remove the brake bridge for a claimed comfort gain.

Campagnolo supplied its Shamal Ultra wheelset and the package resulted in a bike that dipped just under the 7kg mark at 6.96kg.

The carbon hubs house ceramic bearings.

As a result of the low weight and decent stiffness in the frame, this was a pretty nice climbing bike and that traditional geometry provided rather balanced handling too.

Here’s hoping that we can get ourselves out to Italy again soon for another road.cc Italy Week. We really do love riding bikes and eating pasta.