Legend HT 7.5

Legend's very lovely HT 7.5 is one of those rare things, a custom carbon frameset that's made in Europe. In Italy to be precise. Legend are one of a small band of manufacturers that haven't outsourced frame production to the Far East, a shift that has seen the biggest revolution in bicycle production in the past couple of decades.

From a factory in Bergamo, Italy, Marco Bertoletti has been building frames by hand since the latest 80s, and began making carbon frames in 2003. So he's got loads of experience and knows a thing or two about building a frame then. You can understand then why I was expecting a lot from this particular carbon frameset and the bike it was built into.

Frame

Legend build in titanium and steel too, but custom carbon is where the excitement is. They are one of a handful of European facilities that can produce a carbon frame in-house. The HT 7.5 is their third-tier offering and carries a £2999.99 price tag (that's for the frameset). Yes, making frames in Italy isn't cheap.

However, you do get a custom frame, and that, along with the Italian production, is their USP. The process starts with a bike fit, I headed to Bike Science in Bristol where experienced fitter Andy Sexton sized me up. These measurements are taken using the Retul system and once Andy is happy with the fit they are sent to Legend (I should add at this point that I didn't ride a custom frame, instead a stock 56cm demo bike that just happened to fit my bog standard dimensions).

With these measurements, and after a chat with the customer to determine the characteristics of the frame they want, and the type of riding they want the frame for, a frame is measured up. On the more expensive HT 9.5 and 10.5 the custom process even extends to individually moulding tubes to suit, so you could opt for a stiffer frame for crit racing or comfier for gran fondos. To offer a more affordable frame the HT 7.5 uses a stock set of unidirectional 3K carbon tubes that are moulded in small batches.

A tube-to-tube process is used to bond the tubes together, giving the junctions their fantastically smooth appearance. The tubes are mitred to precise tolerances, then bonded to their corresponding tube and layers of carbon are laid over the top. Legend use an electronic jig to ensure an accuracy of 0.1 degree. The frame is then popped into an autoclave to cure it. This construction technique allows each frame to be individually tailored to each rider, and the choice of carbon and dimensions of each tube can alter the characteristic of the frame. Producing custom carbon frames using the more common moulding process is prohibitively expensive, as moulds cost a fortune and you need one for each size. So for custom carbon, this tube-to-tube process leads the way.

Legend use a hollow oversized bottom bracket shell with a keyed interface for the thread inserts on this frame, and it's available with regular or BB30 options. The rear stays are slim and designed to balance the demands of transmitting energy to the rear wheel while absorbing any unpleasant road surface that might lead to a jarring ride. The seat tube is a recent upgrade for the HT 7.5, with the areas at the seat clamp and front mech reinforced. An integrated seatmast is an available option.

You can choose whether you want a frame with mechanical or electronic internal cable routing, and they use internally moulded carbon pathways to make routing cables a cinch. Or if you prefer external cable routing, that's an option too.

Once you've sweated the details of your custom frame, all that is left is to pick the colour. Here Legend offer a wide range of options (it's worth looking at their website for an idea of what they offer), but I felt the gloss black to carbon weave fade finish, with red and white fade decals, gave the bike an exquisite appearance.

Appearance wise the Legend has a classy arrangement of mostly round tubes. It's an appearance I'm a fan off, there's no superfluous curves or shapes here, it's function and performance over style. Minimal tube manipulation then is the order of the day, the down tube is fairly oversized and enlarged to meet the bottom bracket shell at its full width. Their own full carbon NS1 fork slots into a tapered head tube. The chainstays are lent a curved shape with a slight square shape to them. Seat stays, naturally, are slender and combine into a wishbone at the seat tube junction.

Legend claim a frame weight of 980g, which is right on the money for a top-end frame. There are lighter options, but the HT 7.5 isn't trying to compete with such lightweight competition.

As this wasn't a custom frame, I won't dwell on the geometry, but for the record the test bike has a 56cm effective top tube with a 15.5cm head tube.

Build

No point labouring on the build kit of this bike for too long, the actual build will be chosen by each customer and Bike Science offer just about any flavour of specification you can imagine. As befits an Italian made frame, we had a full Campagnolo Chorus 11-speed groupset to play with and Campagnolo Eurus wheels, and a Deda Zero cockpit and Prologo Scratch saddle.

Needless to say, the gears performed brilliant, using an 11-speed block give a gloriously smooth transition right across the range with no large steps from any sprocket to the next. Shifting gears gives you much more feedback, both audible and tactile, than either Shimano or SRAM, but the thumb shifter takes some getting used to.

This bike hit the scales to the tune of 7.25kg (16lbs) which is plenty light enough that you really can't blame the bike for holding you back.

How does it ride?

In a word, superbly. I've ridden a few very top-end carbon frames in my time and without doubt the Legend meets all the same criteria that allows me to slide it in amongst such company. It's easily one of the five best carbon frames I've ever ridden.

What most awed me about my time on the Legend was how beautifully it managed to combine an effortless pace with sublime comfort. Some of the roads on my regular loops are potted and scarred with potholes and rough surfaces, but the Legend just appeared to be able to mop up all the vibrations and effectively cancel them out before they reached the contact points.

And when you want to get a bit of lickety split on and give it the beans, it responds with an engaging eagerness. It's stiffness under power and lightweight made short work of climbs. Yes, it's one of the best and most rapid climbing bikes I've ridden in a very long time. Dump a load of watts through the pedals on a tight and twisty course and the stiffness in the frame is there to be felt, and it has the handling to support your desire to wring its neck.

Descents are often the best way to asses a frame, and on such roads the HT 7.5 has a stiffness along its length that many frames just don't posses. This means it tracks with incredible accuracy and authority.

Yet every time I stepped off the Legend after a ride, it was the class-leading ride comfort that most impressed me. If the HT 7.5 is this good, how good would the range-topping 10.5 ride I wonder? I can only begin to imagine...

A huge price tag yes, but it has the world class ride quality to justify that price. There's often marginal differences between carbon fibre frames but the Legend is way out in front in some very exclusive company.

Verdict

Supremely smooth ride with incredible handling and stiffness, it's out of this world. Better start saving now then...