While the Basso name needs no introduction, nor does its illustrious Diamante frameset, its level of craftsmanship, aesthetic beauty and the brilliance behind its design bears revisiting.
That’s exactly what happened last weekend, when I had the occasion to once again ogle the Diamante in-hand, paying special attention to the design of its “fuselage”.
Indeed, once I got beyond admiring the Diamante for its exquisite beauty, my focus turned to how well Basso executed the design of the frame’s semi-integrated front-end, particularly their innovative Comfort Kit, which allows the stack height of the frame to be configured in multiple ways – without impacting its inherent balance and poise.
Basso’s Comfort Kit is capable of creating four levels of stack (Race, Intermediate Plus, Intermediate and Comfort), which comprises a beautifully sculpted carbon over-lay that seamlessly integrates with both the toptube and headtube, along with a series of proprietary spaces, that allows the front-end of the frame to be augmented incrementally in order to suit a vast range of riding positions.
In the case of the Race option, riders who are seeking a more aggressive position, need only add the initial headset bearing in combination with Basso’s specially developed stem, in order to create the quintessential “slammed” racer’s position.
However, for the rest of us mere mortal enthusiasts, Basso offers a series of cleverly designed conical spacers that can be added in order to increase the Diamante’s headtube height in 5 millimeter increments.
Need more stack height?
From there, the spacers can be used in combination with the aforementioned carbon over-lay, giving riders the ability to increase overall headtube stack by as much as 3 centimeters.
Again, Basso put a lot of thought into the development of the Comfort Kit, as not to impede the innate handling characteristics of the Diamante.
Therefore, from both a design and “bike fit” perspective, the Comfort Kit is nothing short of an engineering marvel, ruling out the potential for the excessive use spacers, which often compromises performance and safety.
After all, we’ve all seen bikes foolishly built-up with the Leaning Tower of Spacers.
Basso Bikes
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