Review: The Stinner Carrizo Select Brings Steel Soul to the All-Road Test

The Stinner Carrizo Select isn’t like the other bikes in the Velo All-Road Field Test. The steel tubeset obviously stands out, as does its relatively budget positioning in the market. But it checks a lot of boxes here: modern geometry, 40 mm tire clearance, and honestly? It looks excellent.

Unlike the other bikes here, however, the Stinner is made and finished in Santa Barbara, California. There aren’t many bikes that check the boxes in the way the Carrizo Select does, at an impressive price point to match: $1,695 gets you into a frameset, or $3,895 gets you into a complete bike with SRAM Apex AXS. Our test bike is considerably more expensive, however, costing ~$6,500 as built.

While the Carrizo Select might be the entry-level model of the Carrizo lineup (there’s also the titanium Carrizo Podium and the full-custom Carrizo as well), the frame itself still feels unique. The frame doesn’t have the wow factor of a custom-painted or custom geo bike, but the CNC-machined dropouts look excellent, while the TIG welds are expertly laid. It even gets the same fork as the other Carrizo models. Basic from a distance, but small details start to stand out.

So, how does Stinner get to the lower price point of the Carrizo Select frameset? It uses Columbus Zona steel rather than the mix of lightweight tubesets of the other bikes. The brake hose (and the derailleur cables, should you use them) route externally. And as one might expect, the Carrizo Select is only available in six sizes between 50 cm and 60 cm.

It’s worth mentioning that the Stinner specs one fork rake across all sizes, and our 52 cm test bike will absolutely handle differently than the largest bikes, which comes in at a fairly quick 59 mm versus the 69 mm trail of our bike.

Specs

What we like about the Stinner

Frankly, I don’t think the stock size-only option affected any of us while riding the Stinner Carrizo Select. Sizing is on the more aggressive side of things amongst these all-road bike, comparing favorably to the Devinci. But the handling is what stood out the most. There’s loads of stability to be found here, with the bike seeming to really come alive on the road above 19-20 miles per hour (30-32 kph)… at least in my eyes.

As for everyone else? They felt the Carrizo Select made you work a bit more than the rest of the bikes here.

In the descending challenge, Managing Editor Will Tracy felt the Carrizo Select wasn’t quite as well-rounded as the other bikes. And while its lightest-on-test wheels helped the bike feel zippy up the climbing test, the Carrizo Select came in as the slowest bike up the hill. That didn’t seem to matter to me, as I felt the Carrizo Select was my favorite bike on test, and the one I’d want to take home the most.

The Carrizo Select was never the smoothest riding bike here, nor was it the stiffest under power. It wasn’t the lightest bike, and it certainly wasn’t the least expensive one here, at least by how we built it. Instead, it had the most character of the bikes on test, becoming an eager, peppy companion once you got used to its unique characteristics.

Our Stinner Carrizo Select was far from the one stock build Stinner offers. Instead, we built the bike up with this test in mind, and keeping everything under our self-imposed $7,500 limit as best as possible. That got us a Shimano Ultegra Di2 drivetrain, an FSA SL-K Compact carbon bar and matching SL-K SCR alloy stem, and ultra-luxe Black Inc 28|33 climbing wheels with carbon spokes. All of this is about as good as it gets, and all of it proved easy to set up, adjust, and maintain over our time testing the bikes.

As far as value for money is concerned? It’s absolutely dependent on how you build the bike. It’s hard to complain about a custom build, but the relatively low price point of the Carrizo Select frameset lets you tick the boxes to get exactly what you want.

What we don’t like about the Stinner

Remember how I said the Carrizo Select was never at the top of the heap of bikes in the test? That’s a bit of the problem here. As balanced as the bike feels most of the time, its handling lacks some of the precision of the carbon bikes here.

Stinner says the Carrizo Select fits a 700c x 40 mm tire, which is mostly true. Adding a front derailleur limits that clearance to 700c x 35 mm, as does adding fenders. That’s fine in this group of all-road bikes, but it also feels like it needs the wider tire to get the ride smoothness that steel bikes are known for. It simply doesn’t have the front-end or rear-end smoothness of the other bikes, a feeling that became all the more obvious considering the control 32 mm Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR tires spec’d on each bike.

Steel frames tend to feel like they round off the big bumps, and that’s the case here. The Carrizo Select lacked some of that refinement on the small cracks and potholes in the road, however. It simply didn’t soak up the imperfections quite like the other bikes, but we’re sure that a wheelset swap would offer some additional smoothness.

Livability

There’s not too much to complain about with the Stinner, and it’s easily the best bike here for the home mechanic. The fully external cable routing isn’t the most elegant solution, but it helps keep the price down. The headset is a standard integrated affair, with a threaded bottom bracket and a round 27.2 mm seat post that makes customization a cinch.

While I could absolutely complain about the mediocre paint quality of the bike we had, Stinner says the bike was a pre-production frameset, and that stock bikes get a few layers of clearcoat over the paint that this one seemed to lack. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt there, because the rest of the bike is so dang good.

Who is the bike for?

The Stinner Carrizo Select isn’t for the rider looking for a bike that offers the *most* of anything we’re able to test. Instead, it offers a ton of charisma, the ability to customize a build from an attainable starting point, and classically good looks that make the bike seem more expensive than it is.