Hey there. I didn’t want to do a write up of the CEEPO Venom until I’ve had the chance to put the bike through some training and racing. Many of you already know, from pictures and such, that I’ve been riding this frame for a few months now. The CEEPO Venom just got back from the Big Island of Hawaii, got a proper cleaning (salt water is super corrosive), and is now ready to tackle the off season.

Thank you CEEPO Triathlon Bikes for providing me with the Venom. The model I received is the 2014 edition, blanketed with a nice coat of white and red glossy paint. The CEEPO Venom was designed for long course riding, especially for triathletes tackling the half ironman (70.3) and Ironman (140.6) distances.

There are some features of this bike that I like, including the ability to choose my own front brake, cockpit, and the ability to fit both electronic and mechanic drivetrain systems. For my Venom, I chose to to run Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 Di2. All the e-tube wires are run through the frame. And for simplicity of the initial fit process, I carried over the cockpit from my previous triathlon bike, the Slice.

I built this bike from the ground up, so making a few personal modifications were inevitable.

Reverse Brake Routing

To provide a cleaner front end, I swapped the left and right brake cabling. The front brake was routed so that the right lever controls the braking – simple, efficient, and works perfectly with the Dura-Ace 9000 front brake.

The rear is a bit more complicated, since it uses the Tektro R725, “u-brake” style system mounting under the bottom bracket. The brake cabling for the rear starts on the left side of the down tube, runs through the frame, and comes out near the bottom bracket. The entire brake cable goes through the frame – it was designed that way. Routing the brake cable through the left lever resulted in a much cleaner front end cable routing and less inner cable bend.

Tip: Install an in-line barrel adjuster to make adjusting brake cable tension on the fly a breeze!

Hindsight Tip: Since the rear brake is located at the dirtiest possible area of the bike, make sure you keep the brake as clean as possible, or else the brake will not work properly, (I learned this the hard way when my brake arms seized up and stopped working.)

Rear Dérailleur e-tube wire routing
The CEEPO Venom has two holes on the seatstay, one near the middle and one a bit further closer to the rear hanger. I choose to run the electronic cable from the hole that was closer because that hole faces downward, exposing less cable.

All I all, I’m super happy with the CEEPO Venom. It’s first race was at Toughman New York, where it helped me come from behind after a slow swim to capture my 3rd age group win in a row. Since then, it has raced both Ironman Maryland and Ironman Kona; and now it is ready for another round of training!

Thanks for reading!
Cheers.