11 My Other Ride

I'm traveling today so I don't have a special topic to write on. But as my friends told me, I thought I should take this opportunity to perhaps show you one of the bikes I ride these days. This one's a bit new, and I have shown you my primary bike some years ago. See here.

My bike on top of Rock City Hill, Olean NY (2400 ft above sea level)

This one is a pre-HP B stay Colnago C-40 lugged carbon bike in Mapei theme with all Campagnolo Super Record 11 Speed gruppo. C-40 has been one of most prolific of Colnago's offerings (sadly no more), and it has won more Paris Roubaix's and World Championships than any other. The lugs of course are beautiful to look at and they are one piece molded and hand finished. The bike not only rides buttery smooth, but it is a good climber, and a great downhill bike as well. The ride is very stable and precise that I imagine it must somehow be laser guided from a control room at Colnago's headquarters.

The seatpost is a Thomson Elite, handlebars are 3T's Rotundo Pro's adorned with Brooks leather handlebar tape stopped with sweet cork plugs. The saddle is a Brooks Swallow with titanium rails, while the fork is a straight bladed Easton EC90 topped off with a Chris King Titanium headset. The wheels are no-nonsense Dt Swiss 1450s and tires are Vittoria Open Corsa's at 320 TPI, which to me are pretty supple. The braking comes from a pair of KCNCs in red. This is one of the few brakes I have seen in the market that have some character in looks, are lightweight, and are very easy to adjust on the go. The bike was put together by Dennis Baldwin at the Elicottville Bike Shop, in Elicottville NY. Show him some love, ya'll!

As you can see, this bike is a medley of the classic and the latest in components. I like straight geometry and lines, and prefer curves mostly on my woman. The dashboard has no GPS or crazy computer systems. This is one of my pet peeves. I like to give my brain a workout and commit orientations, roads and street names to memory. If I get lost, I'll stop and ask a person which I feel is much better than having to stare into a dum computer screen on the saddle all day. Cadence? I'll just count. Miles? Who cares. Just ride.

In the end, beauty aside, I pedal this bike real hard and I expect to increase the size of my lungs, thighs and calves on it.

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6 My Ride

Since I'm not really sure of what to write on, I thought I'd let you know what I'm riding these days. I was busy at school with a lot of engineering work, but thanks to Shickluna bikes, they built some new components into what I was previously riding. I loved the bike then, I love the bike now. I rode about 3500 miles this season, with my limited time, and that includes two centuries. Hopefully, she'll come with me for a 100 mile ride in Cayuga, which we've been thinking about for a few days now.

The ride characteristics are good but depends a lot on the rider! If you dress well and you're upbeat, this baby will take you fast! I'm usually that way, so she has not disappointed me.

Specialized Allez, used it for 2 years, and since I've a special attachment to it, no I'm not going to carbon.

I'm old fasioned so I like Dura Ace 9 speed on her.

SRAM PG cassette, absolutely durable and decently lightweight

My pedestal, the loyal servant K-Force Light, nicely adorned with ceramic MEGAEXO outboard bearings

This is like a sofa, Selle Regal. She's so rare, she had to take a trip from Australia.

Zero gravity brakes are a fine piece, but I wouldn't say there any better than the brakes out there. Maybe this would do better with a set of BHP brakepads.

The beafy Zipp 145 stem

The medley of blue and silver Nokon cables delivers decent looks with smooth shifting

The handlebar tape is unique in itself, it plays in light, and is washable! I like to stand out a bit here and there...Nokon's deliver a clean look to the front.

Speedplay Ti Zeros, the next best thing after my shimano mountain pedals! No really, shimano's rock! :)

Cables and housing routed underneath the handlebar tape

USE Alient seatpost, very light and very strong. I've had no problems with it for a year. You should check out the clamping design, very unique, but they could put more thought into making disassembly easy. C'mon USE....

CateEye takes a shut-eye...she's a little..err..shy

Outboard bearings, a new thing in bottom bracket technology..sort of...

Cock-pit, rider-pit whatever...

The highly recommended racing set of Pro 2's with exceptional low rolling resistance...I think I wrote a post on these so check it out..

Bettini is not the only one to sleep with his bike in the hotel... shown here are my three bikes, a Trek fixie, a Bianchi steel for ultra long rides, and my race bike..if I only paid more attention to cleaning the room up..

Weight as built on my Ultimate Digital scale = 17.45 lbs. I'm pretty happy.

Thanks for looking. Leave a few comments if you'd like!

Happy weekend. Ci vediamo...