Classic in name, not in status, just picked this up for a steal locally. Was about time I had a roadie again and means I won’t need to bastardise the Petrus with brakes.
199? Colnago Classic, mostly 9 speed Mirage groupset with Record brifters.
Rigida rims are a bit ‘meh’, Bonty tyres are gross, unknown huge ugly ergo bars and threadless adaptor stem gotta go (I think Cinelli crit bars, cinelli xa stem, H+ Son TB14s in hard ano and some hatorskins would get it about where I want it, constructive criticism welcome).
Anyway, just playing with what I have until I get a stem and bars (chasing up 26.4 Cinelli Giro d’Italia bar and appropriate quill stem locally at the moment, ordered some Hatorskins), flipped the yucky bonty stem and slipped on some Veloflex Corsas I had in the shed. Much better, no longer feels like a mountainbike…will be better again with another 10mm length in the stem and more traditional bars I reckon.
Yeah just flipped it where it should be, its still a little short though. If I miss out on the 26.4 giro bars I’ll just get a new 1A stem and reissue 26.0 giro bars I reckon.
So its much better with a decent stem and bars (Cinelli Giro D’Italia 64/44 bars and XA stem), plus some remedial work to the back wheel which while the rim was in good nick, was full of bodges (e.g. a smattering of random underlength black spokes and a couple of overlong zinc ones!).
Yellow tape is about to go the way of the dodo, was an experiment, will have Cinelli white kaleido tape before the week is out. New wheel build soon. Might try and find a polished Chorus aero post, in two minds about the black seat post.
Pedals were just for rolling around while I was setting it up, usually has SPDs on.
Really like this bike! Very comfortable and still quite responsive, handling is spot on. No lightweight but you don’t feel it. I see no great need to upgrade to anything more modern until 9 speed campy gets hard to find or the brifters flog out (in which case I’ll probably just 10 speed it).
Pleased to pick up a slightly tatty but usable Chorus post off ebay (needs a bit of cleanup around the top if I’m OCD about it, looks to me like someone has taken a shifter to it to free it from a frame), wound on some Cinelli Kaleido tape (and bought some gloves!). Its also had the ano polished off which is a bit of a shame… In the flesh the ‘tone’ of the polished aluminium isn’t as ‘blue’ compared to the milkier clear ano of everything else as it appears in the pictures.
Really liking this thing; more I ride it, the more I like it. Its no lightweight but its very responsive under power and the handling is really natural, that much was the same for my Specialized M2 Pro but the big difference is this is comfortable, doesn’t shake your fillings out and give you arm pump on descents.
Nicer pedals next…these cheap SPDs feel like ice for some reason (mind you the same model pedals on my tarck bike feel fine).
What happened with the stem exactly? The first pic has a clamp on stem whereas the second has a quill stem. Was there an adapter dropped all the way down under there? Aside from that I like how the seat has grown dirtier.
Yeah the white rolls is taking on a fair bit of pigment from my knicks and occasional commute rides in cotton shorts! Not too pleased about that but its broken in now so it will stay grubby or not. It had a quill adaptor yeah, a pretty unobtrusive one, and like a 90mm cheapo stem with a bunch of rise, was pretty weird.
So far changed out tyres, bar, stem, seatpost, tape. Had been serviced by the local Trek shop from the looks of things, so everything but the seatpost was Bontrager low end stuff. Ride it a few times a week, been flawless, just gets better.
