I pulled the trigger on a new roadie this Saturday after having visited my LBS and being presented with a steal of a deal that I just couldn’t refuse. The idea was to keep the price “relatively low” while retaining all the essential qualities I wanted in a bike - a top quality drivetrain, and compact cranks to get my fat ass up the local mountains.
Cramerotti 7006 Al frame/fork
Campy Veloce 10 Group w/ triple front derailleur
Miche compact crank & bottom bracket - 172.5, 50/34
2005 Chorus (carbon) ergo levers
2004 Record long cage rear derailleur
Pics to follow, once it’s built up and I pick it up at the end of the week.
If anyone will have that frame, these guys will. I can say this with authority because the owner of Campione Cycles is none other than Giuseppe Cramerotti - the owner of Cramerotti Bicycles. I first learned this by accident when I grabbed a Cramerotti product booklet in the store and noticed that the guy in the book was the guy that handed me the book! This is also the reason why Campione is able to give such smokin’ deals on Cramerotti bicycles from time to time - they’re the factory store.
Guiseppe is a solid dude, and will hook you up right.
This isn’t the hardcore XXX DVDA stuff, it’s more akin to the Shannon Tweed movies of the late 80’s/early 90’s. Maybe the hot girl next door sunbathing in a bikini rather than strippers on the Riviera.
At any rate, I picked up me new roadie after work today and she’s sweet. It’s the first new bike I’ve bought in a long time, and I’m really excited to go out and ride tomorrow. The mechanic who built it came out to chat with me and mentioned that he wasn’t really busy, so he took a long time building it up and was really happy with the result. Apparently the triple front and long-cage rear derailleurs really work well with the 16 tooth gap of my compact crankset (34/50). I can’t wait to get this broken in.
The Bike:
The Miche compact crankset & Veloce triple derailleur:
The chain peg (maybe you have to be an old school geek to really dig this - I dunno):
Given the weather of late (piss poor), I was fully expecting my first ride to be a rain ride - so I was extremely happy to wake up to a beautiful sunny day. A gift from the bike gods.
I have never tuned 10spd before, and must say that it’s pretty finicky - but for brand-new, un-broken-in Campy, she shifts very well indeed. I was quite impressed! Made a few minor adjustments to the saddle/handlebar position, and took her out for a spin.
I LOVE IT!!! I have a buddy who I ride with regularly, who weighs about 50lbs less than I do. He’s a fairly high-cadence spinner, and leaves me for dead on all but extremely short and steep hills. Today I followed him up a hill that I normally lag quite far behind on, turning over my 50x21 with ease and sitting right on his wheel. I can’t attribute this to the compact crankset as I never utilized it. This had to be the fit and geometry of the bike. I’ve never owned an aluminum bike before, but didn’t find this one to be harsh at all (although it was a pretty short ride over good roads). The fit was excellent, although I’m going to swap the stem for a slightly shorter one - one of the benefits of buying local.
Overall, I am extremely happy with my new ride, and am SO glad I didn’t compromise and go for the Ultegra spec’ed 853 bike I saw on the 'net (although it would have been cheaper).
Candy (the Ghia) is my “high maintenance girlfriend”. This is largely why I refuse to have anything to do with (most) similarly high maintenance women. One hmg is more than enough for this cat.
I was very impressed indeed with your ride today. Very nice welds. I dig the peg and the pannier mount too. I don’t know if it was the bike or you, but you made me hurt today. Man you made me hurt.
Dude, you gotta make those pictures a little smaller! Good luck tuning that front der! Your experience with chain dropping is similar to mine, except your differential is 16t instead of 12t like my triple.
I’ll see you next weekend - and we’ll see if bob joins us…
I haven’t had time to even look at my derailleur, but I guess I should fix that before the weekend. If you’ve gotten your legs back and are feeling brave, maybe we should hook up w/ Simon et al on Saturday.
