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I’d suggest trying a lot of
I’d suggest trying a lot of bikes before you buy. My cycling history is littered with bikes I thought I’d love, and ended up hating.
As @kev-s says, Colnago
As @kev-s says, Colnago sizing is based on the seat tube c-c measurement. So their sloping sizes sound much smaller than they are. Check the geometry charts and try it out before you make an expensive mistake.
Weight isn’t that important,
Weight isn’t that important, within a few hundred grams anyway.
Stiffness is what counts. To my surprise I consistenly record faster times on my heavier, stiffer bike than the lightweight rocket.
Get the C60.
If you want Athena 11 speed
If you want Athena 11 speed for the rest, I’d go for a Campagnolo Chorus 10-speed square taper crank from 1999 on (the ‘Record Titanium’ era). If you can get a French thread BB in 103mm axle length, that should suit the crank. It will look right with 11 speed Athena, and it should work perfectly, as the differences between 10 and 11 speed front cranks are minute. There are plenty of them about; mine cost £30 in near mint condition off Ebay.
The Racing 3 at 1545g
The Racing 3 at 1545g measured is a brilliant set of hoops. Around £300 so you save some money too!
Otherwise I’d go for handbuilts, lighter, stronger and easily repairable/rebuildable. Try Cycle Clinic who have a comprehensive range including 1200g wheels for the price of those Racing Zero Nites!
Ride to work slow enough not
Ride to work slow enough not to get stinky, ride home fast.
Someone in ROI needs to start
Someone in ROI needs to start a forwarding service to the UK! Come on, business opportunity for an enterprising bike enthusiast. Or you can go and pick it up there and take the ferry and train home.
Just fitted my Infinito with Di2It’s still upside down!
I’ve got all three. The ride
I’ve got all three. The ride on a steel bike is creamy smooth. It feels alive. The aluminium bike is brutally stiff and efficient, with the ride damped by the carbon fork and carbon seatpost. The carbon bike has a lovely smooth ride, but feels a bit damp, rather than alive, though if you give it loads of welly it comes alive like the aluminium bike.
So I’d probably recommend the steel bike for pootling and longer rides, the aluminium bike for quick blasts, and the carbon bike for longer fast rides.
+1 for vinegar. Quick,
+1 for vinegar. Quick, effective and cheap.
You can get an Athena 11
You can get an Athena 11 speed full groupset on sale at Wiggle for £379.99, see http://www.wiggle.co.uk/campagnolo-athena-alloy-11-speed-groupset/
I bought a new Bianchi Sempre
I bought a new Bianchi Sempre Pro frame in the end of summer sales, before realising that it had the dreaded BB30 press fit bottom bracket. I wasn’t going to put myself through the torment of a creaking BB so purchased a Campy-compatible Praxis Works BB30 conversion kit for £59 from GB Cycles. It came with a plastic sleeve for PF30s, which I put aside, and I got my bottom bracket press ready.
The easy part is putting in the left press-fit sleeve. Then you have to screw the right hand (drive) side cup into the left hand sleeve to expand the collet tightly into the BB30 shell. This started fine and easily achieved with two BB tools, until the collet started to expand into the Bianchi’s heavy gauge aluminium BB shell. Tightening to the required tolerance – so that the crank halves could be torqued to the required torque without binding on the Praxis cups – required huge amounts of effort, a continuous torque of about 60Nm, according to my torque wrench. Praxis’s very good instructions say not to compress the rubber O-ring on the left, but by the time I could fit the crank halves without the crank binding on the Praxis BB cups, the O-ring was fairly compressed.
I suppose the Bianchi BB shell may have been slightly wider than specification, but it was worrying to have to tighten the Praxis Works so hard – so tight in fact, that I had to use the BB press to stop the BB tool coming off the end of the BB.Once fitted, and 100 miles under the belt, there have been no noises at all, but I was left wondering whether this kit is the final answer. It felt wrong to be expanding alloy into alloy so hard, and I felt that it could easily have distorted the original BB shell if I’d gone further. So, it’s a qualified succes: No creaks, but at what cost to the frame?
Oh, and no luck if you want to use Super Record, or Veloce, because Praxis don’t make the adaptors you need for them.
Yeah, I don’t get anything
Yeah, I don’t get anything from Road.cc since the update.
Go for the Canyon, they are
Go for the Canyon, they are absolutely brilliant bikes.
If you’re willing to consider
If you’re willing to consider alternatives to Castelli, the Giordana FR-C is absolutely brilliant, though you’ll need a base layer under it.