Modern Versus Vintage

Several years ago, one of the better British cycling magazines did a nice comparison of Vintage bikes and modern bikes. They did all the typical comparisons like weight, number of gear ratios and stiffness. I think it came as no surprise to any of the readers of their pages that the modern bike won.

There is a lot to be said however for vintage bicycles. There are so many wonderful things that are going for them. For example, Steel bicycles have a ride which truly is incomparable. They don't just mute the bumps, they spring with them. You can feel the bicycle respond under your legs and arms - In that regard, Carbon and most aluminum just feel 'dead'.

Next on the list is the character of vintage bikes. My Colnago was put together by somebody named Giuseppi or Giani, or some other name that ends in 'I'. Additionally, it was ridden by Beppo Saronni to the World Championships and the Giro D'italia title in the early 80's. How many bikes can make the same claim!

I'm a 'vintage' kind of guy, so for the last 9 months, I've ridden basically nothing but the Saronni.

Unfortunately, I have also gotten to the point that I can't keep up on group rides, not even with the B group. Thats my fault, not the bike's, but I could not keep up nonetheless.

Needing to change something up, I decided to get the modern bike out last week and got it back on the road. I really did enjoy it. I can feel the greater number of ratios when riding. Its not about a highest or lowest gear, but the ability to finely match your optimum cadence to the speed the group is riding.

When I showed up to the group ride, my friend Stacey made a comment to the effect that the modern bike would be much better to which I replied that our group ride did not have any climbs and that was really the only place that it made a difference.

Well, I have to give Stacey's comment some credence. While the bike was surely not the only factor, I was able to hang with the 'A' group for the first half of the ride, and stay with the 'B' group for the finish. This was the first time all summer I've been able to do that.

As I drove home in the cool air, I struggled to think of why I was able to do what I was not able to do the entire summer. Was it the great temperature, the great group I was with?

Then I began to think about the bike. With more closely spaced ratios, I was able to stick to my optimum cadence much more closely - that could have had an effect. Then something hit me which was not mentioned in that earlier British bike magazine article- Riding my Vellum with its brake/shift lever combos is essentially brainless. Need a slightly different ratio, its just an easy click away. Upshift, Downshift, it is just as easy.

Sometimes riding needs to be a brainless activity. Sometimes it should be an activity where only your legs and cardio system are involved. It really is that factor that makes cycling such a beneficial activity to our bodies and our minds. Ride the modern bike and turn off your mind and just follow the wheel in front of you as you sweat out the stress of the day or week.

That still leaves a big question - Which is the better bike? I'm sure you have an opinion, but I'm undecided. Both have their benefits and both suit at least one person, maybe more.

A Better Climbing Gear!

I've been hoping to find myself some better climbing cogs for the Colnago. With the rear end having 126 spacing, and the hub being a 126, I am pretty much limited to 6 or 7 speed. The Super Record derailleur also limits me to roughly a 26-28 tooth big cog.

After searching the 'bay for quite a while, I decided to call my buddy Charlie. Turns out he had several NOS freewheels in his stocks. Several Regina's and an NOS Suntour 14-26. The gearing and the price was right on the Suntour, so while its not Italian made, it had all the other right factors - including price!

I have not ridden it yet, but it seems to operate pretty well.

Success!

So, the other night, I got the chance to ride the new(old) wheels.

Needless to say, I love riding the new tubulars. They ride well, hold air much better than I expected, and corner beautifully.

I did my normal weekly group ride with the team and rode the Colnago. I was a bit slow, but that was not the bike's fault. Motor was the issue.... or lack of motor.

As I mentioned, the wheels handle and feel great. There are two issues however.....

First issue is that the freewheel has one semi-bad cog on it. That is preety easily beaten by buying a new freewheel, or even just the worn cog.

Second issue is not easily beaten, but is not that bad of an issue. The issue is that the brake tracks on these wheels are 'lumpy', and so the brakes pulse pretty violently when braking.

This all makes me want to build a new set with the Campag hubs and some nicer rims..........

Vintage Wheels Part Deux

When I left off with the new vintage wheels, I was ready to go ride them. I was excited at the prospect of riding tubulars on the road (which I've never done in 20+ years of riding on the road!)

I decided to go check them over and look over my gluing job. I was neat when I did the job, and so there really was not a lot of mess when done. Everything looked pretty good. I did the typical push on the sidewall test to check the strength of my gluing job and got a suprise..... The tire rolled right off.

Huge dissappointment! I looked over the job, and the tires were glued well in the 'valley' of the rim, but nothing out near the braking track. Desparate, I wicked more glue into the edges and put a 'come-a-long' strap around the tire/wheel combo and pressed the tire into the glue with all the force I could muster.

After leaving that setup for a week, I pulled off my impromptu clamp and gave her a try. After pumping up the tire to 100psi, it peeled right back up. Nothing was going to hold that tire in place.

I've since decided that Vittoria's design of pre-sealing the basetape with glue is a good and bad idea. Probably very good when the tires are fresh and the glue is pliable. However, over time, it appears that it begins to shrink a bit. The result is a sharp, pronounced Vee shape of the base tape.

I peeled the tires off and threw them in the trash.

That was a month or so ago.

This weekend, I went by my secret stash of tubulars and found a nice set of 23mm Continental Sprinters. They were/are in excellent shape and feel very pliable.

I opted this time to use Tufo tape. Its expensive, and according to the 'SlowTwitch' guys, it actually slows you down through 'hysterisis'. I don't know about this last claim, but I'm not exactly a fast dude, nor will I be racing crits or other races on this bike. I just train and have fun on it.

Frankly, as for installation, I'm totally sold on the Tufo tape. With as little time as I have these days, the quick installation was totally worth it! I'll ride it this week and will have to ring back later with impressions on how it performs in the short and long term.

Oh yeah... the weight weenie in me came out as I finished up the install - 36 spoke tubular wheels and an ancient Shimano 600 freewheel, and the bike weighs 19.98 pounds. Not bad for some vintage steel!

10.25ozs!!!!!!!!

Yup, I'm still a weight weenie, even though I'm not lightweight, I like my bikes to be (I used to be a flyweight rider)

So, to add to my previous post....

The new (Old) wheelset saves a total of 10.25ozs over the clincher wheelset it replaced.

Really a pretty interesting difference given that I went backwards about 10 years in the vintage of the wheels, and up by 4 spokes per wheel. Finally, the tires on both sets were Vittorias - Rubino clinchers and Evo Tubulars!

The end result is that the Colnago is now 19.25 lbs without pedals! Not half bad for a bike older than half the pros I watch on Versus!

177 Miles On A Vintage Bike

This past weekend was the annual Rock N Roll MS150 bicycle ride. The event goes from the Memphis, TN area to the Tunica MS casinos via a nice winding route. This was my 10th year participating in the event, and I've been lucky to be part of the ride committee for the past two years (not much participation on that team this year though).

My company sponsors our team, and even pays for jerseys for us to ride in. Pretty sweet deal! I also enjoy getting out and just riding for a whole weekend. Not training, Not racing, just riding.

So the weather for the weekend could not have been better. The temperature was perfect, the clouds were just enough to keep us from getting burnt, and the wind was pretty nice to us most of the time.

For this year, I elected to ride the Colnago Super I built this summer. At the beginning of the ride, I got a lot of looks from folks on carbon bikes. Their eyes said 'what is he doing out here with that old thing?'. Later in the ride, I started getting all sorts of comments from folks who really appreciated seeing a well maintained vintage bike. Over and over again, I told the story of finding it and the build. People were amazed that I had no trouble keeping up on a bike that was older than them.

The best compliment came when I pulled up along one of the LBS shop owners. As I rode up, he eyed the bike for a few hundred yards and said 'now that is a bike with class and character'. That made me feel real good.

One other fun detail of the weekend was day 1. On day one, they had an option for riding a century. I've never ridden a century in all my years riding (20+). Countless metric centuries, but never a regular Century. The weather was so good, I just had to go do it. I finished with a comfortable (not fast) time and headed to the banquet hall for some good food.

Day 2 was just as nice, but we only had a 75 mile option.

In the end, I rode 177 miles in two days. Definitely a personal record and one I'd like to duplicate next year.

Great Riding Bike!!!

Well, last week, I took the Colnago to my usual group ride out in Collierville. The usual suspects were there and they were ready to roll out hard. This group has been steadily getting up to about 20 to 21 mph and that pace is pretty hard for me....

The new bike definitely attracted attention. People were pretty impressed with its condition, and also with the fact I was going to ride it on the group ride.

We took off and I had no issues keeping up. My buddy Paul had warned me (from on board his Cervelo) that the downtube shifters would be an issue. They weren't. Frankly, I never once had an issue with shifting. I got 'the feel' of it quickly and had no issues whatsoever.

In the end, the thing that caused me the most trouble was the single bottle cage and its location. Its much lower than my other ride, so while reaching for my bottle, I managed to drop a bottle a mile from the finish and that kept me from finishing with the group.

Who says vintage bikes can't keep up with modern equipment!!!

Colnago Saronni completed!

I finished up the ride this weekend. I finally received the NOS 3ttt handlebars and promptly installed them. Of course mating the 3ttt stem to the bars of the same vintage meant that it all went together really well. I elected for modern Deda bar wrap instead of going with something like Benotto cellotape, but I'm glad I did as its pretty comfortable.

Setting up the brakes did not take much work as they were pretty much ready to go, and setting up the levers went well as well.

I'm a lifelong weight weenie, so I had to put it on the scale. Complete weight, ready to ride is 20.5lbs exactly. Not at all bad for a piece of vintage iron! And this is significantly lighter than any of the downtube shifter bikes I rode back in the day.

As soon as the bike was finished, a friend stopped by and we went out for a ride. The ride was initially cut short as I had not tightened the rear quick release enough and the wheel shifted on a short climb while under power. 1/2 mile later, the drive side BB cup started backing out, so we headed back to the shop to re-tighten that and locktite the cup in place. I knew better and should have done that during the initial build...

After correcting those minor problems we took off again on a quick 30 mile ride. The ride is everything I expected. Stiffer than the bikes that I rode when I was younger, but still much more comfort than the alu and carbon bikes I've ridden for the past 10 years. It climbs well and the gearing is fine for our local roads. I purposely made the cockpit 1cm shorter than my modern bike and that is plenty comfortable.

This is my first Campag equipped bike and I really do love it. Everything is so solid and smooth. I've not ridden a downtube shifter equipped bike since the mid-90's, but I adapted very quickly and had no problems with the shifts.

The only two negatives involve the brakes.... I expected the brakes would have very little power, and I definitely got what I expected. I'm going to order some modern blocks to fit the holders and keep enjoying it. The other issue is the hoods and non-aero levers. I'll get used to them, but the cable housings definitely throw me off....

No doubt, she's a keeper!

Colnago Saronni Super

Closer to done now.

This weekend, I finished all the component polishing and detailing. For every part, I've completely disassembled the part, cleaned it completely, polished it with mag polish and then rebuilt with appropriate grease.

The result is very nice. I strung up the bike and got the shifters working nicely. Everything shifts beautifully, and I really can't wait to ride it. All I lack now is a set of handlebars. I managed to snag a set of NOS 3TTT bars for the bike to go with the 3TTT stem I have already on the bike. With some white tape, I think it will look pretty good.

One other interesting detail is that this really is a replica bike. Colnago built this as a replica of Giuseppe Saronni's winning bike. He was a two time Giro winner, as well as winner of the World Championships.

A friend on RoadBikeReview.com sent me this link with pictures of Saronni's actual bike.....

http://i-vol.com/bikes/83_colnago_super-saronni/saronni_colnago_83.jpg