What A Machiiiiine

... with apologies to Jeremy Clarkson (it's often you'll hear that eh?).

First 15 miles on the Infinito today - first time that I've been further than the end of the next street.

Bright, crisp, breezy, main roads dry with dusty salt, some of the single tracks had a damp and slippery surface.

Whilst I read bike reviews with some enthusiasm (but not very often), I'm pretty skeptical about how much different each bike rides.  I can see how an hybrid in aluminium can be different to a road bike in steel, but would a full carbon bike really ride that much differently to an aluminium main triangle with carbon forks and seats stays?  From the same manufacturer?  Both built as sportive bikes?  Surely the differences are going to be subtle?

So why bother buying a carbon framed bike if you're skeptical?  Well, I have to admit that I appreciate the technology (even if I think my riding isn't capable of exploiting it), the Via Nirone is now 10 years old and to be very honest, I like the idea of the pleasure of owning a really nice piece of kit that very much looks the part!

I headed off in the 3 deg bright sunshine and quickly started to enjoy riding on the road again - been concentrating on the mountain biking in the Winter weather, so although we're already 6 weeks into 2013, this was my first road ride of the year.  DIY pressures meant that I only had about an hour and a wee bit to spare towards the end of the afternoon, so it was going to be short but sweet - hopefully.  First out of the box is the long steady climb up from Mold through Gwernymynydd



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and whilst I could feel the bike was a bit lighter, it didn't feel particularly special.  But then this is about 3 minutes into my ride, and it takes longer than that to get some warmth into the legs.  On the downhill towards Loggerheads I started to notice some differences - the quietness (and that's weird because the Via Nirone isn't rattly or anything), the responsiveness of the steering (without being twitchy) and I was into top gear somewhat quicker than usual.


Hitting the short sharp climb up from Loggerheads towards Cilcain,



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and I find this one a bit easier than usual - in fact, rather than just getting on with the climb, I feel the need to attack it and find that when I push harder the bike goes up the climb that bit quicker, and when I stand up in the pedals it doesn't make a small difference to forward progress, it makes a major difference.  This road is also suffering somewhat from surface crumbling which revealed another benefit - the ride is incredibly comfortable compared to aluminium, very cushy for my aging frame.  Oh, and the next climb up into Cilcain village felt much shorter than usual, and out the other side I found myself attacking the downhills aggressively too.  What fun!

So there you go.  Very happy.  Or justifying another mid-life crisis.  You choose.

The Via Nirone 7 is Dead - Long Live the Via Nirone 7!

About 3 months ago I ventured out of the boundaries of Chester and visited the very friendly folks at Eureka Cycles in what was, at the time, their brand new location.  The idea was to have a bike fitting and see if adjustments to the bike would easy the occasional lower back pain, frequent knee pain and the seeming inevitable pain between the shoulders.

They have a rig that measures an amazing number of parameters such as inside leg, shoulder width, torso width, torso length, reach (both arms separately) etc. etc.  That's then all pumped into a computer program along with the style of riding you're aiming for (mid-long distance sportives translate to sport endurance).  The program then prints a bike frame with a vast array of measures such as top tube length, stem height, bar width, saddle height, crank length, saddle position fore and aft, distance from saddle centre to bars (including stem length) etc. etc.

So we compare this against the Via Nirone and discover that I have the saddle height set within 5 mm of the recommendation and that the bars are within 2 mm of being the correct width.  From there it all goes a bit wrong.  Basically, although the 53cm semi-compact frame is big enough to provide correct saddle height, its woefully short in top tube length.  This is bad news!  We um and ah a bit (I'm sure Eureka would love to have sold me a shiny new Orbea or similar at this point!), but that's not currently an option.  I leave with a 120 mm stem with adjustable inclination.  It looks clunky and is pretty heavy, but we agreed that it would be good to give a few tweaks a try before buying a fixed stem.  We also made a significant adjustment in the position of the cleats on my shoes.

So that was the config I rode with for the Sportive out of Builth Wells noted below and the comfort was a major improvement.  Despite the amount of climbing involved, there were no lower back problems and the shoulder stiffness took a good bit longer to kick in.  And, importantly, no knee pains at all.  So based on that, I purchased a 130mm stem with a 10 degree rise (standard is 6mm) and put as many spacers as possible in underneath.  This was the config for the 100 mile sportive that I got through reasonably comfortably - no back pain, no knee pain, but still stiff across the shoulders.  So given the spend involved, pretty good improvements really.

So using the (some would say very bad for you!) helpful alerting system on ebay I've been watching out for frame options coming along at a reasonable price.  Lo and behold, last week a Alu Carbon via Nirone 7 came up only about 40 miles from home and it was a very similar spec to my existing bike but crucially has the 55 cm frame - one size up.  Won the auction for a reasonable amount and picked up the bike on Friday night last week.  It's not got such a high spec as my existing via Nirone and has done a few more miles.  Frame's in excellent condition though.

So set to it over the weekend and about 6-7 hours work has seen a complete strip down and rebuild of both bikes with every single component swapped over with the exception of the new frame's bottom bracket which was past its best.  So a new Campag BB has gone in too.  This means 2 complete via Nirones with the new one resplendent with its Xero wheels, later Bianchi X-Vid Carbon forks, carbon seat post and Pave etc. etc. are sat in the garage.  I have a couple of stems to work with on the new bike but already I have exactly correct measurements for saddle height, saddle fore and aft position and the reach from saddle centre to bars is now within 10mm or so of being per the computer recommendation (previously it was 110mm short!).

So now we'll have to see how it feels on the road - hoping for some good weather to find out next week.  And the smaller framed version will be up on eBay soon - hopefully all this can be achieved at virtually zero cost!  Fingers crossed.

Bianchi Via Nirone 7

Spec details:

• Frame Material: Bianchi hydroformed triple-butted aluminium semi-compact, carbon rear forks
• Front Fork Material: Bianchi carbon
• Approximate Weight (KG): 8.5
• Chainset: Campagnolo Mirage CT 50/39
• Frame Size: 53cm
• Frame Colour: Celeste and white
• Front Brake: Bianchi caliper
• Gear Shifters: Campagnolo Mirage combined with brake levers
• Handle Bars: ITM Lite Flite wing shaped alloy
• Headset: Cane Creek semi integrated cartridge bearing
• Hubs: Xero
• Number of Gears: 18
• Pedals: Shimano SPD dual sided
• Quick Release Wheels: yes
• Rear Brake: Bianchi caliper
• Rear Mech: Campagnolo Mirage 
• Chain: SRAM
  
• Rims: Xero XCR1
• Saddle: Fizik Pave
• Seatpost: Bianchi Alloy 27.2mm
• Stem: Bianchi 90 mm  Alloy
• Tyre size: 700 x 23c
• Tyres: Continental Gatorskin

Added Accessories:

• Computer: Cateye Micro wireless
• Saddle pack: Topeak 
• Bottle Cages: Bontrage white plastic

 Piccies:
 

Service History:

• Original tyres (can't remember what they were) went with the Bianchi wheels the Xeros are fitted with 700x23c Continental Gatorskins
• Original chainset was a Campagnolo Mirage full size which makes the hills to hard for me, so changed for a compact, along with the front mech
• Original Bianchi Ambrosio wheels swapped for the much faster and more rigid Xero XCR-1s
• June 2010 seat post upgraded to Ritchley Carbon pro
• July 2010 front forks replaced by later via Nirone 7 versions with k-vid vibration absorption and pro-lite 110mm 10deg stem added to assist with fit of the bike to me