Big week for me .....

[NathanM26]

And it only took you 6 minutes from your last post! Practice makes perfect.

Bike looks lovely!

N

[Ashley Webster]

Nice bike Mike but you need to something about the moss on your drive.

[chris bagust]

Good stuff......I'm getting my bit of British steel shotblasted & resprayed when I sell my house!

[Pete Appleby 3]

I did it!!!Attachment 586

Didnt mean the bike meant the women

Bikes not bad though

[Greg Quinn]

Very nice indeed

[puddings]

Disappointed you didn't align the tyre labels correctly Mike - I expected better from a traditionalist!

[oldnick]

MAB, those all black rims take me back

My Mavic tub rims (can't remember what they were, 28 spoke and the lightest I could find 20 odd years ago) were gorgeous as they wore beside each spoke, olds cool!

[coolboarder]

Very nice Mike, more than a passing resemblance in looks, frame geometry and materials, and equipment to my Thorn. Let us know how the Centaur levers perform, I replaced my alloy Chorus levers with Centaur Carbon when the right shifter wore out after just 9 years and replaced Centaur with Centaur last summer when a non-replaceable spring broke in the right hand shifter just a couple of months out of the 2 year warranty. One thing that has bugged me with all three is that despite regular maintenance and lubrication the shifters jam fairly frequently (the latest set is the worst), especially the thumb lever on the left one and it takes a lot of coercion and clicking that and the other lever to un-jam it. For an item of such beauty and engineering perfection this is irritating to say the least and is trying my loyalty to Vicenza to the limit. I may go the dark side and switch allegiance to Japan with my next bike project which would be heresy I admit.

[Mike the bike]

Your experience of Campag' stuff seems to be deteriorating cb. Although to be fair, nine years of faithful service from your Chorus sounds just about acceptable to me.
Are you sure that Centaur spring was non-replaceable? I know a man who boasts he can fix any problems, regardless of which generation equipment is involved. My own levers are behaving well, if a little stiffly in these early days. I'm sure they will soon move like silk across a virgin's thigh.

To be honest I haven't ridden my new beastie very much, the weather has been foul and I resolutely refuse to get her dirty. The few riders I have encountered on my travels all seemed to like my bike; but they were all older guys like myself and probably yearning for their youth.

Talking of the dark side, I was cleaning my Boardman hybrid yesterday and got to thinking about its mid-range SRAM groupset. I have covered about 14000 miles on it, in all weathers and over some dreadful roads. The rear derailleur bears the scars of a dozen prangs, the levers have never been lubed and apart from one new cassette and chain it is totally original. It has never let me down, never missed a gear change and still feels tight. And all for £500. Marvellous.

But it just ain't Campag' and never can be.