Hi All, Just found this page on this forum, though I would share my new purchase with everyone. I picked it up about a week before Christmas.... (Excuse the mess in the room) Image Unavailable, Please Login
Always nice to see an Italian bike with Campy components. Neat colour and interesting treatment on the dropouts. De Rosas are also sold locally but I haven't had the pleasure yet. What's it like?
I started a small cycling team MVP Cycling a few years ago and we finally won our first race!! My brother took first place and I finished 2sec behind. It was only a Cat 5 race, but it still feels good to win and nice to see him crush everyone on bikes that cost 10x as much MVP Cycling's First Win at the 2014 RIR Criterium Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi, Thanks. I agree an Italian bike without campagnolo isn't right. I think the bike is awesome, its stiff, smooth and really comfortable. This model, the Merak has been replaced by the Idol for this year. I have been thinking of getting a new bike for about a year and the Zipp wheels for longer than that. The complete bike, with the Zipps, that are a heavy wheel set weight 7.22Kgs- so with a light wheelset its a 7Kg bike (not that weight was that important to me). I think you should that one for a test ride.... Regards, Richard
LOL, looks like a lot of fun - good for you! I agree equipment doesn't substitute for lack of training or talent but it's also not our place to judge what other people enjoy. There's always someone stronger riding on lesser equipment than you are. What's important is that each person makes his/her best effort and is happy for other people who do the same. BTW… don't forget to draft.
Richard, your Merak looks like a great high-end all-rounder road bike, good for long rides, variable terrains/surfaces, just like my Dogma 2. The Zipp 60s are good aero wheels. However I must admit, I do compare weights of framesets, amongst other criteria, when selecting framesets intended for the same "riding envelope". I then match up the frameset with wheels appropriate for the riding I intend. I recently started biking again after a 30-year hiatus and picked up a few framesets/wheelsets that interest me. I like them all very much but am still getting accustomed to them as they are all very different, each frameset/wheelset for a different purpose. De Rosa makes several high end models and if I find one that strikes a chord I'll definitely bring a pair of wheels and do a test ride. OTOH… it would help to have some decent Spring weather to start with.
Hi, The only reason I don't weight everything, is that the biggest improvement I can make; is to ride more.... The range of frames are quite amazing, and its difficult to chose the correct bike. I was going to sell my Sworks Roubaix, however I am going to keep it as a classics rough surface / climbing bike- as you were mentioning with bikes for different types of riding.... I was going to by a Colnago, as I have a mid 1990's Colnago Master and have built it up with Campagnolo Record Titanium 9 speed of the correct era and have Campagnolo Atlanta 1996 wheelset... Cheers, Richard
Great stuff. Bikes are cool as cars. I raced MTB In Hawaii and PNW BITDs of rigid frames and primitive rockshocks. Nothing like modern equipment. Lost some gumption so the pot belly grows and the quads shrink! And the lungs are crap. Ah to be young again! Cheers- M Image Unavailable, Please Login
I think your Roubaix will come in very handy on cobbles and country roads and your steel-frame Colnago probably represents the apex of that era of bike design. We don't have cobbles in Canada but it is fairly flat and windy where I train, which is why I have a TMR01 in addition to my Dogma2. I agree it is ultimately more important for us to spend time on our bikes. OTOH, it is not mutually-exclusive to cycling fun to also be picky on design and configuration of our chosen bikes. I find bike design quite fascinating even if some of it is just a gimmick but weight is an important aspect of design which in turn affects bike-fitting. I substitute heavier wheels for training. I also try to pick framesets used on the pro circuits, so I can leverage their experience and gauge (how adequately or awfully) I perform on them in comparison.
Thanks, the Roubaix is lovely, with a really light wheelset- that I have never seen for sale, they are Mavic Ksyzium. I don't know any think about them apart from they have "SSC" on them which is Mavic's top racing line. What's a "TMR01"?? Yes, bike design is interesting, I like for example the new Pinarello forks that flow forward in the centre section (can't remember the name they call it) was originally a design feature of a brand called a Bates. A lot of bike are bought on look- I think. Cheers, Rich
Many of us raced on Mavic Gold rims 30 years ago. Mavic is an excellent make with lots of glorious French racing tradition. I'm not familiar with the SSC Ksyzium model but they currently sell 7 different Ksyzium models. Ksyzium wheels are highly regarded and I've seen them used on the pro tours. I stay mainly with Campagnolo equipment because I feel they have consistently topnotch engineering plus I'm sentimental about Campagnolo. Their CULT bearings are probably the best in the field - they don't even use grease. When you casually spin them you actually get very tired of waiting for them to stop spinning. The TMR01 is an "aero bike" made by BMC, a major Swiss maker. BMC has an American pro cycling team on the pro tours. One of their star riders, Cadel Evans, has been a perennial fixture. He's getting on now (debuted in the '96 Olympics) but still managed to convincingly win the GC for the TDF in 2011. Aero bikes are a newer type of bike designed for shorter, potentially windy, flat courses when the road surfaces are relatively smooth. BMC uses the TMR01 in time trials and criteriums in the prologue races in the Middle East (Dubai Tour, Tour of Qatar, etc.) where they have beautifully-paved new roads over flat, windy courses. BMC also equip domestiques with TMR01s to set punishing paces prior to critical points on certain stages during 1, 2 and 3 week-long tours. With aggressive geometry, extra stiffness and aerodynamic design, they are ideal for shorter, all-out efforts. The bike really wants to fly when you put any effort into it and you naturally ride as fast as you can in response. It's addictive and I use the bike to force me to work harder than I normally would. Good for speed work and natural intervals. I posted a photo of mine earlier in the thread. The TMR01 incorporates many state-of-the-art features that probably make it one of, if not the fastest road bike on the pro tours. Both brakes are integrated into the frame and present scant wind resistance. On this year's Dubai Tour, 2 BMC riders (Taylor Phinney and Stephen Cummings) beat all the 1st day time trial favourites (including Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara) by a very wide margin. I understand it was very windy. Phinney ended up winning the GC over the 4-day tour, because of his performance on Day 1. Cummings was second. The front forks on the Dogma are called "Onda", Spanish word for "wave" look like Salvardor Dali had worked them over. Here's my Dogma2 on my regular training wheels. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Something worth noting is that there are a lot of references here about "what pros use, etc." I can tell you first hand that some of the best equipment used in pro racing, and especially by Pro Tour teams, are not what they appear to be. There is a lot of marketing at work. I know that there is certain equipment that I (and a lot of other pros) refuse to use that is marketed pretty heavily through pro tour teams. I have clauses in all of my contracts that allow certain equipment preferences and I'm not alone. But everything I use does say what it's supposed to say and everyone is happy. Most of the best cycling equipment available are made by companies who spend so much money developing their products that they have no money for marketing and, especially not for sponsoring an entire pro tour team. If you only knew how much money it took for a bike manufacturer to sponsor a pro tour team, you would then know why some frames made to a certain level are priced as if they are made to a much higher level.
Thanks, with regards to the wheels, I have never seen Ksyziums for sale, I have seen Ksysiums and Ksyriums. Okay, I have never looked at BMC bicycles. I do like the black on black with red accents of your Pinarello. Yes, that's it Onda, I could not remember.... thanks.
Thanks for pointing out the different spellings. Perhaps Mavic intended the odd names to obfuscate. Actually, I realized I made the same assumption when I discussed my nephew's "Canyon" (German) road bike. His bike also had Ksyzium wheels. I suspect Ksyzium-model wheels are only found as OEM equipment on fully built bikes. That would explain why you have never seen the wheels on sale (on their own). Sometimes OEM equipment suppliers will use a different model name and modify their products slightly (different spokes, nipples, hubs, skewers, colour schemes) when they supply their products to bike makers. This makes it harder for buyers to break down the components and price shop by quoting the prices of (the same) wheels sold separately as upgrades. So I would say Ksyzium wheels are roughly comparable to the Ksyriums of similar specs. Campagnolo has 2 lines of similar wheels that share most of the same technologies but use different brand names: Campagnolo vs. Fulcrum. But in Campagnolo's case, they do it for a different reason, not for the sake of preventing price comparison of bikes.
Hmm, I think most people know what you are referring to but your manner of reference is unfair and takes my comments completely out of context. I will explain. People understand that when you perform (and hence, advertise) for a sponsor and promote their "stuff", you may not be performing on the "stuff" of your choice and the sponsor's "stuff" may well not be "the best" in your opinion. However in your comments, I'm not sure if you were trying to diss how I choose my equipment, diss Pinarello and BMC, or diss your (unnamed) race team sponsors who may have offended you at one time. Unfortunately, in the absence of qualifications from you, you seem to have accomplished all of the above. I would remind you there are no objective tests that conclusively show how one high end bike compares to all the others. There are simply far too many parameters, too many complex subjective interactions and more makes of bikes than we know of. IMO, it's enough to respect a person's choice of equipment, exploring and learning from the positive reasons for his favour. If we choose instead to be negative, there would be no end to senseless arguments and bad feelings. Why do I pick equipment used by the pros? I already said so - I'm trying to gauge how "adequately or awfully" I perform on them in comparison. I'm not comparing bikes, I'm comparing how depressingly far off my performance may be, using the same equipment as riders on the major pro tour teams. It helps me focus on what I need to work on the most. As for the Pinarello, I wasn't crazy about the "melted" look and it was my bike fitter who picked it because the geometry worked out the best and it's a proven great bike. Bradley Wiggins won his GC in the 2012 TDF on a Dogma 2 and only on the final stage in Paris, after his win was already in the bag, did he switch to the newer Dogma 65.1 because the Dogma 2 was a known performer while the latter, despite being the latest and of slightly higher spec, was not yet a known quantity. Similarly, I was considering a different aero bike but instead picked the TMR01 due to design, geometry and specs. I realized later it had indeed been very successful when deployed for the right reasons. It's only used sparingly on the pro tours. I like it because as I said, it makes me work harder than I normally would. It's really a watered-down TT bike. It may also be one of or the fastest road bike depending on conditions but it's not "better" than the Dogma or other road bikes. They are just different. Full-fledged TT bikes are also faster than road bikes but like the TMR01, they would get extremely uncomfortable after long rides, especially over rough and hilly roads. As for Really. You did previously mention doing promotional work for a bespoke bike maker so please understand why your comments (ironically) come across with a professional bias undertone. You would also appear to assume in a dismissive manner that I can't tell good equipment from over-priced equipment. How infinitely polite of you but I am not sure you would want to quote the price of your Parlee in this context. Perhaps instead you can simply share specific references on technologies, specs, anecdotes/ interesting stories/ videos relating to your favourite bikes. Instead of being judgmental, I prefer to just promote sharing of enthusiasm, interesting information on bikes and cycling rather than just: +1, yes, no, "yeah, me too", . At any rate, as a poor sod, I buy my bikes at very reasonable prices, even when I build them up from framesets. Of that, I do recommend.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I wasn't referring to you specifically, or "dissing" you. I was making a statement based on the general tone of some banter in the the thread. You did not make any specific claims that I saw about the "pros only use the best stuff," or anything like that. However, I saw that there was a tone (again, not by one person) about a preference towards pro equipment and I thought that it would be helpful to share something that might be a guiding light about that. You stated early in the thread that you ride Veloflex Corsa tires. Those are excellent tires and off the beaten track as far as tires go so you clearly don't just mindlessly choose equipment because it's cool or used by pros or whatever. You asked before about what equipment I choose and I only gave you a partial answer. I will answer a little more in depth so that you can get an idea. Almost all of my bikes are Parlees. I have twelve Parlees from over the years. I have only sold one and it was to a friend who really wanted it. My track bike is a Look 496 and it was a National Team Issue bike. I have Parlee track bikes but a few years ago in Italy, I was leading the Tre Giorni di Pordenone and my bike broke. I had to finish the race on a bike I borrowed from a cycling club of juniors. If I had a Look, then all of the national team mechanics had parts to swap onto it and I could have kept my bike instead of having to use a new one. So I took a Look 496 at that point and it's been with me ever since. I really do like it. For race wheels, I use LEW and Enve wheels but for training wheels, I use whatever is cheap and won't fall apart. I have found many high end "race wheels" to be lacking but I have hodgepodge of training wheels and just about all of them are pretty solid. Almost all of my road groups are Campagnolo. I have an electric group which gives me fits as the front derailleur doesn't want to work all the time but all of the bikes I do development and testing on come with Shimano. For some reason I don't want to switch from Campagnolo, even though the reliability of the Shimano's electric groups has been better. So does that make complete sense? Not really but I guess I have grown partial to Campagnolo. As far as manufacturers who have made me mad over the years, there is only one and I don't need to mention their name. They're still a popular brand, although the founders were ousted a few years back. One of my close friends runs a Pro Tour team that uses their bikes and I give him endless crap about it but he is always quick to remind me that money talks in cycling. Anyways, don't be offended as I wasn't singling you out. I just saw that this thread looked like it was heading to towards another "what do the pros use" thread and I thought a clarification was in order.
