oh my god....

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Thing 1 & Thing 2 & Thing 3

This started out as a thread with a cool bike, and ended up with an insanely cool one!

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Success is how far you you bounce back up after being knocked down

Since I purchased the Colnago I used it on several occasions, mainly on mountainbike courses. Riding it has been a real blast, on and off road. The 6 speed drivetrain fuctions much smoother than I imagined it would and the bike itself is fast as hell.

One thing is bit frustrating about the bike, namely the fact that it is a one of kind vintage bike in great condition. Why this is a problem? Because every time I crash (a couple of times so far) I keep asking myself why I am using such a lovely bike for this kind of riding. Although I didn't pay very much for the bike, it is easily worth three times what I paid for it. That is why I decided to go ahead with the initial plan of striping and building up the Diamant CX frame. When it is finished I will retire the Colnago.

I picked up the Diamant from the paint stripper yesterday and it looks quite nice actually. I plan to get it glass blasted really fine for an even smoother finish and finally I will have it clear coated.

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My Renovo R1 wooden bike project

Check it out: the most amazing vintage Colnago, Merckx and Pinarello collection

I sold the Colnago CX bike last week on eBay along with the Diamant frameset. Although I had big plans for the Diamant frame, it simply needed to much work to become what I wanted it to be.

In the meantime I have been riding a Campagnolo equipped Alan CX bike I bought recently. Since the frame is made out off aluminium I don't have to worry about rust. The groupset isn't really up to cyclocross use (slow shifting) unfortunately. Despite it being quite an old bike, I enjoy riding it a lot.

I guess that if you were to use the ALAN frame for CX use only it would be pretty much perfect. Because of the screwed and glued aluminium construction of the frame it is very durable and lightweight (unlike some Vitus frames out there). The fork is scary flexible, but somehow it has a great ability to soak up bumps. The downside of the fork is that is suffers terribly from brake shudder, especially on low speeds. This makes it very difficult to use it on technical mountainbike course section, which is where I just the bike for.

I plan to pick up a scandium Colnago CX bike in the next couple of days. I really looking forward to try this more modern CX bike

Tried so far:

- Colnago (Super?) CX | steel
- Diamant CX | steel
- ALAN CX | screwed and glued aluminium

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My Renovo R1 wooden bike project

Check it out: the most amazing vintage Colnago, Merckx and Pinarello collection

OMG! This Colnago is mind blowing! I would keep it in orginal shape tough...

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A light bike does replace good fitness.

I picked up the new Nago yesterday evening and I was pleasantly surprised by the condition it was in. It is a Colnago Cross scandium bike that was only sold for a short period of time. Of course the paint job looks awesome and the frame appears to be very well made.

I plan to take the bike apart this weekend and after that I will start looking for parts to put on the frame. The current groupset is a DA 7800 with DA 7900 cranks. Pretty cool, but a bit to fragile for the kind of riding I plant to use the frame for.

You may have come across the Colnago Master MTB that I initially purchased to replace the ALAN on CycleEXIF (http://www.cycleexif.com/colnago-master-mtb), but I haven't had the guts yet to ride it, since it looks so damn clean.

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My Renovo R1 wooden bike project

Check it out: the most amazing vintage Colnago, Merckx and Pinarello collection

I removed the parts of the Colnago Cross bike yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised with the weight of the frame and the fork. Although Colnago isn't exactly know for lightweight bikes, I think 1350g for a CX frame with CK headset installed is pretty good . The fork weighed in at just under 450g, which is also quite a bit lighter than I had expected. All in all a nice starting point for a lightweight CX bike.

The paint has unfortunately lost most of its shine, but I am not sure if I want to do anything about that just yet.

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My Renovo R1 wooden bike project

Check it out: the most amazing vintage Colnago, Merckx and Pinarello collection

Interesting opinion but you'd struggle to be more wrong...

Lovely Colnago by the way.

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Acceptable at a dance. Invaluable in a shipwreck.
www.rouleur.cc

I ended up keeping the ALAN Alu Cross after all. I decided to stick to my initial plan to make this a budget build and so I sold off all the other bikes and parts I purchased for this project. All but the groupset that came off the Diamant cross bike. You can see the end result below.

I did my first 50 km off road ride last weekend and everything worked like a charm. Some quick notes:

Headset: with the EDCO headset fork shudder has virtually disappeared.
Brakes: the Shimano LX cantilever brakes were very easy to set up and provide superb power and modulation, even though they are mated to drop bar levers.
Bars: the On One Midge bars are great for single trails, but did take a bit of getting used to.
Single front chainring: the chain has yet to drop and supplies smooth and silent running even in bad conditions.
Saddle: bad idea to put a leather Selle Italia Turbo on a cross bike! The combination of sand, water and constant rubbing has turned the smooth black surface into a suede like one.
Tires: the Schwalbe Smart Sam Cross tire is a good choice if you do both off and on road riding. It isn't as fast as a road tire on the road or as grippy as full on cx tire off road, but does combine both disciplines really well.

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My Renovo R1 wooden bike project

Check it out: the most amazing vintage Colnago, Merckx and Pinarello collection