Diary of a Mountain Biker

Date: 30th December 2007
Riders: Richard, Rob, Cas and Norton
Road Ride, local
Weather: 7.0°C

I'm not really sure if I should be writing about road riding on a site called 'diary of a mountain biker'. I suppose it demonstrates how my riding continues to change and progress over the 10 years or so since I have been riding seriously (and blogging my activities for you to read). And there I suppose is the nub of it; will you read it?

If you're still with me I may as well carry on. I have been riding the old steel Raleigh of circa 30 years vintage on my infrequent road rides over the last few years and used it to commute literally 1,000's of miles to work on it a few summers ago. Whilst it was ancient, it worked and although I dreamed of a nice new road bike, I didn't feel I could justify the expense to myself or my better half.

This was up until recently when my office introduced a 'Ride to Work' scheme and I took advantage of it to buy £700 of road bike to be paid back interest free over 12 months out of my pre-tax salary. That means that in reality I pay back circa £420.

So I dropped into Evanscycles in Gatwick and after some deliberation, taking advice from one of the staff (I know little about road bikes) and numerous test rides in the car park I chose a Bianchi C2C Via Nirone 7 Aluminium Mirage 10 speed 2008 Road Bike in a 61cm frame to suit my 6' 2" frame with the following spec:

Frame: TC08 Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Aluminium
Fork: FL5 Bianchi K-VID New Carbon Aluminium
Gears: Campagnolo Mirage QS front and Campagnolo Mirage 10speed rear derailleurs
Shifters: Campagnolo Mirage
Crankset: FSA Gossamer MegaExo cranks 53/39
Brakes: RC-466E-Forged Alloy Dual-Pivot caliper (Front+Rear)
Wheels: Ambrosio WS 23 rims built on Miche Racing front and rear hubs
Tyres: Michelin Dynamic 700x23c
Handlebar: RC HB-3038 Alloy 6061 round
Stem: RC DA-32 3D forged alloy
Saddle: San Marco Ponza
Seatpost: RC SP-928-G Carbon fiber
Pedals/Extras: Look KEO Easy Pedals

The Bianchi has been on my mind for a few years now, I love that peppermint green colour and the Italian styling. The 'campag' groupset also evokes memories of the Tour de France and provides a nice alternative to shimano, fanatics of course arguing that campag is far better than shimano (although I am neutral on this point at the moment).

The Campag Mirage shifters are sweet too. It's great to change gear with both hands on the bars unike the old style shifters on the downtube I had on my Raleigh. Another vast improvement over the Raleigh is the brakes. They are still canti-style but the dual-pivot caliper really gives them some bite and they have a nice little touch in the black cam switch that pulls the brake calipers apart for ease of wheel removal without removing or undoing the brakes.

It's also nice to see that road bikes now share a few common components with MTB's like;

The external bearing bottom bracket (FSA Mega Exo)
An A-head set (FSA ACB)
Oversized bars
4 bolt stem making handlebar removal simple

I'm not sure who developed these first (road or MTB) but I am sure someone will tell me.

So onto the riding. Not having been out for a while I was wandering how I would cope. Turns out I coped far better than Norton who was on a Specialized Allez Comp which he bought in October via the same scheme but didn't have any legs with him.

A great ride down the A217 and back along the A23 taking in some side roads on the way and a quick 40 miles covered in a decent time. (Don't worry, I have removed the wheel reflectors now!).