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Colnago CLX 3.0



 
 
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Old November 18th 18, 09:21 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
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Default Colnago CLX 3.0

I obtained a 2014 CLX frame, fork, headset and seatpost for a reasonable charge. The man who originally bought it partially assembled it to discover the bike was much too large for him (XL - 59+cm equivalent).

I assembled it mainly with Record components though finding a 10 speed Record rear derailleur was difficult and I got a Chorus. I haven't been able to get Campy to shift properly before. All of my previous experience was with used parts. It turns out that Campy shifters have a ratchet mechanism in them to go from gear to gear. This ratchet is somewhat soft and over time wears. So I bought a replacement ratchet mechanism and installed that and all of my shift problems disappeared.

Probikekit had sold out of last years Campy and Fulcrum wheels and so the low price wheels were gone at the time. I looked on Ebay for wheels and suddenly ran across these 50 mm deep carbon fiber clinch wheels. CHEAP! Half the price of a cheap Campy wheel or Fulcrum 3.

When they finally arrived they really were clinchers and not tubeless. There is a major and visible difference. The clincher rims have a semi-circular well while a tubeless rims have a deep center well and steps on each side for tubeless tires to seal properly on.

I wanted to mount 28 mm tires on the bike since they worked outstanding on my Time VX Elite but they wouldn't fit. So I got a set of Vittoria Corsa G+ 25 mm tires and mounted those.

Now the riding: the new carbon fiber bikes have changed their frame layouts quite a bit. Instead of sharp changes from tube to tube they use spread out changes that spread the forces over a much larger area. The effects of this is that the frames DO NOT flex in any other direction but vertically.

The bike without seat pack and water bottle is 17.5 lbs and with 20.5 lbs. You can't really tell the weight difference between this and, say, my Basso Lotto which weighs in complete at 24 lbs. You can barely tell a weight difference on a hard climb and it certainly should not be enough to determine what sort of material your frame should be made of. You CAN get custom steel frame about the same weight.

Coming down Redwood road in a southerly direction I normally hit 32-35 mph. There is a series of sharp turns including one with a "Slow to 20" sign. Normally on all of my other bikes I would set up and require the entire lane to make these turns at the speed I'm going and it would be pretty scary in some areas because of bad patching on the roads making hard bumps where you're trying to set up for the next turn.

With the Colnago none of that is necessary. The bike rides around the corner almost as well as it goes straight. I don't know what percentage of that is from the frame/fork and what percentage is from these really great tires from Vittoria but it is absolutely amazing.

On Palomares I have to be careful not to exceed 50 mph since there are enough driveways on the steep downhill that you have to be able to avoid or slow for exiting traffic that doesn't look at all.

The deep aero wheels are also a surprise. We had some very high gusty winds that were hitting 72 mph at the nearly 4,000 ft peak of Mt. Diablo and 40 mph at ground level. These winds were clocking all around the compass so you couldn't tell what direction they were coming from next. These aero sections are nearly perfect which means that they do not respond to these side gusts any differently than the shallow section wheels like my Campy Nucleons or Protons.

There is another point - I could have ordered better hubs with ceramic bearings in them but opted for the bottom quality hubs. After 500 miles to wear the sealed bearings in I can flip the front wheel and come back a couple of minutes later and it is still rolling. Normal wheels I've used before would roll for maybe 20-30 seconds.

Now you have to be aware that you CANNOT use rubber brake pads. These will overheat and burn the carbon fiber rims on the brake track causing complete failure of the wheels. You have to use Basalt braking pads. These cause hardly any wear but because they are soft they wear pretty rapidly and have to be replaced often. After 500 miles I'm about to install new ones. This bike would not mount disks and I don't like disks anyway. They also have the problem of wearing out the brake pads rapidly. And if they make the brake pads stronger they burn out the disks. Also disks are highly sensitive to grease etc. on their surfaces.

All in all after some 500 miles and perhaps 40,000 ft of climbing I cannot say enough about this combination of parts. If you're considering buying a new bike think about this sort of setup.
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