Yesterday I popped into the shop on my lunchbreak to see if we had any wheel bearings in stock. First thing I saw was a shiny new 53cm black Bianch 1885, partially built up in the middle of the shop. Hey, that’s mine!

Thanks to the kind bods at my real job I took some of the afternoon off to go build it up.

h3. The Build

The 2007 Campagnolo kit is amazing, especially the cut out skeleton brakes and the Ultra-Torque cranks. Not much to complain about, except the following…

  • White saddle and bartape. The white saddle isn’t so much of a problem, but there was no way I was putting the white bar tape on, it’d be mucky before I even rode on it.
  • Non-cartridge brake pads. These are normally a nice touch, especially on a road bike, but I guess I can always fit some when I wear out the current standard pads.
  • No pedals. Although it says in the spec there is no pedals, last years bikes came with pedals. Not a problem to buy some, but I did buy a set of Shimano road shoes specially.

Getting It Home

Since I need my Giant OCR to get around town, I didn’t really want to leave it in the shop, so I decided to take both home at the same time, pushing the Bianchi as I rode the Giant. Normally this isn’t a problem, but being dark and rush-hour, I walked until I could cycle on quiet cycle paths, and even then only went as far as Emma’s. I came the rest of the way home early this morning to avoid the traffic.

The Ride

Obviously I couldn’t wait till today to try it out, so I arranged to meet up with Vo to do some laps of Arthur’s Seat. Vo has a Bianchi, identical in all but size, on order, so he was pretty keen to see mine, and he certainly didn’t seem disappointed in how nice it was.

The first lap descent was a little hairy, as I was on a brand new bike that I needed to learn the nuances of. Steering is a lot sharper than the Giant, due to a steeper head angle and a 10mm shorter stem, but this is something I got used to pretty quickly. By the third lap I was pedalling madly down the descents instead of dragging the brakes as I did on the first.

On the climbs the bike is amazing. The 6lbs or so weight difference between it and my Giant was instantly noticable, as was the close ratio (10sp 12-25 as opposed to a 7sp 11-28) block. As soon as you stood up you could feel the bike accelerating.

I’ll have more to say on the bike once, I’ve ridden it a bit more, and hopefully some better photographs.