La Mitica 2025

 La Mitica 2025

We missed this last year, choosing instead to see LeTour in Bologna, so we were determined to be there this year, despite Zio Lorenzo's recent health issues and the record heat.

We flew to Milan, rented a car and zoomed off to our old home-base Hotel Ariotto. The next day our old friends and former clients Don and Cindy arrived. They'd ridden La Mitica with us back-in-the-day so we left them to ride around Monferrato and enjoy lunch.

Sadly, the record heat really cooked us both..so much that we walked the famous Rampina climb near the end, pausing under bits of shade along the way. After taking a break at the ristoro at the top, neither of us savored the idea of the steep 3+ kilometers to go, so we hitched a ride with a local lady in her beat-up Fiat. We left the bikes at the aid station and came back for them once we got the car at the finish in Castellania. Since we walked over the finish line and didn't ride the entire route, we skipped the pasta party and awards ceremony.

Because of all that we're posting photos of interesting bikes with names we've never heard of. The plan was to get more details on them post-ride, but that didn't happen. If you have details, share them in the comments.

PELOSO

ZAPIER

 PAGANI

                                                

                                                                           CALDARO

?

                    

                                                                              LEONE

                                                                           MAGGIONI

FIORELLI

                                                                        BIANCHINI

?

GANNA

?

LEGNANO (fairly well known, but pretty)

DINO CHIESA

?

Then there's Zio's GIOS. The history of this bike is it was built by the maestro Giuseppe Pella for the DREHER cycling team. When Dreher pulled out, the team continued as BROOKLYN and some of their team bikes were simply repainted in the classic blue. This is one of those. If you've seen the classic "Sunday in Hell" documentary, you've seen Aldo Gios in action with this team.

Mille Grazie to Pietro Cordelli and his amazing crew! La Mitica continues to be our favorite vintage rally, though perhaps it needs to happen in a cooler period of the year?

Letter to Vicenza

Cara Vicenza (Dear Vicenza)

Clock in the shop. Clock movement long gone

I loved you Vicenza (hometown of Campagnolo, but let's pretend she's a beautiful Italian woman and Vicenza's her first name, OK?) I really did. The first time I rode a pro-quality bike with your Nuovo Record components I came back to the shop saying "I don't like this bike but I love the components." after first trying a bike I liked with Shimano parts that I didn't. The bike shop guy said they could build me something so I put a deposit down on a Swiss-made Mondia (Reynolds 531) with Campagnolo Nuovo Record parts, Fiamme red-label tubular rims and a Selle Italia Turbo saddle. 

Was I biased? Perhaps, as my first quality bike (meaning one without a one-piece steel crank and Schwinn on the downtube) came with then-new Shimano 600 parts, the newfangled "cassette" rear hub promptly failing with nobody seeming to care about warranty/repair. I caved-in and bought another rear wheel and screw-on freewheel but never had much love for Shimano from that point on.

But this Italian stuff was only gorgeous, it worked very well after a short break-in period. Later when I worked in bike retail the shop joke was "Shimano wears-out. Campagnolo wears-in." 

It was true back then, especially after I spent 2-3 days in a Campagnolo Technical Seminar (still have the certificate of completion, shown above) while working in a Southern California bike shop.

It was still true when the bike tour company we worked for received some Campagnolo groupsets as part of a promo deal yours truly was instrumental in creating. We got their new-fangled "Ergopower" 8-speed groupsets with triple cranksets to get us up the Passo Mortirolo, etc. Some of those parts from 3+ decades ago are still in-service on our vintage bikes!

4 decades old and still going

A few boxes from when Campagnolo meant Made-in-Italy

It was still true when we created CycleItalia and needed a rental bike fleet. Our friend at Torelli provided some beautiful, tricolore versions of their Gran Sasso bicycle with Campagnolo's Mirage 9-speed triple groupset. One of those bikes is still in-service as my winter bike, complete with the original cables!

Still going strong after 2 decades

Still true when we added more bikes as the years went by and we needed more modern machines to please our clients. Every one was Campagnolo-equipped, I even had to argue/insist on this with our carbon bikes as the maker previously had nothing to do with Vicenza. Once they met he seemed a bit smitten too.

It was still true when I bought an EKAR-equipped gravel bike a few months ago.

But I'll admit to feeling a bit cheated-on years earlier when unboxing a set of cantilever brakes for a 'cross bike. Made-in-Taiwan by Tektro!!! Part of a 'cross groupset Vicenza was selling back before gravel bikes pushed 'cross off the "newest-latest-coolest" list.

I tried to ignore it and tried to ignore it again when the brakes on Vicenza's new Centaur and Potenza groupsets were so obviously Tektro products and so certainly NOT Made-in-Italy. Sure, they worked just fine, but....  

We touched on this HERE.

But I can't ignore it any longer -- it seems Vicenza has dumped me and moved to Taiwan. Despite my fidelity, she's gone. 

Am I sad? Certainly!

Vicenza's gravel groupsets, EKAR and EKAR GT seem to have a lot of Made-in-Taiwan components based on the labels on the spare parts boxes arriving here. Hard to believe it's only the brake parts. They originally admitted to working with Magura on their hydraulic stuff but obviously are having it made now by Tektro. Their hydraulic fluid color changed from blue to red like Shimano's. How much of the rest of their groupsets are Made-in-Italy rather than just designed and boxed there?

The romance is over now, especially since I've been riding a bike with Shimano's GRX groupset. All of this new gravel stuff is rather ugly, especially in boring matte-black, but GRX works pretty well in direct comparison to EKAR, based on back-to-back comparison rides done recently.

This all makes me wonder how long Campy-fans, not to mention those new to the sport will continue to pay a premium price for component groups made-in-Asia with Campagnolo's brand-name on them vs products from the same place that work just as well but cost less but have names on them that begin with "S"?

It's interesting to note the famous Q/R skewer, (the thing in the center of the clock in the photo, the invention of Tullio Campagnolo that legend has it launched his company) has been rendered obsolete with the adoption of screw-in "thru-axles" made necessary by disc brakes.

Rumor has it the petro-sheiks that bought Colnago recently also wanted to add Campagnolo, but the privately-held firm wouldn't sell. Rumors go on to point out the UAE pro cycling team on Colnago bikes no longer uses Campagnolo components.

And now that Vicenza has "dumped" me, I'll certainly think twice about what components will go on my next bicycle.

Arrivederci Vicenza, it was great while it lasted! 

A proper handlebar at last!

 Arrivederci FSA!

A proper handlebar at last! Zio Lorenzo tried to like the OEM spec'd FSA K-WING carbon handlebar, he really did! Especially when he thought about the PITA involved in changing it.

But after a couple of months and more than 1000 kms of trying he caved-in and ordered a more normal-shaped aluminum road bend handlebar by Ritchey. Heather likes their 31 mm bars OK as they have a reasonable shape and bend while Zio ordered the same FSA model stem but 10 cm vs the shorty OEM 7 cm. The hoses/cables/wires are no longer inside the stem (or bar), instead under a plastic cover that fits under the stem and under the bar tape. Does it really look all that untidy? Not to Zio!

The bike looks a lot more "normal" now, but the real benefit is the change in position. The distance from the tip of the saddle to the center of the handlebar is now Zio's normal spec while when he's down on the drops the front hub is hidden from view, just as they used to tell us was proper back-in-the-day.

Not too ugly, eh? Zio decided not to cut the steerer tube when he removed the 2 cm of spacers underneath, at least for now. But he's really liking the lowered bars despite them still being higher than normal due to modern frame design with higher headtubes and sloping top tubes.

An old-time round style top-cap and spacers ABOVE the stem don't look too bad, do they?

This was Zio's first project like this. He dreaded pulling hoses/cables/wires out of the insides of a bar and stem. It threatened to be a lot of work...and it was! The e-shifter wires had to be unplugged (once the plugs were finally found, deep inside the frame'a toptube!) and then snaked back through headtube and frame to be reconnected. 

The brake hoses have banjo-type fittings at the brake lever and Zio feared they wouldn't fit through the holes in the bar, but fortunately he was wrong, but they still had to be disconnected, which meant a time-consuming brake-bleeding session was required to finish-up. 

Meanwhile, the shift cable inner wire had to come out of it's housing so it too could be yanked out of the bar, then replaced, the entire time with Zio sort-of holding his breath as he pushed the inner cable back through all that housing - through the entire frame, hoping it would pop out rather than get stuck and frayed, requiring replacement with a new one. 

Super-duper, extra-slick cables are needed (Campagnolo call's 'em "Maximum Smoothness" which sounds like a men's shaving product) to deal with all the twists, turns and bends required for internal routing and the replacement cable/housing for this bike costs $100!

Zio breathed a sigh of relief when the cable popped out in good shape, especially as the super-slick aftermarket replacement (he forgot to order with stem/bar) wasn't going to arrive for a few days. From that point it was just running everything along the handlebar, then under the stem (where the extra wiring that didn't like being stuffed back into the headtube was coiled-up) where it's all hidden by a plastic cover. 

Zio had saved the original bar tape when he switched to the red cork (which didn't come off in one piece) to match the red SMP Glider saddle he tried before going back to the white Plus, so it went back on, easily covering the simple round bar vs the extra surface of the multi-shaped FSA thing.

The bike now fits properly. Zio likes the less flexy feeling with hands down in the drops along with the general shape and feel he's familiar with. The levers are no longer slanted/tilted/skewed, though it's unfashionable for sure. 

This damn near all-day project certainly would go more quickly next time, but even then it would likely still be a half-day project. But now with everything under the bar tape or under the stem cover, unless something goes wrong inside the headtube, any repairs or parts changes should be quick and easy in comparison!!

Best of all, when he hops on this bike it feels pretty much like his other bikes...finally!!!

 

 

FSA Carbon Handlebar

 What were they thinking?

With this handlebar? This thing was spec'd on Zio's new e-gravel bike.

This and the stem are the only things he really dislikes. He understands that "gravel" means ya gotta have a flared handlebar, but this thing? Really?

If you look at the linked page, you can scroll around the image and see all the "features" of this carbon-fiber masterpiece. From the odd hexagon shape on the drops, the strange depressions where top turns into drop, the 5 mm of rise (so you can leave a 5 mm spacer off under your stem?) the forward sweep of the top, plus the "wing" shape that gives the bar its name.

For Zio Lorenzo, every one of these "features" is really a "bug". He'd much, much rather have a simple round (aluminum) drop bar in a reasonable width rather than this crazy thing with an MSRP of over $300! 

The wing shape might look good and make one think it's maybe more "aero" than a round tube, but what about a place to put your hands? It's a HANDLEbar after all! The pros don't even bother taping this part so I guess they never hold-on there, especially without gloves? Even taped, the flat part close to the forward curve feels OK when your palms are flat on it but when you cup 'em a bit the edge of the "wing" made Zio think about sticking some foam padding around it as he did to fill up that odd depression near this area.

What good is the forward sweep? Zio sees no + here, in fact it feels kind-of odd after decades of a straight section on the bar top. Holding-on there skews your elbows out or forces an odd twist in your wrist. Same with the tiny 5 mm of rise...the point is? More "shaping" = more "value"?

Worse, the bike's product manager spec'd it with a stem of just 8 cm! This makes the steering more sensitive than Zio likes, though the odd-shaped bar does put his hands where he wants 'em on the brake hoods and kinda/sorta on the tops (despite the silly forward sweep) though that same shorty stem means hands down on drops is too short...and too wide thanks to the flare. 

These drop are not just flared-out side-to-side but also oddly twisted so they again push your elbows out. Why? The old "hands on drops, front hub invisible" rule still applies for him but the reach to the drops is too short for that.

You might say "You're a mechanic, just swap 'em out!" and with our Bianchi e-bikes it was easy as the hoses/cables exit the frame and then run under the stem and handlebar tape. 

But MV (again in the fashion of the day, just like the too wide and flared-out bar) put all the brake hoses and cables inside both stem and bar, not just inside the frame. Grrrr! This means opening up perfectly functioning front/rear hydraulic brake systems to get the hoses out along with the single shift cable and the wiring for the remote e-shifters!!! 

This means bleeding both front and rear brakes once the hoses are re-routed and Ergopower units installed on a new handlebar, re-inserting a shift cable that one hopes isn't too frayed to go back in and then reconnecting the e-shift button wires.

A longer replacement stem of the same brand/type would allow the hoses, etc. to be run up to and under the stem (through a removable cover) where they can then be run along the outside of the bar/under the tape like back-in-the-day, but what a PITA, not to mention the little bits (called olives) that seal the brake hoses probably will need to be replaced in the process. 

Zio gets tired just typing this! He really didn't want to tear this bike all apart before he'd even ridden it, though if he was able to see (and measure) a size S and M in-person he would have chosen S instead of M and asked the selling dealer to swap the bar/stem. But "that ship's sailed" as they say so for now "it is what it is" (as they also say) but he's almost hoping for another excuse to take the brake systems apart so he can swap the bar/stem in the process!

One other gripe - the 40 mm "aero" wheels. Combined with a 38 mm slick tire, Zio thinks they present too much area for swirling winds to blow against, making fast descending a bit sketchy so far. Maybe that longer stem will help? Perhaps the weight distribution with bars too high and reach too short causes this? Swapping wheels with a motor built into the rear wheel's not gonna happen...but if none of the other changes help, perhaps a lower profile front wheel would help?

Otherwise he's liking the bike - the fat tires make it so he doesn't have to ride the cracked roads of Sicily with one eye always looking down instead of where he's going, the Campagnolo EKAR groupset works well with adequate gearing (some say the 40 tooth chainring's too small but 40 X 9's tall enough as a top gear for Zio) and the rest of the bike seems just fine. 

The electric "granny gear" is nice too, he's decided to bump assist from 0 to 1 any time he's in a really low gear and would have been using the small 30 tooth front chainring on his "acoustic" (as they call 'em now) bikes. He's still hauling the battery and motor around even when not using 'em and they weigh a good deal more than an inner triple chainring and the bits that go with that - so WTF not?

 Handling both on and off pavement is good, but should be even better with a slightly longer stem...maybe 10 cm? Combined with a normal bar (no sweep, flare, rise) he'd probably be exactly where he wants to be position-wise.

So be careful with sizing! Seems like a lot of bikes are spec'd like this nowadays. Both the selling dealer and MV were consulted and supplied with Zio's exact measurements. He asked about XS vs S but both insisted M was the correct size. MV's geometry chart didn't much help so against his better judgement (which might have worked out for the best as the S size would have been worse with it's shorter top tube and shorty stem) he took their advice and went with M. That's one of the risks of online vs in-person purchasing (there was no dealer in the island of Sicily that had these in-stock..as it turns out neither did the dealer in Rome Zio bought this one from!) but he'd have for sure had to endure the PITA swap of bar/stem on the S so maybe he's better off than he knows?

Fixed!

 -MV-AGUSTA E-Gravel Bike

Fixed! Cancer-stick related logo covered!

You almost can't tell with the white background strip

Now the bike looks like it should, right? In a perfect world a -MV-Agusta would be red/silver like the ones Giacomo Agostini raced on, but Zio's not gonna take this thing apart and send it out for a repaint! Maybe a red SMP Glider saddle with red bar tape to match will liven things up? Check back, tape's on-the-way and saddle already here - see below.

The proper colors for MV, forget that cancer-stick livery!

The last MV Agusta Zio rode.

He's getting used-to the flared and aero-shaped carbon handlebar along with the more upright position on this bike. Getting close to real geezer-hood he's probably doing his back some good with less bending over so much? And disconnecting, rerouting and bleeding hydro brakes along with fishing a shift cable out to change handlebars isn't getting any more attractive vs living-with the current bar/stem. 

Almost 500 kilometers on it now, including a steep climb and twisty descent - gearing is adequate and assist level 1 seems to compensate for the extra weight of the bike when things get steep. Going down, response is good, no "desert-sled" sluggishness but the fat slicks and disc brakes will take some getting used-to. 

There's still more than 40% of the original battery charge remaining, so the "range-anxiety" expressed by many who obsess over 250 Wh vs 350 battery in the downtube or extra batteries mounted in the 2nd bottle cage makes Zio scratch his head. What kind of rides are these folks thinking about? Is it the old idea where the guy must have a Ford F150 pickup truck for the 2 times each year he has to haul 4 X 8 sheets of plywood vs the 363 other days of the year when it's just him and his lunchbox?

Overall, since the e-gravel-bike offerings with both MAHLE X20 and Campagnolo EKAR were so slim the MV has worked out to be a good choice for this old man. Don't think of an e-bike as "cheating" but rather something to let you tackle rides you might no longer feel up for. If you don't use any (or much) of the e-assist, more power to you! But you know it's there just-in-case, so you can set out worry-free!

Better? Needs some darker red bar tape Zio thinks, but a big improvement overall.

And now it has a proper headtube decal. A more simple black version might have looked better but Zio's always been enamored with the original, full-color version. Back in the day his friend's moto's stickers were peeling off - Zio found a great auto detail guy who copied them - painting 'em directly onto the moto! Back then who knew how to get stickers from Italy without going their yourself or knowing someone there?

Note: The seatpost collar/clamp broke the other day despite being torqued only with a calibrated 5 NM hex key. Instead of a $300+ carbon handlebar might they have included a decent clamp to hold the seatpost in place?

Campagnolo - the future

 Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio..er..CAMPAGNOLO?

Remember the old "Mrs. Robinson" song? Look closely at the photo above. Zio ordered some "Original Parts" for his new Campagnolo EKAR-equipped e-gravel bike from a reliable and trusted online shop here in Italy so he doesn't think these are counterfeit.

WTF? As recently as here (claimed to have been updated less than 6 months ago) the folks in Vincenza were claiming “We’ve always stayed true to building things in the European Union and 100 percent in-house,” Riddle said. “Nothing’s offshore and nothing is outsourced. Everything apart from circuit boards and batteries for EPS is done in-house.”

Not anymore (or even then) it seems. The two designed-for-OEM groupsets mentioned in the story (Centaur** and Potenza) are gone now (and it was rather obvious their brakesets were Taiwanese*) despite working quite well and getting positive reviews but Zio can remember unboxing a set of cantilever brakes for a Campagnolo 'cross group a decade ago and reading "Made in Taiwan" (*seemingly by Tektro) on the package. He wasn't happy about it but figured it was just a few 'cross brakesets so did it really matter?

It matters and the marketing guy quoted in the piece is no longer there either as far as Zio can tell. Tullio Campagnolo's grandson seems to have taken over after some time at their wheel brand Fulcrum.

Campagnolo's market position seemed to be aiming at the high end of the market with the exception of their gravel EKAR groupset. But how long will people pay a premium price for "Designed in Italy Made in Taiwan"? EKAR costs more than a Shimano GRX groupset for example but how much of it is made in Asia like Shimano? 

Meanwhile, they just announced EKAR GT, a product of what Zio likes to call the "product cheapening department" (what do companies really call these?) with aluminum rather than carbon crank (something that would have been just fine with Zio!) and some other cost-saving changes, all to offer a gravel groupset at a slightly lower cost.

Zio remembers a carbon fork sold by Columbus back-in-the-day. A bike industry friend told him these forks were actually made in China, shipped to Columbus for stickers and a fancy box and then sold at a premium price to customers who assumed they were made by Columbus in Italy. This same friend said the guy who first told him this story arranged for the friend's company to buy the same forks but put his company's name on 'em instead of Columbus'. The friend stopped buying 'em from Columbus and instead got 'em directly from the maker through this "sales agent". Seems there are lots of these folks around, experts at getting stuff made cheaply in Asia with whatever branding you like on it.

Is Campagnolo destined to be come nothing more than a "designer name" like so many other "luxury goods" that are produced in Asian factories for pennies on the dollar only to end up commanding premium prices when it's time for the retail customer to cough up the cash? Do they care that most of these same products have counterfeit (though ya gotta wonder if they're perhaps cranked out by a midnight "third-shift" at the same sweatshop producing the originals, so how "counterfeit" are they?) versions hawked on side streets of most major cities?

At the same time some Asian companies are now offering super-cheap groupsets that have no famous "designer" name, so if you're gonna buy Made-in-Taiwan (or mainland China) stuff, would you pay more for an Italian name and "design"?

If Campagnolo's sales are decreasing, Zio would point to this as at least part of the cause. But are profits up since production costs are lower? Will Ferrari set up a factory in China next...or have they already? Would people buy "Designed in Maranello, made-in-China" cars?

It works for Pinarello I guess? Zio wonders if some confuse "adrenalina" (andrenalin) with "Made in ___"? He remembers a client one time insisting that Pinarello bikes were still 100% Made-in-Italy, so...?

** Centaur 11 is  back in the lineup though now only in black.

MV Lucky Explorer E-gravel bike - First Impressions

 MV's e-gravel bike- First Impressions

The bike (finally) arrived! Zio quickly got it ready to ride, swapping out tires, bolting on water bottle cages, etc.

You can see how small the rear hub motor is - total system weight is 3.2 kg, (around 7 lbs) making this bike about the same weight as his un-motorized ancient MTB turned into SuperMonsterGravel.

Control button on the top tube with Homer Simpson as Superman just below. This bike also has tiny buttons near the brake hoods to shift assist-levels up or down rather than pushing the top tube button.

A nice surprise! Zio has a Torelli 20th Anniversary bike that's #70/100 so "Homer" is in good company.

Another nice surprise - Made-in-Italy, though Zio doesn't know who actually makes the frames for MV. The bikes are assembled and shipped from Varese, MVAgusta's home from the start. MV comes from Meccanica Verghera and the founder Giovanni Agusta.

Zio bought this bike not really needing an e-bike right away, but more as a way to get used to playing with one before it WILL be needed. He thinks of it as sort of an electronic "granny ring" on a triple crank...always there but nobody says ya gotta use it...at least if the bike is fun to ride without the e-assist.

This one is! Ready-to-ride it's under 30 lbs and with the motor off or in the 0 assist mode, rides just like a normal bike. Zio's put 100 kms on it so far and really likes the fat 38 mm Rene Herse slicks he mounted to replace the 45 mm gravel tires it came with. The 50+ mm slicks on SuperGravelMonster are great while Heather likes the 38's on her Bianchi gravel bike. We don't plan to ride the kind of gravel that requires knobby tires,

So far Zio's only cranked the motor up (Level 1 assist) one time - going into a stiff headwind on the bike trail. Otherwise he's ridden it "acoustically" and is pretty happy with how it goes, stops and turns. You can watch a good review of the Campagnolo EKAR component group HERE. Zio's not doing any video, who wants to look at or listen to him?

MAHLE's X20 assist system has some reviews online though since the MV's not sold in the USA, this one about it on another brand of bike still applies.

The bike itself? Zio bought this despite the branding. MVAgusta is great but the reference is to the Dakar factory motorcycles based on the Cagiva Elephant, which were sponsored by the cigarette brand Lucky Strike in the 1990s. Why? He wanted Campagnolo EKAR and MAHLE X20 and this was pretty much the only choice. He'll cover-up the logos and maybe slap-on some MVAgusta stickers eventually.

The frame geometry charts suggested this wouldn't be a slow-steering "desert sled" despite the name and riding it is proof. Frame sizing was a challenge as Zio seems to be smack-dab in-between both MV's and Bianchi's size ranges. He's almost too tall for the S size and too short for M, but just like the Bianchi, settled on M. 50 cm center-to-center on the seat tube is good while the top tube measures 53 cm. A rather short 8 cm stem connects to the carbon handlebar with all the hoses/cables routed internally.

All this means the fit is OK. The size S would for sure require a longer stem and with hoses/cables routed internally would have been a real pain to swap-out. As-is the M's a little short and upright while the bars are a bit wide but once he rewrapped the tape to cover more of the tops (and stuck some foam padding into the curiously depressed sections) things seem OK.

A straight top tube means a frame pump will fit! WOOHOO! Bottle cages are mounted low, another plus. Seatpost is round with an alloy clamp, both big plus factors in Zio's mind. Frame-build quality looks good too, I wonder who actually makes them?

What doesn't he like? The flat paint finish isn't a plus but what can ya do...it's the rage these days. We've already covered the logo issues. For this kind of money Zio wishes they'd plugged the bazillion threaded holes in the frame/fork (so you can bolt-on bikepacking stuff) with some snap-in things to keep dirt out of the threads and water out of the frame and sprung for better quality inner tubes than the rather thick CS ones. But they probably figure buyers are gonna yank 'em out and go tubeless with the no-name carbon tubeless-ready rims anyway? The 40 mm rims are deeper than Zio would like but they don't seem too bad in cross-winds so far.

100 kms over 3 rides and Zio's pretty happy. He can see this being his "do it all" bike even without the motor assist. He splurged for a MAHLE head-unit rather than slapping-on a Cateye cyclometer. This reads the bike's stats along with the usual speed, distance, etc. and includes a "range" feature - how far you can ride on the current battery charge?

With the assist level at 0 but the bike turned ON, the range numbers actually go backwards - as in higher rather than lower. A 2 hour ride today used 1% of the battery while the range-counter topped-out at 999 kms. On his first ride, when he switched to level 1 the range dropped to under 400 before he switched back to 0.

Next up, a ride with a real climb, one where Heather usually has to wait for him on her MAHLE X35 powered bike programmed to assist when her heart rate reaches a preset level. Will Level 1 be enough? If not, there's 2 or 3!

Happy Holidays 2023

Happy Holidays 2023!

This gift arrived this morning! We liked it so much we couldn't resist trying to share it with all of you Zio Lorenzo hopes you can play it - full screen and full volume.

Enjoy!!!!

Grazie mille, Aldo & Marco!!!

 

New E-Bike

 Plastic, electric, hydraulic...oh my!

Heather poses with her new bike

But electronic it's not! Zio Lorenzo (her personal mechanic) drew the line there. He's already grudgingly accepted Shimano vs Campagnolo, hydraulic disc braking and electric assist (same as her E-Impulso gravel bike) and now carbon-fiber construction on this Bianchi E-Aria, but Di2 was a bridge too far!

So when it was noted that cable-operated systems on just about everything Shimano were being ditched, it was time to grab one of these before they were all gone.

We waited too long for that but luckily found a barely-used one at a hefty discount off the MSRP. The seller forget to include the charger but luckily the one for the other bike plugs right in.

This one's much more responsive with true roadracing geometry rather than the long and slow handling frame design of the gravel bike. That one, named "Buzz" (as in Lightyear) will stick around for unpaved road rides while "Fausto" (shown above) will get the nod for what passes for asphalt here in Sicily. The lighter weight's a nice bonus as the all-up, ready-to-ride (bottle cages, seatpack, pedals, etc.) weight of "Buzz" is up around 35 lbs while "Fausto" is down to barely 28.

Now all Zio has to do is finish getting the noise and drag out of the brakes (oh, for the daze you just had to make sure the pads were toed-in and the rims were clean....grrrrr) and find a set of handlebars the rider likes and we're good to go! Zio even took it for a short test ride and thought if he ever needed an e-bike he'd try to find another one of these for himself.

Meanwhile, we can take more time on a custom Favaloro e-bike project idea, one with Campagnolo and traditional brakes.

Holiday Gift Guide 2022

 Holiday Gift Guide 2022

Call Zio lazy, but he thinks this gift guide is all you need, even if the cyclist on your gift list doesn't merit a gold-plated cavatappi!

As to gifts, click HERE for another one. We couldn't be at L'Eroica 2022 but this is a nice video.