Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Pics of my new ride

As you may have read, I just bought my first road bike. It's a Bianchi via Narone7. It has the Sora groupset which I will probably upgrade sometime but for now it's a great bike. I have been riding a '94 Trek Multi Track hybrid. This bike is going to really be fun.

http://www.pbase.com/mikemeyer/image/101065431.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/mikemeyer/image/101065433.jpg

Nice pics...nice bike, too!

(I love the framing, BTW!)

As my nephews would say, "SWEET!"

Thanks Tom. My other passion is photography. I enjoy shooting everything and anything. Feel free to check out my web gallery. www.pbase.com/mikemeyer (Mike's Photo Gallery)

Willdo....

What program do you use for that frame effect, by the way?

I use an action in Photoshop CS3. It's pretty easy to use.

OK, well, unfortunately, I'm a GIMP user, so I don't have that plug in. :(

Beautiful bike. Now go get it dirty! :)

OK, now that I'm done drooling, on to the good stuff.

I wouldn't worry about rushing to update your Sora group. There are plenty of "enthusiasts" who are quick to jump on the anti Sora band wagon, but in all honsty it will probably do all you want it to do.

In my experience, the only real shortcoming is shiftiing while mashing and/or going up hill. Unless you're going to race Criteriums or climb mountains, the drivetrain will perform well for you. If, or when, you do decide to upgrade, most everyone I know has one complaint about the front derailluer not trimming out well. This can be adjusted, but might need to be done a bit more often than upline ones. My advice is wait until the Sora stuff wears out and upgrade then. It might be longer than you think.


It's a beautiful bike, and it looks like she wants some miles put on her. Ride!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, well, unfortunately, I'm a GIMP user, so I don't have that plug in. :(

I use GIMP as well. Try this:

FX-Foundry
Image effects
Add frame...(white)
Add Mat...
Add frame...(black)

Here's a quick one I just did. Play around with the numbers for different frame widths
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/2725185510_fb94e6599a_o.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/robloeffel/SJQ9ChiYGLI/AAAAAAAAAHA/-UKkfi0VY5o/rear_hub_framed.jpg

Very Nice!

great lookin bike...nice pictures

THat is just nyyyyyyce.

Makes me just wanna hop on and ride it too!

Great photos, too, you have a terrific eye. And I'm not just saying that bcs I wanna ride that Bianchi of yours.

When I got to the photo of the mammatus clouds, that one looked familiar. My son is a cloud freak and we must have checked out every photo of mammatuses on the Web.

Awesome bike man. Like others say, don't sweat the sora drivetrain parts. I know a buddy who has all sora on his road bike and he's been riding it forever, never had a problem.

Thanks alot everyone! I'm really diggin' it. I did my longest ride ever today (21.25 miles). Other than my feet cramping up I felt great. I'm going to by some slip in shoes today so I'm hoping that will help with the cramping.

Also, my spokes are making a lot of creaking noise and by the end of my ride my back wheel was pretty wobbly. I only have 35 miles on it so that seems odd. I'm going to straighten it and hope that it doesn't happen all the time. I live aabout 60 mile from the shop where I bought it so I can't be bringing it in every week to get the wheels trued.

Thanks again

Mike

Immediately take it to the shop and have your wheels tensioned and trued. The wheels were machine tensioned, I'd just bet ya! Have them hand tensioned or you're going to rapidly start losing spokes.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. My guess is that the shop never properly tensioned them out of the box. Once the wheels get a good tension/true they should be good for a while.

edit: too slow

I bought the identical bike last month and it has been a great ride for me! I have 200+ miles on it andthe only problem has been the chain dropping of the front inside chainring. Other than that, a great bike. I did switch out the brake pads to Kool Stops.

Nice bike. I love black bikes, very elegant, simple, and beautiful.