Italuminium

I think I never filled out a form this fast. If PayPal doesn't screw up, I'm heading to tuscany in the fall! BTW, I'm going for the full monty - 205 KM. Age of the rider is no excuse in my case to do the 35 and dive straight in to the wine and cheese!

Giacomo 1 

I'm envious!

I'd love to do a ride like that, although the 35k with the follow-up wine & cheese is more my style these days!

Whar are you going to ride and what are you going to wear? Pictures are a must!

mazdaspeed

I wish I could go

repechage

All booked up by now?

For me, maybe next year.

Oldairhead 

I too just registered for the 205 km distance. I will either be riding my 1983 Bianchi or a newly aquired 197? Legnano. Decisions decisions!

WNG

Good luck!!
I'm shooting for next year too. Luckily, I have my wife's family around the area for support. Her cousin will have to assist in buying me a bike that'll qualify for the event. I'm going for the 205km as well.

Italuminium

Very nice! I think your Bianchi is a little too young, minimum of 30 years don't worry, they're not that strict.

And Giacomo, I don't know what I'll be wearing (no period correct kit bought as of yet), but I'll probably be riding the ALAN. The frame is from 79, as confirmed by mister Falconi, but the group and the saddle may have to be swapped out for something earlier - maybe NR or early SR.


Alan Super Record by ctjr, on Flickr

Giacomo 1 

The Alan is a great choice.

Not only does it look great, but unless somebody else is riding an Alan, your likely going to be the only rider with a bonded aluminum frame! To bad you might have to go through the trouble of changing the gruppo though, but I'm sure the effort it will be worth it. As far as jerseys, you have to wear something with blue in it to match that bike. Did Alan have jerseys back in the day?

poprad

I'm in on the 205 as well. Maybe we ought to do a BF meetup at the start? I'm riding my '78 'Nago Super with some custom wheels I had built up special; wider rims laced to SR hubs, rear tied and soldered. The Parigi-Roubaix fit perfectly.

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Oldairhead 

I'm pretty sure the bikes just need to be built before 1987 to qualify. Is that when 7 speed came out? The bike needs to be period correct with no modern upgrades such as clipless pedals or indexing but it can have some new parts on it such as rims, seat etc. I think if you show up with a good looking bike that is period correct it will all be good.

Nice looking Alan!

southpawboston

Damn, I'd have loved to ship my Mercian across the ocean for this, but I couldn't possibly justify the airfare for myself and the bike for this event...

Italuminium

From what I've heard that's their line of thinking too. Thanks for the compliment!

And poprad, see you at the start then! that big green colnago will be hard to miss

Bikegeek1968

Here is a bit that I wrote about the 2011 L'Eroica. I don't know if some of the equipment specifics still apply, but it should give you a general idea of what to expect, and also some details on how I prepared for the ride.
I had a few other posts in the 2011 thread that you might find helpful, too.

Begin paste
***********************
Myself and two friends rode the 205k route this year, and it was one of my best days on a bike ever. We all entered the day registration opened back in February and were fortunate to find our names on the accepted list when registration closed. Good preparation was the key to having a pleasant ride. I bought my vintage ride over a year ago, and started riding it at least once a week until the summer started. In the summer months, put in three 100+ mile days, and with a month left, I switched over all riding to my vintage ride.

As some people have mentioned, there really is not much of a bike inspection. I saw many pre '87 aluminum bikes, and one of the guys I rode with had an '86 Dura-Ace 6 speed that was indexed. Among my crew, we had also rebuilt all of our wheels with brand new DT 14 ga spokes on Sun M13II rims and 25mm tires. Along with giving the bike a complete tear down, the rebuilt wheels were probably the reason everything went so well for us. The roads this year were in bad shape according to the locals. There was no rain in the weeks leading up to the event, so there was a lot of dust, washboard and loose gravel. Picture mountain bike fire roads. If I had known about this, I would have opted for 28mm tires.

Anyway here are the most important bits I found while preparing for and riding L'eroica.

1) Select a bike, buy it early, and ride it a lot. You should be so used to it, that riding your 16 pound carbon bike feels wrong.
2) Have no doubts about your bike's mechanical condition. Strip it to the bare frame and rebuild it piece by piece. Leave no bolt unchecked. 209k, 100 of which are on some pretty rough road is a real test of your machine.
3) Rebuild the wheels. 30 year old spokes just won't do. I felt bad cutting off the original tubular rims, but there really was no choice.
4) Go with friends. Arrive several days early and test ride a good portion of the course. This will expose and weak points on your bike, so you can fix them ahead of the big day.
5) It is not a race. Normally I am a Cat 2/35+ rider, but today I was out for a cruise. It took me 12.5 hours, and I spent at least 2.5 hours off the bike at rest stops looking at the bikes, eating food and talking to other riders. If you want to race, stay home. This is a ride.
6) Gearing. Go low. I used a 5 speed 14-17-20-24-28 with a 52-42 crankset. The derails were campy nouvo record. It was a flawless combination. The steepest hills came right after the rest stop at the 150k mark. Several ramps were over 20 percent. I cleared them all, but I was at the limit I could handle. Most people were walking.
7) Stay in Italy after the event, go to Venice and stay on the Lido. It is awesome.

Feel free to ask me specifics about ride.

Italuminium

Thank you for the tips!

Oldairhead 

Thanks Bike Geek,

I'm always looking for more information on L'Eroica.

Italuminium

thank you for the compliments. ALAN sponsored a team, but that was 10-15 years later then the period in which my bike was build, I'm not really decided on what to wear yet, let alone what shoes go with the jersey (god I sound like my gf).

poprad

Rules this year state that new steel frames are allowed if built up w/retro components.

FunkyStickman

I want to do this so badly! Loved the story about the two guys on Pashley Guv'nors. Awesome stuff.