poprad

So, for those who followed my post about last year's L'Eroica I learned a few things. One was just how insane drivers can be (and I drove an armored Suburban in Afghanistan). But more germaine to this post was some gear that worked, and some that didn't.

What worked:
Challenge Parigi Roubaix 700X27 tires. Not one flat, and gave enough cushion to bomb thhe descents on rutted gravel. Ran a fairly low pressure of about 70 psi. Perfect.

Custom wheels, modern shallow v rims with machined sidewalls laced 32 to Campy period correct SR hubs. Looked legit, but worked awesome. The rims are wider than usual so profiled great with the 27mm wide tires. Sugar Wheelworks in Portland did the build and shipped them to me. She even tied and soldered the drive side. Classy.

The rest of the bike was box-stock '78 'Nago Super with 1st Gen SR. More on that...


What didn't:

Me, for starters. Long excuse laden injury summer story, but in short, more training this year. For sure.

The gears I ran. 42X52 was insane for those rutted, gravel covered hills they call "Strade Bianchi." Even with a 26t out back it wasn't cutting it. Every time I tried to get out of the saddle for a little extra I lost traction and that was it, walking.

The shoes. I used gorgeous Dromartis with cleats. Dumb. See above about walking. Hard plastic soles with cleats? Wrong, wrong wrong. All the cleats did was make me bail early on hills because I felt like I'd fall if I really pushed it (trying to get my foot out if I lost it).

Solutions:

Disclaimer: **I don't personally know Jan Heine, owner of Bicycle Quarterly and Compass Bicycles, but I do subscribe to his mag, BQ, and have bought a couple of his books. I agree with a whole lot of his ideas, but not all of what he says is a golden nugget of wisdom to me. I don't work for him and paid full price for this part**


Compass Bikes crankset "Rene Herse" with 34X46 chainrings. First off, these things are drop -dead- gorgeous. Should be for what I paid, but if they get me through the 200k this year it'll be worth every euro. The Campy FD works like a dream with them, just had to lower it a cm or so. The combo makes my 26t useless (not enough chain slack with the SR rear der.), so I may mod that to a 24.


Vittoria 1976 shoes with the "soft soles". They're like mtn bike shoes. Very walkable, and quite stiff enough for spirited riding, but easy to get in and out of the clips without even releasing the strap. I will have WAY more confidence on tricky gravel with these, and if I do bail and walk they'll be a lot more comfortable.

I just did a 30K shakedown ride with a couple of good 15-18% grades with this setup and it's perfect. The cranks work like a dream. I had to very slightly re-profile the spindle holes with a file, as they're JIS not Campy taper, but a bit of judicious removal snugged them right up to the stock ti Campy SR BB. I think this is the final tweak to my mods for this year's training and events. I'm doing the Retro Ronde in Flanders over the cobbles to see how that fares, and also the Tour de Trois in June to dial it in for good. I just thought anyone else prepping for L'Eroica-type events might want to know about this combo, and just how well the Compass cranks work. Did I mention they are beautiful to boot?

Obligatory pic since you read this far:

[IMG][/IMG]

ColonelJLloyd 

Very nice! Best of luck to you.

For what it's worth I think those cranks look much better without dust caps.

poprad

I concur, but I have the first gen SR spindle with the threaded ends vice bolt holes, so I can't use the fancy chrome-head bolts that came with it. I have to use the black Campy nuts and with those it looked better covered.

John E

Thanks for the shoe recommendation. We toeclip diehards need to stick together.

ThermionicScott 

Looks great! I was going to suggest that a 36/26 would be slightly lower than the 34/24 you propose (to stay within the capacity of the SR RD), and then I looked at the price of RH chainrings.

I really need to get my hands on some of those 1976 shoes.

rootboy 

That crank is absolutely gorgeous, and those shoes look nice too. Hope they both work well for you this year.

onespeedbiker

I'm curious how much you road with the Dromartis with cleats. I ride with a similar shoe, the Adidas Limited edition 0979 with cleats. To me the hard sole and the difficulty in removing the shoe when strapped in was the whole point; I rely on the fact that they will stay in on climbs (with a moderate amount of upward pedaling force), but I can always loosen the straps on a loose (tricky gravel) surfaced road. Of course they are hell to walk on but when I'm riding a bike, I don't usually plan on walking. When touring I use MTB shoes but they aren't very retro looking (even though my old Rockhopper Sport shoes are still kicking after 20 years).

Edit; saying that I pretty sure I can find a use for these; https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...02_-1___202524 $40 !! Oh yeah!

rootboy 

Just received my pair of those Exustars, OneSpeed. Jury is still out as I've not had a chance to use them yet but, at thirty three bucks, they look pretty nice and I intend to use them without, or with very low profile, home made cleats.

Just noticed on a site, Poprad, that those Vittoria shoes are not made of leather. How do they feel? Breathe any?

Barrettscv 

Hi Poprad,

Thanks for the info. I'll attend this year. I'm evaluating the 700x32 Vittoria Cross XN Pro clincher along with the Challenge Parigi Roubaix 700X27 tires. The Vittoria is about 31mm wide on a 23mm wide rim. It has an almost invisible file tread, 150 tpi construction and are 370 grams.

I've purchased these NOS vintage Diamant Cyclocross shoes;



These are useful both while riding and walking and look well made. However, there is slight problem with the inner liner is peeling so I'm sure I can recommend these yet.

I'll have a 52, 40 & 28 triple with a 13-24 seven speed freewheel. The wheels are Campy Record high flange with 36 spoke Sun CR18 rims.

I'm evaluating two frames, a 1983 Trek 970 and a 1985ish Serotta Nova Special X. I'll decide next month.

753proguy

Personally, I would still leave the dustcaps off, fwiw. YMMV.

If it is a solid/nutted SR spindle, that's the late-style one that is much less likely to kill you.

Those early hollow ti Super Record spindles are known to fail catastrophically. Laurent Fignon in the TdF is the most famous example. Are you a light-weight guy and a high-cadence spinner? Even the solid ti spindles are not really intended for big strong riders....

Nice-lookin'/soundin' bike, btw!

Italuminium

Thanks for the good review.

Also, I hope to attend the RRV as well this year, I hope I can manage to fit it in my schedule.

poprad

Thanks for the comments guys. Interesting note about the SR BB proguy. I always thought the nutted version of the SR spindle was the earlier version. I'm not heavy enough to be a real factor (190 or so) and certainly don't put out the watts of a Fignon, so I'll probably be ok in that regard.

Italumin let me know if you're going to the RRV, we could do a meetup!

As far as the shoe query, I love the Dromartis and for road only work they're the nicest shoes I have (including my modern SIDIs). Too hard to walk in for a L'Eroica type event for me though. WIth that course a dismount is pretty inevitable, and once you do on those hills you can't start again while trying to flop the pedal over and get a cleated foot in. That extra bit of messing around brings you to a stop quick on those grades.

Barrett it sounds like you've got a good setup for the ride, I will post a meetup offer in Sept and see if anyone wants to join for lunch on Saturday prior to the event. Now that I know Gaiole a bit it's not too hard to choose a linkup spot.

osteoclast

Where did you get the Vittoria shoes?

fietsbob

have a pair of Rivats, same thing, rubber soccer cleats made a decent heel .

My feet changes so they are in a storage bin any 9.5/10.0 sized people, [im 10.5]
those and a pair of SiDi cross slot-cleated shoes FS.

LeicaLad 

Can you tell a bit more about the rims used in your wheel build? Like name/model, please?

Also quite pleased to hear of the experience with those tires. I'm thinking of another wheel build.

:-)