deacon mark

Campag4life

Very familiar with that BB. And you know Specialized struggled with it and ultimately discontinued it. But...new PF30 BB's are quite reliable as you very well know and no doubt you have tamed that BB just fine. Remarkably, one step down to the Pro with 10r carbon they went English threaded BB which is wonderful and the best BB for Campy UT of course.
No doubt you have loved that bike with its high grade carbon and plush ride and yet never holds you back when hammering with friends on their race bikes.
The Roubaix has won the race in Paris more than any other bike. No better test of endurance and speed.

Campag4life

OK, rub it in. And you are right. Aluminum drop out galvanic corrosion with carbon...this reaction is not uncommon. A shame. I live in Florida on the coast and air is salty and I ride all year and in the summer the bike gets covered in corrosive body sweat. I wipe the bike down but don't take the rear wheel off to clean the rear drop out and when I do, pretty remarkable how contaminated it gets.

In fact to share just how corrosive the environment is...I go through a lot of Campy shifter clamp 'nuts'. These are cone shaped nuts that hold the shifter on the handlebars. Body salt wicks under the hood boots and sits in the bolt pockets...and creates a 'slurry' that completely melts the Aluminum nuts that tighten the shifter bands. I go through quite a few of these and wish I could find a source for just the nuts which are proprietary to Campy. I peel back the hoods and clean this area but they always just corrode and fail. I have to drill them out to get the shifters off the bars. Tough environment and believe where I live is contributory to the issue with my bike.

Campag4life

Understand, we are all being chased by father time. I hope you know the story of Leonard Zinn. To me, Leonard Zinn is the Sheldon Brown of our day. Mr. Brown was kind enough to correspond with me from time to time and he left us way too young...younger than I am now in fact.

Zinn, the Zinnmaster is a bicycle guru. A wizard. He also is an excellent rider and racer...or was. He has had to face a very difficult heart challenge. Cycling is his life and livelihood.

I too will be building a high performance E-bike in a few years for big mile days. Its gonna happen. I will build something special. It will have 500 watts with near 30mph capability and good distance on a charge. It will have a drop bar. It may in fact be Zinn's design. Tech moves fast and E-bikes are getting lighter with power transmission more seamlessly integrated. To me, E-bike roadbikes are the future. People like speed.

I was on my Cervelo today on a cool windy day. I fought the wind into the North on my 30 mile ride and when I turned around to ride South home, I averaged 22mph due to tailwind. My bike just wanted to fly. That is the feeling of power assist. I probably wasn't applying more than 150 watts at that speed.

But I have been holding off building an E-bike because I am still riding pretty strong. I can still hang with the A-group if the CAT boys aren't completely lighting it up. But I want an E-bike anyway for fast 50-70 mile rides. I like speed and come from the world of motorcycle riding.

My best to you and thank you for your comments.

Zinn's story:
https://www.velonews.com/cycling-to-...durance-sports

https://www.velonews.com/2018/06/bik...cyclist_470738

Paul Barnard

I really enjoyed reading that. I am thrilled for your great find, and I love that color. That's what color my Tarmac was.

Jon T

Precisely why I prefer steel and will never own a plastic or aluminum bike. I ride an '84 Peugeot that I purchased new. 35 years later it looks and runs as good as the day it was new. No cancer or other worries. It ain't broke so no need to replace it. Hell, it'll probably out-live me (I'm 64). Some things just can't be improved upon.
Jon

Campag4life

Thank you Paul.

Campag4life

I won't sidetrack the thread and defend carbon but physics define why carbon replaced steel by every top bike maker for those seeking the highest performance bikes.
That said, I get your love for steel. I have the same feeling for carbon. I too am 64 y.o. btw.
Cheers.

bruce19

There is a force out there greater than we know. Sometimes the pure of heart can call upon it to come to our aid. Congrats.

Campag4life

A wonderful thought. Thank you Bruce.

Campag4life

A couple of bike porn pics of the new (old) frameset. I now have had a chance to go through it, remove the fork, detail the frame, remove all stickers...check all fasteners, clean bores etc. There is not a scratch on this frame. I am still astounded. Pics don't do it justice in person. Deepest clearcoat I have seen on a frame. The weave as mentioned can be seen through the paint which is so cool. You can see the convergence of the carbon sheets...not emasculated by cosmetic 3K carbon weave to obscure the layup...more of a modeled and less uniform UD look. The frame is so distinctive, it looks like it has a custom paint job on it. Remarkable lengths aka cost to put this kind of a paint job on a production frame. Now detailed and waxed, it will go back in the bike box for a future build. No idea when that will occur...mostly depends on the decline of my current Roubaix and what the bike shop says when I take it to them in the spring for their warranty assessment. If they agree to a warranty replacement, I may request a Tarmac with equivalent 10r carbon, like a Tarmac Expert frame...rim brakes. Don't want the current model of Roubaix. Maybe they have an old stock rim brake Roubaix SL4 they could do a warranty exchange with. Thanks to all the positive comments from fellow bike lovers.

nomadmax 

@Campag4life

Can you continue to ride the old frame til it breaks or at least for a while longer?

Campag4life

Yes, certainly rideable and will moving forward. In fact, debating how long before I walk into the bike shop with my original sales receipt of the frameset and show it to them for their assessment. It can't be good for delamination of the carbon from the alloy dropout...carbon molded around the dropout...but no crystal ball and of course, none of us when riding our bikes want to be too concerned about frame failure. It was on my mind at least on a sub conscious level and why I cruised eBay for a replacement.

I live in a real salty environment and likely a contributing factor. Am hopeful that Specialized will warranty it. In fact, I wrote about a frame replacement less than a year ago where Specialized warrantied my Al Secteur for a similar issue. Welds had galvantic corrosion. Specialized gave me a new 2018 Al Secteur frameset replacement which btw is an outstanding Al bike.

So hopeful it will all work out. Honestly, this Roubaix frame owes me nothing. I paid almost $2K for it to back in Nov 2011. I have so many miles on the bike and have had so much fun on it with so many great memories with friends, if I had to retire it tomorrow, it would be ok. Just sad, the great ride has come or is coming to an end but unbelievably fortunate to find perhaps an even nicer replacement. I didn't think the Expert frame was nicer than the Pro when I ordered it...but seeing it in close up, I believe it is. I typically prefer to buy a frameset because not many bikes are spec'ed with Campy which is my groupset of choice.

Good to have options. Just wanted to share this unique find on ebay...for a guy who just loves the SL3 Roubaix with its uncanny road manners. A freakishly good frame for ride quality, stable handling and power transmission. Haven't ridden another bike quite like it and I have ridden a lot of different road bikes.

yukiinu

I have done thousands of miles in scorching heat and throat freezing (could swallow nothing but cream of mushroom soup for a week) blizzard, over mountains that if you swallowed 3 gulps of water you would start to pass out from lack of oxygen, through rain, lightning, crosswinds that topple trucks, blinding sandstorms, and wind that seemed to have an evil sadistic mind of it's own. And through it all, I rode, talked to and depended on my friend "yukiinu" , just an off the shelf hy-bred Trek. And when that metal container of "yukiinu's spirit " wore out, I transfered yukiinu's spirit to the next bike's handlebar, by attaching a plastic lockdown loop, from the Trek, that I think of as containing yukiinu's spirit, and so my friend is re-incarnated in the new bike and then from bike to bike. I quess that is also how I chose yukiinu as a user name.

nomadmax 

Great thread

Gluteus

Campag4life, I had the same bike, and I concur.....great ride!
Happy that you found a replacement!

Dean V

Or not.
Titanium frames crack too.

Carverbiker

Carbonfiberboy 

The aluminum bits are being eaten by the carbon, which is more noble, i.e. further up the galvanic scale. There must be a way to put zincs on the dropouts.You'd need a piece of zinc, about the mass of a marble, screwed to the dropout and then somehow connected electrically to the carbon. Or attached by a tiny machine screw that goes through the carbon into the aluminum. Similarly, there might be room to fit a home made zinc nut onto the bolt behind the aluminum one. Or just have SS nuts made or find some. Can't be that hard to do. There are roughly a zillion different SS fasteners made.

Campag4life

Totally get what you wrote. Sometimes you meet Goldilocks. Perhaps no surprise our two bikes were similar, both with endurance geometry.
I have a good friend and strong rider my age that just switched from a TCR to Defy Disc...I am not a big disc fan but he 'loves' his new Defy and disc brakes.
Giant makes fantastic bikes...among the best IMO. Also I have a good friend who is master bike mechanic at a local shop and he said BB386 is the most reliable of all the press fit BB's. His opinion...others can be easily converted of course for low maintenance.

Sometimes there is just a certain bike that checks all the boxes.

I have learned a bit in the journey about myself having owned so many pure, slammed racing bikes. I like a friendlier bike and closer to an endurance geometry. I am unwilling to compromise this preference in favor of .005% more speed. Isn't worth it to me. I want a bike that isn't too aggressive and won't beat the crap out of me. You go for max speed on a bike once in a while and the rest of the time you live with its ride quality and position.

When I watch a top pro racer before he gets out on the road riding his race bike so slowly, it looks like he is basically doing a push up on the bike...which he is. Fittest guys on the planet can do that but more average riders struggle more in that position for a couple of hours.

Thanks for your comments.

puma1552

Good story and glad you found what you wanted. How do you feel about the color scheme compared to the one you have?

79pmooney

2006 I picked up a very cheap (and damaged) sport Peugeot frame to make a light summer road fix gear, something I've never had despite loving fix gears for 30 years. Got it on the road for $105 and parts on hand. What fun! 5 years later, I ordered a replacement from TiCycles (similar geometry except a boosted BB, a stiff ti frame, track quality running gear and a fix-fix hub. Super long road dropout so I can run any cog, 12 to 24. The fix gear I could take into the mountains the rest of my life. Picked it up December '11. Wow! Two months later, I watched the unveiling of that year's Cycle Oregon Week Ride. Crater Lake. And every day, one long climb and one long descent. Very few gear changes! This bike could do it!

I rode that bike and absolutely loved the entire week. Hard? Yes! But what a ride! Last night, CO unveiled another Crater Lake ride. I"m going! ON the same bike. (I get to loaf a bit to reflect my increasing age. I ordered a 24 tooth cog I've barely used from England two years ago. Did it all the climbs on a 23 the first time.

The bike is my favorite ride. Not my best bike, but the most fun and the most demanding. It is basically what we would have died to race 30 years ago in a fictional world where freewheel mechanisms and gears never happened. Now I have only ridden it with clinchers but with light sewup wheels, the bike is all race, a pure thoroughbred. And an ear-to-ear grin blast. We had one of those magically good winter days here today and I rode it almost 70 miles and over a 1000; climb. I'm hammered, but what a ride!

Campag4life, I totally get your love! Thanks for the thread! (I'll have read most of it tomorrow. Way, way too tired now!)

Ben

Campag4life

Ben thank you. Wonderful story. Old school. Love it. I know with some its steel and others its Ti. I totally get it. You will laugh but I love my new Al Allez which I basically stripped to the frame and built will each piece that I prefer. The bike puts a smile on my face when I ride it. No it isn't as lightning fast as the Cervelo.
The Roubaix SL3 in particular is to me a watershed bike in carbon. I know strides have been made to make bikes a fraction lighter...only a hundred grams or so unless in the rarified air of uber light carbon...and aero benefits have been derived. But 'feel' matters if not racing but still able to generate respectable speed on a given bicycle.

Its kind of like the whole premise of Weight Weenies which is a forum I read but don't post on. I honestly don't have much to say about bike weight. I don't weigh each component. I like the good stuff and know most of the higher end groups and wheels and framesets and saddle are within a few grams of one another. A bike +/- a pound or so doesn't matter to me. Could be argued that a slightly heavier bike rides better...not unlike an automobile and if not always in the hills, doesn't matter much. But to those guys weight is the be all. Weight in and of itself seems like a pretty austere metric all said.

Thanks for sharing your story. Great fun to build a new bike isn't it?

As a sidebar, Peter Sagan's 'aluminum' Allez Sprint race bike: Peter is 6' tall and rides a 56...Sprint has very aggressive geometry...with '150' mm stem, 54t chainring .

Campag4life

Thanks Puma. I really like it and have somewhat broad taste in paint schemes. When I saw the frame on ebay and contacted the seller and he told me the bike was built briefly and the frame really didn't much of any miles on it, I thought, what the heck, if I don't like the paint scheme, I can have the frame repainted. I also wasn't sure what the paint quality would be. When I got it out of the box, I was blown away by how it looked. Really quite stunning in particular because of its translucent quality seeing the layup through paint, Specialized didn't mask the layup with another cosmetic top layer of carbon like 3K weave or UD.

You will laugh. When my then new Pro frame came in to the shop and I got it home and took it out of the box...bike shops don't run into too many people that prefer to build their own bikes and I ordered just the framset, I thought something was wrong with the paint job on the frame. Its because in spots, I could see the carbon through the paint. This was deliberate of course on a couple of levels, one is, some may believe seeing the carbon weave which has a marbleized quality is really quite beautiful and two, this lack of paint thickness keeps the weight down. I really and even still now like the muted understated matt finish on the original frame. Looks a bit more bad@$$'ed then pretty but I am OK with pretty too.

Thanks for asking.

A couple of pics when I took the original frame out of the box:

deepakvrao

Congrats on finding a great new bike. The new one looks even better than your old, but both look great :-)

Possible to share a pic of the corrosion? Also, do all carbon frames/forks have alloy dropouts? Can't remember noticing that on my bike.