Archive for the 'bicycle' Category

After months of waiting, carefully reviewing specs and geometry, and having developed an unhealthy interest in all things Cannondale, I finally got round to ordering my new road bike.  My LBS couldn’t get hold of anything I wanted, and of course had severely limited stock, so trying out a specific size was always going to be a problem (hence the studying of geometry of various contenders).  I also was driving myself insane over whether I should go for an all carbon frame, or specifically because I was considering a Canny, whether I should actually go for an aluminium frame.  I didn’t really fancy the idea of a carbon frame on the local roads with my weight – I was imagining stress fractures developing etc. etc.  Too much thinking going on.  Especially considering the fact that I’m too close for comfort to the maximum allowable rider weight quoted by Canny in their literature for their carbon frames.  However in the end, having read the Cycling Plus Bike of the Year awards, I decided to plump for a Cannondale Six Ultegra Compact.  But try and get one!  After several false starts and cancelled orders, I just couldn’t track down one in the right size.  Guess everyone else wanted one also following the Cycling Plus award.  So I tried to scare up a 2010 CAAD9 Ultegra Compact instead.  Again no joy.  At this point I was getting caught by the fact that it was coming up to the time for the 2011 models to be introduced so there was no stock of the 2010 models in my size in the network.  The situation which I had hoped to avoid (waiting for the 2011 models) was sadly unavoidable.  On previous occassions I have been able to make this work to my advantage as I’ve been able to get an outgoing model at a considerably reduced price.  As there were none in my size out there, that wasn’t going to happen this time.  At this point my search turned away from Cannondale and I looked at perhaps getting a custom Titanium or 853 or equivalent steel frame instead.  Specifically I looked at Enigma’s frames and even went as far as getting them to draw me up a frame based on my measurements.  In the end that, along with any ideas of waiting for the 2011 Canny Six to be released were wiped from my mind by the fact that I was offered a place in the University of Limerick studying a BSC in Energy, meant that spending €2500 on a bike was no longer an option.  So I waited for the 2011 CAAD10 to be released and duely placed my order for a 63cm CAAD10 Ultegra Compact in Magnesium White.  Joy of Joy, the bike finally arrived.  About 5 minutes before I was due to head out the door to a wedding in Cork.  So having waited so long, this was all I got to see of my new bike.

Weekend over and done with, I unpacked the bike when we got home and carried out whatever minor assembly was required.

Gorgeous bike!!!!  The following afternoon, I attached the pedals (Shimano Ultegra 6700 SPDs) and took it for a very brief ride.  The ride quality is amazing, even on 23c tyres and it really accelerates instantly.  I’ve got a bit of work to do yet on it to set it all up correctly – stem length and orientation, saddle position and some fine tuning of the end points on the front derailleur need to be looked at.  Happy days.