hweich

So after one year, the Stan's sealant ate a hole in my Campagnolo Zonda rims and i found out on the internet that this is not uncommon. And Campagnolo said that its my fault for using such a strong sealant.... So i started shopping around for a carbon wheelset for my gravel bike. For starters, they are all expensive; some crazy expensive. i have known about South industries for a while, but couldn't justify them...until now. I went to visit the factory [near my work place] and was completely blown away by the way they do things. Every single rim is made [entirely by hand] with great care and attention to quality control. When i asked them why they only make them in UD carbon, the engineer told me that each rim has layers of both and if i'd prefer the weave to be outside, they can do that without changing the structural integrity. So they did. The rims were built onto DT swiss 350 hubs [their heaviest option] and came to 1400g for the lot! I ride a CX bike so frame designed for 33mm tires. the 38mm Schwalbe G-one tires was i bit of a squeeze on the old wheels but these new ones are considerably wider [27mm outer diameter] so the i have 1mm space between tire and chainstays [attached picture is attempt to illustrate this]. I will change to 35mm tires but the reason for showing this is that despite the narrow tolerances, i could not induce tire rub in any way because there is just zero sideways flex in the wheels. And this despite the spoke tension being a lot less than on my old wheels which was very hard and unforgiving. With tires inflated to max, they are still more comfortable than what i'm used to. The wider rims mean that the tires will probably do better off road, although this is always hard to tell without extensive testing- so far i found them to hold on better in the corners when you run them soft. So in summary, i got a bespoke wheelset that are light, comfortable yet stiff and were customised for me. And if i ever [lifetime crash replacement warranty] have problems with them, i don't have to ship it overseas or pick a fight with an unnamed person - i take it down the road and Stephan or Nico will sort me out. I know i'm going on a bit but I really think you'd have to be stupid to buy something from a big American company that was mass produced in China for double the price. The best part [by far] though is the fact that, like the best French wines, they didn't bother writing in English on their product - if you don't understand, you can go google it .

the scwalbe g-one tire is labelled 40mm but its actually a 38. there is very little room at the back [1,5mm on either side] which is fine as long as your wheel doesn.t have much sideways play. You won't find a light colnago- it's not an issue for them so this is not a light bike. 1050 is for the frame only. don't knwo fork weight. my bike weighs about 9kg. frame sixe is 52sloping [you can add 6cm to that to get standard size]. Toe rub is an issue- its got a very short wheelbase best bike i ever owned

that is my bike the BB shell came loose so have a look there

I have posted a review on my first gravel Colnago on the forum a few years back but the bike was a Cyclocross frame designed with only thing in mind: getting Sven Nuys around world cup courses as quickly [and uncomfortably] as possible. The frame broke and the friendly people at Santam provided me with the option of an upgrade. As luck would have it, Campagnolo launched their Hydraulic groupsets at the same time - providing me with the opportunity to fix the other major gripe i had with the old bike: ornamental brakes. Before i bore you with details i think its important to give credit where it is due: i imported my first Colnago from abroad and this one was bought from the local distributor [Alpine Sports]. The price was comparable to the imported one and the service is out of this world. Mark Nel delivered the frame to my work and when i developed a problem with it, he gave me a selection of his own bikes to ride while the problem was sorted out. It would be silly to use anybody else imho. Frame:Colnago prestige monocoque carbon.Internal cable routing enabled a crucial improvement over the old bike: i can run a full length cable housing from shifter to derailleur which solved the problem of dust/mud affecting my shifting. frame designed to take UCI legal 33mm tires but i can safely run a 40mm front and 38mm at the back [provided wheels are stiff].sloping frame enabled long 27mm seatpost which has HUGE flex so comfort is vastly improved over old bike.Groupsetminimal thinking went into this: Campagnolo has two levels of hydraulic disc brakes and i went for carbon...because it is so pretty.Stages crank arm power meter gearing is an issue: go as light as you can for off road climbing. 50/34 crank and 11-29 cassette but with my medium cage derailleur i can also put on 11-32 if i need to Wheels: you are a bit limited with Campag cassettes and disc brakes at this stage but i intend abusing the wheels a bit and up to now the Zonda set i have has been very impressive: not the lightest but serviceable hubs, super stiff and has taken some very rough terrain in their stride.Tires: after trying quite a few i have settled on Schwalbe G-one for now. Not the most durable but very good in all other respects.PS- gravels bikes are not better than a hard-tail 29er on bad surfaces. in my opinion it is the versatility as a road bike that I need. So with road wheels it becomes a proper road bike:

I posted something similar 2yrs ago [part 1] when i was very excited about my Colango cyclocross bike. this was something completely new but with time, a few major irritations developed and when it was written off recently, i would be lying if i said i was disappointed. with the help of the nice people at Santam, a new frame was soon under way [i initially wanted to order it from my old supplier in the UK, but that is not necessary: Mark Nel from Alpinesports sorted me out in no time at i price that is very competitive. MY PROBLEMS: I need a commuter that can do some gravel/single track on the way to work and on weekends be a road racing bike [i have a MTB for proper off roading]. the old bike was designed to handle Sven Nys for one hour [out of the saddle] only and was the second hardest and most uncomfortable bike i ever rode [35c tires makes little difference] some people call me a snob. i believe that you are only a snob if you look down on others. i don't look down on people who do not ride Campagnolo. but i have had such amazing experience with it that i don't ride anything else- the only problem is that they did not have disc brakes for my last bike, so i had mechanical disc calipers- only for the suicidal. completely useless. but campag did not have disc brakes available. to ride off road, you need different gearing: 50/34 front and 11-29 at the back. for things like the Swartberg100 i however wanted to put a 32 cassette on the back but for that you need a medium cage derailleur which i did not have exposed Gear cables get full of dust/mud and after 4 rides, your shifting becomes a problem my old bike had a Powertap rear hub which is great but the wheelset weighed >2kg and the Stans GrailX rims got dented if you looked at them THE SOLUTION: see picture below. i have a spare set of road racing wheels for weekends smaller frame +thin rear stays+ 27,2 carbon seatpost with huge flex= completely transformed ride. Very comfy. I trawled the internet for months and as soon as Campag launched their hydraulic disc setup i ordered it. the brakes are simply unlike anything if ridden before: great stopping power but with good modulation [the Srams i tested before had no modulation: you touch them and you're over the handlebars]. i ordered a medium cage derailleur which handles the gear ratios much better the new frame allows me to run the cable housing from the Ergolevers all the way to the derailleur and so far the shifting is excellent Stages powermeter and for everyday riding i bought Campag Zonda wheels: not the lightest but strong and VERY stiff. the hubs have old school cup and cone bearings which you can service yourself and i've had excellent experience with them in the pastFull specs: Frame: Colnago Prestige in EMIT colours on bare UD carbon Cockpit: Colnago Groupset: Campagnolo H11 with Recored derailleur [Chorus in pictures but this is on loan] Wheels: Campagnolo Zonda disc. thru-axle Tires: Schwalbe G-one 35mm rear and 40 front [ i have yet to see if 40 will fir the back] Seatpost: Colnago do not make a 27,2mm post in carbon any longer. this is 3T Team stealth Saddle: loan saddle in pictures soon to be replaced by my old Fizik Arione

I dont like it when pro's use drugs because it trickles down and eventually i have to race against an amateur who is using drugs. I was therefore very impressed when i entered the Epic and found that there is a Zero tolerance rule where drug offenders are banned for life. Yet David George participated this year. And George Hincapie. The reason why they were allowed is probably because both were found to have cheated [just] prior to the 31 Dec 2012 cut-off in the rules. I'm not sure why this date was chosen but these riders tarnish the clean image of the race and if my calculations are correct, Lance Armstrong could then enter the Epic....

no i bought it new

I think disc brakes for road bikes are here to stay so when i recently bought my new CX bike , i went for this option. problem is that in my 30yrs of racing bikes, i have come to trust Campagnolo over other manufacturers, but they do not have a disc brake system. there is a lot of talk and rumours but nothing i trust. i therefore decided to stick to the mechanical set-up with Chorus Ergolevers and use TRP Spyre SLC calipers. It did not work. at all. you grab the levers and pull them all the way to the bars and the bike continued unhindered and no amount of adjustment could fix it. option 1: Campagnolo should bring out a hydraulic setup either late this year or early next year. if they do not want to be left behind. chances are that it will be linked to an electric shifting system which will probably be very expensive. and i do not want electrical shifting because i dont see it as an advantage.option 2: switch to another brand of components. you have a choice between made in Japan or made in China.....no thanksoption 3: change it for a hybrid mechanical/hydro system like SRAM or Hope V-twin. i think this will definitely work but is quite expensive [about R5000] and bulky for what i think should be a medium term fixoption 4: try a cheap fixi swapped the pads for Shimano ones which made them stop a lot better but the feel was still very damped/indirectproblem is that brake cable housings are compressible and when you pull with this such force, a lot of the force ends up compressing the cable housing. so i ordered non-compressible cables from Jagwire and the problem is solved! non-compressible housing is essentially made the same way as shifting cable housing in that the main structure is provided by longitudinal wires with a mesh outside them to keep them from popping out. This as opposed to brake housing which has a helical wire which can be compressed. i now have a set-up that i will gladly keep using until Campag brings out a better solution

yes it is foldable. you shouldn't try to mount wire beads tubeless i think. was wondering about 'airproofing' the inside with something. i'm however still very worried about the other problem i had with the Conti's [popping off the rim] so i just don't trust them anymore

dont know how to post a reference to my first post on the bike but it is entitled" the future of road bikes in SA"

My first post on this forum was about my new cyclo cross bike and i have to admit that i still cannot get enough of it. Everything is better than i hoped for except for the disc brakes and wheels. I will discuss the wheels here. My requirements for a CX bike’s wheels are the following: · I ride mostly road and the traffic forces me to do a bit of off-roading every now and then. Large knobs for riding in mud like the Europeans are therefore not necessary · The UCI regulations limit tyre width to 33mm for CX. Pointless for the majority of owners of these bikes as it may work on grassy and muddy courses in Holland but you cannot ride over rocks at speed and I think a minimum of 35mm is required. · It must be tubeless. Non-negotiable. You cannot ride through the thorns we have everywhere in the Cape with inner tubes and you will also constantly be fixing pinch flats. RIMS I chose Stan’s Grail X which hooks up perfectly with tubeless tyres but they are simply too soft. I put 8 dents in them in the first 8 weeks. Alternatives would be a ‘ghetto tubeless conversion’ [you just build up the rim bed with a few layers of rim tape] but I have no experience with this. Another option would be to simply use 29er MTB rims [they are also ‘700c’ or 622 sized] but are quite a bit wider and I’m not sure how the tyres will sit on them. TYRES The bike came with Vittoria Xg pro 700x31c tyres and they are made for mud [very knobbly] and WAY too narrow [hence the 8 dents in my rear rim by the time my replacement tyres arrived] Next up I had a Challenge Gravel Grinder 700x38c on the back. Very nice tyre but although it is 38mm wide, it is not very high and you end up with too little volume to run it softer on poor terrain. Furthermore it’s not tubeless specific and climbs off the rim at higher pressures [more of this below]. The file thread did not last very long. I thought the answers to my prayers would be Continental Cyclocross Speed 700x35c. Perfect thread that should last much longer than the others and for the road, conti makes the only tyres I ever trusted to trained with. Also very light at 350gm. The first time I mounted them was fine but I took them off to try something else and a month later when I remounted them, my troubles started: · When I inflated them to anything over 45 PSI they would come of the rim. This happens suddenly. With no warning. And very loudly. I don’t like it. · They oozed Stan’s fluid through the sidewalls ???! this continued for 2 weeks and I have now put an inner tube in them. see picture So although they are brilliant tyres, I now have two of them that I will try to run with tubes through the winter when we have less thorns but will not buy them again The tyre I was least excited about was WTB cross Boss 700x35c. [heavy, large knobs so noisy and does not roll well on the road] . Man, was I wrong about them. Hooking them up tubeless is a non-issue. No punctures. Although they are 35 wide, they are about 38mm high and this volume makes it easy to run them at pressures down to 27PSI off road. If the thread design was closer to the Contis’, I would stop my search for sure TUBELESS Setting a T/L specific tyre and rim combo up is extremely easy. The problem is the paucity of options when it comes to my T/L tyre requirements and invariably you will use non-T/L tyre. They usually work well except that you have a very limited range of pressures you can run them at. Tyre pressure is much more of an issue on a CX bike than any other type. So if you ride off road, you want them around 30 PSI and on the road as high as you can. The indicated pressures on the side walls are completely irrelevant. The most revealing bit of info has been the very fine print on the Stan’s rim: depending on the tyre width, the max pressure for a 23mm tyre is 116, for a 28mm it is 100 and for 32mm it is only 45 PSI ! If you inflate a [especially a non T/L ] tyre to 46 PSI, it will come off. Suddenly. Loudly. You put a tube in it and you can go much higher – this is something I find mildly puzzling but it’s a fact. So as with most things, engineering is the art of balancing compromises and no set up will by flawless. I will settle for the WTB Cross Boss and may even try their 40mm Nano [weighs a tonne though] on the rear. When it’s time to replace my rims, I would hopefully have more options as tubeless disk rims should expand a lot in the next few years.

After about 3000km i think it's time for an update. the wheels remain my biggest issue. i put a dent in the rear rim on my 5th ride and in the next 8weeks it took me to get a replacement rim, there were a further 7 dings in it- see picture. either: the rim is too soft,i ride it like a MTB on inappropriate surfaces orthe tyres are the problem my first solution was new tyres: i now have WTB Cross Boss up front [35x700c]. this is a brilliant tyre i can recommend. it has very good volume [more than the 38mm i have on back] and is designed for tubeless so i can run high pressures for road riding. knobs prominent enough to hook up in corners yet rolls well on tarmac. at the back i have Challenge Gravel Grinder 38mm semi slick. very nice Italian that few people know here. specialize in handmade CX tubulars and this is their only vulcanized tyre. reasonably light [375gm and 120TPI sidewalls], but not very durablecame off the rim when i ran it at 55psi [with quite a nasty bang!] as it's not tubeless dedicatedalthough very wide, volume is not great and you still hit the rim when run under 30psi on rocky terrainin general, i run the tyres a little harder than ideal [30-35] now to prevent rim damage Comfort: this is a tight frame for technical riding and i have certainly stuck to the wheel of very skilled mountain bikers in twisty terrain. it ride a good surface very well. on long road rides with stiff tyres, i think my old Colnago C40 is more comfortable and better for whole day in the saddle rides [i do very few of those nowadays]. Brakes: they are crap. when campag brings out hydraulics with mechanical shifting, ill upgrade for sure. Feel good factor: 110% ! i simply do not want to ride my very nice MTB on anything other than dedicated off-road rides

This was my first option but varying reports on sammy slicks - often problems running them tubeless at anything higher than 40psi

Could not get the local Colnago agents to even answer the phone so i ordered everytheing except for wheels from abroad. that was R58k

Good to know there are local alternatives....even if it is Specialized ['Generalized' would be more appropriate name IMHO] i am planning to experiment a bit and have ordered 3 tyres from abroad and will post once i have tried them: challenge gravel grinder 38mm - file thread Continental cyclocross speed [35mm] - file thread WTB CrossBoss 35mm - actually as a better rolling front tyre as i'll put the file tread higher vulome tyres at the backfinally- standard valves so i have no problem inflating them