Introducing…

Il Bambino!

Just call me “Bambi”.

I picked up my new baby yesterday afternoon- I’m so excited!! He’s so pretty! And light. Especially for a steel frame.

This build out isn’t perfect though. There’s an issue with the chain tension that can’t easily be resolved. But it’s functional at the moment. I also am not happy with my freewheel- but again, functional. and I may need a new stem at some point, and my brakes are a bit “soft”.

But all these things are not-picky and can be solved over time. They really aren’t deal breakers. And in the meantime I finally own a Cinelli bike.

40 years after falling in love with them.

Because I left work early to go to the bike shop to discuss the whole chain tension issue (long story short, the dropouts aren’t long enough to properly tension the chain), I was left with plenty of time to do an inaugural ride last night. I think I I would have enjoyed it more had i not been paranoid and anxious the whole time.

Since I did a lot of the build myself, I was worried that I might have screwed something up. Was everything tight enough? What if the brakes fail? What if I blow a tire? What if the wheels literally come off? So the entire ride was spent taking note of every bump, every vibration, every sound. Checking steering. Everything.

First impressions? It rode extremely well. The frame feels stiff enough in the right places, but the ride was not harsh. The bike felt responsive- like when I needed to accelerate for a hill the bike said “ok- let’s!” Steering is borderline twitchy, but some of that is the slightly longer stem and narrower bars.

The ride position (after I tweaked cockpit fit with seat height, seat angle, bar height, etc) felt really pretty good. I did a fairly fast 24 miles last night and nothing really hurt afterward- especially my back. It actually felt like the ride was easy. And I was on the drop portion of the bars for most of the ride.

I guess there’s a reason those Cinelli criterion bars are popular!

I plan to ride him on a longer ride this weekend to show him off and also to gain trust in the build and comfort on the bike. Naturally I’ll post about it. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well!

Falling in love again… never wanted to… what am I to do? Can’t help it.