Bicycle - Roadie Enthusiastico!

Bicycle - Roadie Enthusiastico!
entusiasmó mucho but not’so easy though’so...

Yes, I am a road bike enthusiast! I love the history, the color, the style, the EVERYTHING about road biking! But it was a long time , very long time coming and it did not come the easy way. Yes, my first real road bike was in high-school. My first taste for the Italian flavor also came during high school in the way of a Colnago lent for a quick test ride. But, I WAS HARDCORE BMX!

That lead to a fifteen year transition to mountain biking. It was a natural transition from BMX.
I would however ride the mountain bike on the road as I would ride tarmac to dirt trails. I would ride further are tarmac to further dirt trails and sometimes I would just ride on tarmac just to go see different sites. I would always see the road bike guys out pedaling, all so serious. Very few would talk to me as we would ride along. Sometimes I would get on a roadie wheel and try to tag along, sometimes I could keep up and sometimes even get a little pull only for the roadie to get out of the saddle and blaze off. I was always curious about road bikes, but never found an enthusiast that was enthusiastic enough to give me that spark.

It is easy to say in that fifteen years, there was or is a major separation between road bike enthusiast and mountain bike enthusiast. I did have a brief stint where I put a big chain-ring, flat bars, rigid fork and slick-fatty tires on my mountain bike. I did get my hands on the 1990 edition of Greg LeMonds Complete Book Of Bicycing. I was going to do the Rosarito to Ensenada 50-mile bike ride [not race]. I heard about the big mountain climb toward the end of the ride and the steep decent on the backside into town and how some bikers would run out the turns, skid road tires off the rims and generally run out of talent. So I wanted to be fast down the backside and I figured my mountain bike would be as stable fast if not faster than any road bike down the backside. Fatter tires I figured would yield more grip. I got passed by riders going up the hill, but I passed a lot of guys going down. A lot of guys would yell out for me to slow down, but I could see ahead and continued to push the limit. I did that event one time and converted my bike to full MTB-Spec. I’ve pedaled with 26” wheeled knobbies for 20+ years up to 2007. Started commuting with this bike to work too - knobbies slapping all the way on the nineteen mile commute - one way! My continuous commuting sparked a co-worker to start talking to me about road biking. We even started riding a loop together after work. I was clocking a total of roughly 65-miles a day! But I was push pedals hard when my buddy was coasting along side of me, tell me the whole time I should get a road bike. I was not having it! I remembered my old MTB’road conversion so I mounted up the fat-boy 1.50 slicks and was content enough for the time being because I was in the best physical shape of my life since high school!

I grew up also riding dirt bikes [motorcycles] and still ride so the mountain bike served and physical training for the motorcycles and the demanding terrain of the desert and mountains. But 2007 Turkey Day weekend while participating in the LA2B2V Desert Dual Sport Motorcycle event, the following day we where traversing the desert back home via dirt roads and trails. We wanted to do as much dirt as possible. I unfortunately had a nasty off. I actually broke my neck! And if any of you know anything about neck injuries, I broke the C1 bone and I am still walking with full use of all my limbs and zero physical side effects! Yes, walking miracle! I am now the unofficial-official spokes person for the Leatt-Brace®. Yes, I own one, yes I ride motorcycles and mountain bike still, but there was a very dark six week period where I was seriously thinking I would be doing some serious hiking going forward. Adventure is in my blood, by any means necessary.

When my rehabilitation got me back to active status, I asked if I could start back with some light mountain biking. Doctor said no, but I could do some road riding as long as it was not too rough. I was constantly monitored and was also doing lots of professional physical therapy. I was in heaven as I was putting in big miles again and getting pro-sports level physical therapy! My riding buddy finally broke me. I remember us going out Santiago Canyon Rd and going down a hill and him coasting up next to me while I was pedaling my brains out! Mind you, I had further reached for more efficiency by mounting up 1.25 tires instead of the fatty 1.50 tires. I gave in! I said OK! I WANT A ROAD BIKE!!! I finally had that enthusiast influence that I needed while seeing first hand how much more efficient the road bike was over the mountain bike. I knew it was all along, I was just resistant to joining the “roadie brigade!”

While I have kept a couple of my BMX bikes from my youth, I did not keep my road bike. It was about this time that I wish I had just because it had Campagnolo components on it. I do not even remember the name of the frame, but I do know it was Campagnolo equipped. My plan was if I was going to build my first serious road bike, I was going to be an Italian snob about it! It had to be Campagnolo equipped. There is no one particular pro that pops in my mind when I think Campagnolo. I just know the brand, bits of the history - most importantly they invented the rear derailleur, the mystique and the status within the circle of road biking. So that part was sorted.

One day I walked into a bike shop and this frame-set just spoke to me! I knew this was the bike for me!
I started a build-thread here: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?508867-Cinelli-Aliante