She’s a fast bike. She’s ultra quiet and there’s zero rolling resistance. She pretty much makes the little hill I live on non-existant!
I spent a fair amount of time late yesterday afternoon and night tuning the Paino. The first thing I did was take off the drop bars and whack on some flat bars I had lying around. The flat bars cramped up the position quite a lot in comparisson to riding on drop bars (and holding on to the brake hooks). The flat bars are about 130mm closer to the saddle and my knees come pretty close to the bars when taking off from a standstill. Still… the bike is instantly more familiar and playful with the flat bars. They’re 580mm wide though and they looked stupid (my research tells me most people who use flat/rider bars on roadies cut them down to 500mm). I moved the grips in to where 500mm is and found it fine.
I then tried some riser bars (the damaged carbon ones off my Reign). I cut these down to 500mm and I’m liking them a lot more both in feel (and looks!). I also took the massive front chainring off as it was so damn huge it looked like a 3rd wheel. Having done that I also took off the front derailleur and shifter too. I also put the massive heavy retro plastic Selle saddle back on as it’s a lot comfier than the Selle SLR.
The bike’s in the 8kg’s now. Once the exchange rate goes up I’ll hopefully track down a few goodies. My wishlist goes something like this:
– Nitto annodised (green?) risers.
– Velocity Deep-V wheelset (something bright and in your face!).
– Saddle (thinking BMX saddle for something bright, not sure).
– Some whack track pedals with sexy toe clips and leather strappage.
– Paul love levers + sexy cables (I’m making do with only a front brake off my old Specialized Hardrock at the moment).