I’ve only been riding two bikes since the early 1980’s. For the past 10 years, I’ve been riding an Eddy Merckx restomod. Before that, I had been riding a De Rosa Professional that I built up in the 1984. I decided to finally buy a modern bike.
I wanted a carbon frame De Rosa. I had been looking at the Merak but I thought it was wack to pay $17,800 from a De Rosa North America dealer. When I looked at Cicli Corsa, the Italian online bike shop, their price for a De Rosa Merak Super Record EPS bike was close to $9600 LESS than buying it from a US dealer. But it would take 75 days to build and ship.
I found that Bike Room (which I highly recommend), another Italian online bike shop, had started offering De Rosa Merak Team Cofidis bikes from the 2022 season. I bought the size 54 bike that was used by Team Cofidis rider Jesús Herrada López, who won Stage 7 of the 2022 Vuelta a España (on what was now MY bike, maybe!). I received my new bike seven days after I ordered it.
The used bike was in great condition and came with Campagnolo 12 speed Super Record EPS v4 components, Fulcrum Airbeat 400 wheels, 700×28 Vittoria Rubino Pro tubeless ready tires, Vision Metron 5D integrated bars and a Selle Italia Novus Evo Pro Team saddle.
Jesús Herrada and I are about the same height, 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) but I’ve got him by about 21.3 kg (47 lbs) and 38 years. I had to make a few changes to the bike to accommodate my 71 year old, 93.75 kg body to ride a bike built for a 32 year old world class cyclist competing on the UCI WorldTour. I’m old and I’m pushing a lot of weight up hills.
For the drivetrain changes, I installed Campagnolo Super Record 50/34 chainrings (from 53/39) and a Campagnolo Chorus 12 speed 11-34 cassette (from a Record 11-29 cassette).
Also because of my weight, I installed a 160 mm (from 140 mm) Campagnolo 03 rotor for the rear disc.
The Vision Metron 5D integrated bars are 130×420 mm, appropriate for a World Tour racing bike and for a then 32 year old world class cyclist. It is a slight stretch for me to reach the bars. Remarkably my back has also not yet complained about the drop. A more suitable reach for me might be the 100×420 mm bars. But with Metron 5D bars running $650 and having to replumb the brakes and wiring going through the bars and stem, changing them has held me back.
The bike feels amazingly light compared to my 40 year old steel bikes. And on 7% and steeper hills, it climbs like the so called dream. If only it had a better engine.