Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready tire mounted on Fulcrum Airbeat 400 wheel
The rear tire started showing wear through the tread at 2050 miles and I retired it 30 miles later. I attribute the wear to my weight (~211 lbs – 97.7 kg).
The front tire, after almost 3300 miles seems to have a lot of tread left. In the center of the tire, there is still a trace of the flash.
Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready front tire wear after 3300 mi
I replaced the rear tire with a 700×28 Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR and went tubeless. The Continental tire has a little over 1200 miles on it and the wear indicators are still showing. I did get a puncture, a 1.5 mm long cut in the tire (probably from a glass shard), that the Orange Seal Endurance sealant sealed.
For safety’s sake (see this video of my descent down Conzelman Road in the Marin Headlands), I decided to patch the tire from the inside. I removed the tire, cleaned out the sealant and put a round Rema patch over the hole. I’m wondering what other high performance tubeless road tires there are that are slightly more puncture and cut resistant.
2022 Team Cofidis De Rosa Merak; Photography by bike-room.com
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 $9600LESS than buying it from a US dealer. But it would take 75 days to build and ship.
Photography by bike-room.com
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.
Photography by bike-room.com
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.
Photography by bike-room.com
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.
My De Rosa Merak has a carbon fiber seat post secured by a wedge type clamp. When I first started riding it (I bought the bike used), the seatpost kept slipping. I completely cleaned the seat post and the seat tube and used Finish Line Fiber Grip Carbon Fiber Bicycle Assembly Gel (affiliate link). The seat post still slipped when I torqued the bolt to the max 6 N⋅m.
I don’t know if I imagined seeing it done before but I thought that a piece of sandpaper glued to the back of the seatpost might help.
I completely cleaned the back of the seat post and using wood glue, I glued a piece of 120 grit sandpaper about 2.5″ long and 3/4″ wide to the back of the seat post. I aligned the top edge of the sandpaper just below the top tube, where the clamp applies pressure. The seat post hasn’t slipped again; maybe it works as a shim and it definitely adds more friction.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
