societa colnago

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societa colnago | colnago c40 | colnago c40hp | colnago c50hp | colnago dream |
colnago teams since 1968 | robert millar c40 review | colnago clx | colnago c50 2007 |
colnago arte 2008 | colnago eps | colnago cx-1 | ernesto colnago interview 2008 |
colnago ace | colnago clx 2.0 | colnago super | colnago c59

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colnago clx centaur

centaur ultrashift

buy a standard colnago clx, and you have an option of two groupsets, both of which come from the shimano stable. this is purportedly becasue shimano make the groupsets in the same part of the world as the frames, thus kitting each bike costs a bit less than trailing stuff from vicenza halfway across the world. but some of us either just don't get on with shimano for one reason or another, others find it sacrilege to fit anything other than campagnolo to a colnago frame, and for some it's both.

fortunately, for buyers in britain, colnago uk had sufficient enquiries from campagnolo loving prospective colnago owners, that they decided to take matters into their own hands and offer a campagnolo equipped colnago clx to those who desire just such an option. ten speeds, in my opinion, are more than enough for any man/woman, a stand with which colnago uk either have great sympathy, or it simply becomes a case of keeping the top line under £3000 by speccing centaur, the only quality groupset left in the vicenza panoply that still sports an even number of sprockets.

while the clx frame has changed very little from my initial test bike of two years ago, as a confirmed campagnolo acolyte, how could i possibly pass up the opportunity to test ride same frame, different channel? when windwave are not being colnago uk, they are one of the principal importers of fsa equipment, therefore it comes as little surprise that much of the bike's componentry has been lifted from the latter's catalogue. so while the levers, calipers and rear mech all say campagnolo, the front mech, carbon chainset, wheels, stem and bars are full speed ahead.

of course, in the fast moving modern world of the bicycle, things do not remain the same for long. i had a bit of bother with the team issue carbon chainset when the bike arrived at first; either a problem with the component, or something dastardly done to it by the previous reviewer. to make my life an even happier one, windwave promptly despatched a new slk pro set, apparently now the standard chainset on this purchase, while the rd 220 wheelset has now been upgraded to the rd400eu. and not only were they willing to ship the new chainset, but gave me the option to specify crank length: so i dropped from 172.5 to 170.

there will always be the campagnolo v shimano debate, joined now by sram to make it a three-way split. while i have no qualms about riding a shimano equipped bike (though i'm happy to make jokes about it), i just don't get on with the sti levers. the only levers from shimano that i have found heading towards comfort in my feeble hands were the dura ace di2 - ultegra and 105 need not apply. however, i confess ashamedly that this is the first opportunity i've had to try campagnolo's new ultrashift carbon levers, and those new directional curves.

colnago clx

as time goes along, i find myself further and further out of tune with the current trend in boutique wheels. this is purely a personal stance, because the bulk of the offerings from all directions do their job perfectly well, at a price that many can afford, and often have the advantage of making the bicycle to which they are fitted look fast even leaning against a wall. however, my limited wheelbuilding skills far prefer a reasonable complement of spokes both front and rear, and have little truck with the de rigeur radial build front. the fsa rd 220 fit the profile to a tee, exhibiting all the advantages - stiffness, light weight, semi aero rim- as well as the downsides - flex in the rear, stiffness, trueing. the latter really s a footer, because the nipples are hidden inside the rim, necessitating tyre, tube and rim tape removal before employing a special tool to deal with those hidden nipples. too much faff, and i doubt the professed advantages outweigh any of it.

however, the bits that really were a bit of a (trivial) pain, were the skewers. yes, they held the wheels in place with great tenacity, but it seemed that no matter how much or how little tension was applied, the darned things creaked. substituting a pair of campagnolo skewers removed the noise entirely.

and while we're talking about skewers, it's still a bit of a nuisance to have those lawyer's lips on the front carbon fork. i lent the bike to double british road race champion, brian smith, during a brief visit to the isle, a part of which involved taking pictures for jez hastings' wheely wild maintenance. what a to do, trying to remove the front wheel. i know it's a legal necessity somewhere in the world, but that doesn't make it any less of a pain.

the fsa wheels featured a pair of vittoria rubino clinchers which were a total revelation - for a relatively cheap pair of tyres, they managed wet, windy and rough with ease: never a wary moment, and an excellent advert for themselves.according to colnago, only one of the tubes on the clx frame has been altered since its inception: sadly they failed to say which one, though my money is on the top tube. of course, with the front triangle being of monocoque construction, these are tubes only visually, not in entity. everything leads to a rather large, but smoothly sculpted bottom bracket union. here there is no attempt to disguise the fact of the frame's one piece construction, but i can't help thinking that there are few on the planet that could give the central nervous system of the clx a hard time.

colnago clx

the all-carbon fork, including the steerer, is specific to the clx range, echoing the fluted design of the frame's main tubes, and featuring fairly substantial legs. with a 1.125" headset, there is no lack of steering rigidity. sort of at the other end, the saddle was a team colnago branded prologo, sort of flite shaped, and with minimal padding atop the model specific carbon seatpost. with a teardrop shaped seat-tube (featuring a cut-out at the back to accommodate a close rear tyre) the seatpost takes the same form, meaning there is no trouble making sure the saddle is always pointing in the right direction.

it seems that white is the new black, certainly on the model sent for review. the paint is applied over the bare carbon, so all those colnago logos and legends are reversed out - a neat touch and an indication that colnago has lost little of its attention to detail even this far from cambiago. the visual effect is topped off with an fsa white aluminium stem and white, wing pro compact bars also from fsa. headset was an fsa 360 degree cartridge model.

driving the clx

thanks to the largesse of colnago uk, i had my first opportunity for a long-term test, in this case, pretty much three months. i even used it for the 160+ kilometres of the ride of the falling rain, meaning that it had well over 1200km on the clock by the time it went back into its larg(ish) cardboard box for the trip back to gosport. i'm not really one for comparison write-ups, since i rather regard those as often a bit on the irrelevant side, but it seems prudent to have a brief look at the clx and my company c40hp side by side. they're both such hugely different bicycles, but both identifiably colnagos.

colnagos are comfortable bikes, as epitomised to the nth degree in the range topping eps, yet giving nothing away in the stiffness stakes, should you deem that a necessary feature of your new bike. the tubes on the c40 are spindly by comparison with modern offerings, providing what could best be described as a relaxed riding atmosphere, yet hardly deficient in the speed and navigational department - it is, after all, colnago's most successful bicycle to date. the clx, on the other hand, is a nippy little machine, able to turn on a sixpence, cornering as if on rails: if allowed only one word, it would be tight.

colnago clx

the clx exhibits more sense of urgency than the c40, but yet has a degree of comfort that is difficult to match with its active profile. i'm not naive enough to believe that colnago own the copyright on this, but they have got it down to a fine art. one of the riders attending the ride of the falling rain had asked in advance for a test ride the afternoon before, and he undertook all the aerobatics one would expect during such a test: sprinting, climbing, u-turns and there was seemingly no area in which the clx was deficient. whether he subsequently purchases one remains to be seen, but impressive it certainly was.

it's sort of a well known secret that the clx was colnago's first answer to the emerging sportive market, with its very long head tube and slightly more upright riding position, so employing it for the ride of the falling rain was most definitely a case of horses for courses, with very much a positive result. islay's roads, in keeping with much of the uk, are hardly billiard table smooth, the buzz from which was comprehensively damped by the clx carbon. after 160+ kilometres i was stirred but not shaken.

campag's centaur gearing exhibits no real surprises. changes are light and airy, and it was interesting to compare this with shimano's di2, as the focus izalco crossed paths with the clx for a week or so. the centaur would give rise to questioning why you'd want electronics in the first place. the new ultrashift levers make the original ergopower carbons feel as if from the dinosaur era, and when you switch from new to old, it feels as if the bars are about two inches wider than you thought they were. adjusting the front mech was a precision affair; when the bike arrived, the front mech overshifted the big ring without so much as a bye-your-leave. adjusting the outer limit screw would work so far, before knocking the cage back a notch just too far. however, once set, front changes were accomplished with ease.

reverting to my earlier unsupported remarks about boutique wheels, the fsa rd 220 rode pretty much the way i thought they might. in general, this is perfectly acceptable, but i did switch to my chris kings for a day, and the difference was palpable, particularly in the front. with only 22 radial spokes, there's not much that the front hoop can do to isolate the rider from apple crumble surface dressing, and certainly not from gaping holes in the surface, while the rear, sporting 28 spokes in an interesting lace pattern had a tendency to flex under pressure, usually of an upward nature. in mitigation, these would not be the first or only wheels to ride in this fashion. that said, they did perform well, not going even slightly out of true despite a diet of pot holes and cattle grids. i do prefer handbuilts with at least 32 spokes, but that likely says more about me than it does about fsa (as mentioned above, this particular build now features rd 400eu wheels, the very wheels fitted to the cx-1 tested last year.)

rubino pro

since the replacement chainset was brand new, that has been reviewed elsewhere on the post. the only really niggle worth noting is fsa's insistence that you fit a supplied pair of washers between chainset and pedals. why this cannot be integrated with the crank arms, i do not understand. the chainset itself, however, was superb. still shiny after all these days.

it would have been lovely to have kept a brace of colnagos sitting in thewashingmachinepost bikeshed: one c40 and one clx, because i throughly enjoyed switching between the two. it likely seems a bit of an indulgence to have a colnago for every mood, because i'm sure the master x-light awaiting a build in the same shed would cover whatever gap remains between the former two. it's nice to see a national distributor taking the lead from its customer base and producing a model to fill a perceived gap. in this, windwave are to be roundly congratulated. certainly it's around £100 more than the ultegra specced model from colnago italy, but that's a small premium to pay for the privilege of owning and riding a campagnolo equipped colnago.

it's sod's law that just when i have the opportunity to test a colnago for an extended period of time, that before the test was finished and written-up, colnago nullified at least a portion of my efforts by releasing an upgraded frame, the clx2. this bears a positive resemblance to the tested model, but having now fitted the cs-2 semi-integrated headset, the larger diameter head-tube has allowed for bigger main tubes. despite this, the weight has dropped to 1100g, and stiffness has been reportedly increased. thankfully, when cambiago make this statement, it rarely results in a decrease of comfort.

centaur rear mech

colnago uk plan to continue with the campag build on the clx, but are awaiting final price notification before confirming. either way, whether you sit and wait until the end of october for the clx2 or take the plunge and opt for the existing model, i can see little to moan about.

colnago

posted 11 august 2009

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societa colnago | colnago c40 | colnago c40hp | colnago c50hp | colnago dream |
colnago teams since 1968 | robert millar c40 review | colnago clx | colnago c50 2007 |
colnago arte 2008 | colnago eps | colnago cx-1 | ernesto colnago interview 2008 |
colnago ace | colnago clx 2.0 | colnago super | colnago c59

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