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colnago ace

the colnago ace is from the second generation of colnago's revolution, part of the 2010 range and very definitely aimed at the cycle sportive rider, adhering to what colnago refer to as real x geometry. this, aside from relaxing the geometry from normal colnagos, the head tube is raised by approximately 20mm; basically the ace has a less stretched out position than my c40 or, for instance, the eps. the head tube on this model is quite enormous both in height and girth, the latter directed by the imposition of colnago's relatively new chs semi-integrated headset system. the length sits you a bit higher up: side by side comparison with my aging c40 had the bars about three centimetres higher, though in mitigation the bike tested was a 52cm sloping, translating to a 56cm regular frame. my c40 is a 54cm. the top tube is also a smidgeon shorter than would be the case on a more aggressive frame.

up till now, carbon bikes such as the clx and the cx-1 built in colnago's taiwanese factory have featured a monocoque front triangle and a variant on the b-stay added at step two. the ace differs in this respect by being a complete monocoque construction front to back. with such an enlarged head tube, there is more real estate at the point of contact for the other two tubes, resulting in a fine degree of heft in the top tube which subsequently tapers inwards towards the seat tube. such a decrease in size is not a problem that troubles the down tube, which remains colossal from head tube to bottom bracket. this, not unnaturally results in an enormous bottom bracket area before reaching the chainstays which have a not entirely attractive square, box section profile, including a very chunky integrated bridge behind the seat tube/bb junction. the seatstays commence their rearward travel a touch lower than the end of the sloping top tube.

again, the top of the wishbone is of square, chunky profile. i know not enough about bicycle frame design to comment on the construction of this rear triangle, but it does rather fly in the face of the italian style we hoped we might receive from cambiago's design department. the leaf stays featured on the clx and the eps are far more aesthetically pleasing and, on having ridden both of these bikes, seems to have functional advantages too. the front fork bears a 1.125" carbon steerer and is, visually at least, similar to the current crop of forks fitted to most of the 2010 colnago range, with external ribbing and those horrible dropouts that convert a quick release into a flipping nuisance. still, that's legislation.

the componentry is an exercise in colnago branding: the calipers are painted red and bear the colnago logo, but they bear an uncanny resemblance to fsa brakes. the tyres are labelled colnago iii but are in fact kenda 23mm road tyres with a subtle herring-bone file tread. saddle is a colnago z5, made by whom, i know not, though it does have one of those increasingly trendy cutouts in the centre to relieve perineal pressure. gears are by campagnolo taken from the veloce groupset, with black anodised ergopower levers and rear mech. the front mech has a more pleasant plain anodised cage. surprisingly, to me at least, is the inclusion of khamsin wheels with a 12-25 campagnolo cassette.

strangely, when the clx was released, a number of folks, self included, enquired about the possibility of a campagnolo equipped version (subsequently built-up by windwave as a uk special). the answer as to why this was not possible had to do with shipping components all the way from vicenza to taiwan, when shimano bits were geographically a lot closer. i know not what has changed in the interim, but it's a very pleasant change to find campagnolo on a complete colnago bicycle.

chainset and bottom bracket are from the gossamer range by fsa, aluminium rather than carbon, as are the stem, handlebars and seatpost, all of which are painted white which, as i'm sure you all know, is the new black. the stem is 120mm though i'd still prefer a 130mm, but that is something that can be replaced after purchase for not a heck of a lot of pennies. the seatpost is a 31.6mm aluminium model; strange to see aluminium after all those years filled with carbon fibre. it took a deal of patience to set the saddle level due to the twin bolt system, this time side by side rather than the more usual front and back. far too fiddly by half: there's really little wrong with the original single rear bolt seat pin. i have no idea why it's necessary to footer about looking for another way of accomplishing a fairly basic task.

being a colnago aficionado for more years than i care to admit, i find myself not entirely in favour of the current paintwork on the 2009/2010 bikes. i can't fault the quality, that has rarely been in question, but the geometrics - which are presumably easier to apply - really don't do it for me. however, this is an area of subjectivity, since i know of one or two others who find them quite impressive.

riding the colnago ace

scanning the frame's statistics and assessing the componentry are all well and good, but the big test is whether the combination of both translate into an enjoyable and rideable bicycle. while there are one or two tweeks i'd be inclined to carry out were this bike a permanent resident in thewashingmachinepost bike shed, the above is the way any purchaser will receive the ace, so i have tested it as such; the only addition was my own pair of mavic ti race pedals.

this particular machine has a whisky addiction: prior to it finding its way to islay, it had been ridden over a prospective speyside whisky trail by richard goslan, a writer for the scotch malt whisky society's member magazine. bearing in mind that the ace is specifically aimed at the sportive market, it seemed a fine idea at the time to continue this malt trend and to ride the bicycle over the sort of distance that would match that of a sportive. in this case, a 100km ride visiting all but one of islay's distilleries: ardbeg, lagavulin, laphroaig, caol ila, bunnahabhain, bruichladdich and bowmore (when time allows, i'll relate this in a future article)

it's a very comfortable ride, taking into consideration the state of some of the roads covered across all those kilometres. despite the unearthly proportions of at least three of the tubes in the front triangle, comfort was never a factor for concern, despite my having never sat on one of those holy saddles before. strangely this latter component was surprisingly comfortable over the first forty odd kilometres before it started to become a bit irritating. saddles are very definitely open to choice - one man's seat is another woman's agony. steering was very much on the uncanny side; i'm a very crap descender, and while islay has few descents that would trouble the professional peloton, the surefootedness of the colnago range is a joy to behold. the ace corners and descends as if it were on rails, something that has been an integral part of every colnago i have ridden. it seemingly makes little or no difference whether the bike is made from tubes and lugs or of monocoque construction, rather negating, in my opinion, those italophiles who are unwilling to accept that a far eastern built colnago could ever be the same as one put together under ernesto's house. i think they're wrong.

it is most certainly incumbent on any sportive bicycle to be able to climb, given that many of the world's rides seem to be in competition with each other as to how many metres of ascending they can cram in between start and finish. the ace climbs just fine thanks very much, but it's just a sliver of carbon fibre off having that je ne sais qua something that the clx achieves just a wee bit more and which my c40, the c50 and most definitely the eps have in spades. years ago i owned a 653 reynolds frame, the rear triangle of which was reynolds 753; this had a beautiful spring in its step, as do the aforementioned colnagos, that could be smilingly experienced at the bottom of each pedal stroke. climbing hard, you can feel the ace just hovering on the edge of this, but not quite getting there to the degree that would raise a smile.

if i'm correct in my observation and assumption, the ace seems to have very similar square section chainstays to that of the rock, colnago's 2010 mountain bike. since road bikes and mountain bikes have differing expectations, i'm not sure that giving them ostensibly the same stays does what it needs to do. as mentioned above, i'm no expert in this area, but there is definitely room for improvement in this area, something colnago has already proved it can do.

flatland acceleration is nothing to write home about, though i'm willing to take at least part of the blame for this. however, given the market that it is unashamedly aimed at, a whole ton of sprinting is unlikely to be on its menu very often. it's not slow, but standing on the pedals and unleashing everything you've got, doesn't translate into breathtaking forward motion. it's likely the bike's real x geometry is partly to blame, but in this case, i can't honestly say it's too much of a problem. the bike isn't the lightest colnago i've ever ridden, but it rides a lot lighter than its numbers would indicate.

as someone who doesn't get on at all well with shimano levers, the 2010 veloce hoods were a welcome ally. campagnolo have got the ergonomics just right in my opinion, the extended tops giving a couple of extra comfortable hand positions. shifting was a mite clunkier than those groupsets above it in the food chain (centaur, chorus etc.), but all shifts were solid and perfectly predictable. i had to make no adjustments to the rear changing from arrival to despatch. unfortunately, i couldn't give the same thumbs up to the front changer which, despite being correctly setup, always failed to move from inner to outer ring with one swipe of a finger, and it was a bit slow to move in the opposite direction. however, this is all relative, since i normally ride record, and probably something that i'd have become accustomed to over time.

my usual criticisms of the fsa compact chainset apply to this one too. with a 12-25 cassette, i really cannot understand why someone found it necessary to widen the chainring gap to 16 from the more regular 14 of a 53/39 setup. this still results in having to shift back a sprocket after clicking into the big ring - i'm getting used to this, but i still find it irritating.

i have an inbuilt prejudice against boutique wheels, particularly at the lower end of the market inhabited by such as the campagnolo khamsins, predominantly because of the paucity of spokes, strange spoking patterns and what often seem to be spokes of unnatural thinness. the rear khamsin has an unusual 27 spokes grouped in threes, while the front has 24 also grouped in threes. it's hard to tell whether this is done for the reason of being different or whether someone at vicenza has a different take on wheel rigidity. either way, it seems that they may just be right on the money. of course, short of swapping to different wheels, it's hard to tell how much the frame is compensating, but since all my alternatives are considerably pricier than the khamsins, it seemd a tad pointless to experiment.

i apologise here to kenda tyres for not really expecting too much on these colnago badged 23mm. these were ridden in very dry conditions, very wet conditions and everything in between and were every bit the equal of the rubinos fitted to the clx that preceded the ace in the grand round of bicycle testing. i have no idea what tubes were under those treads, but i didn't need to inflate them once over a two week period. just the sort of rubber we need on our side. stopping that rubber was the job of the colnago branded calipers, the front version of which worked really well, while the rear always felt a bit spongey. this may have been the fault of the cable routing between the rear top tube stop and the caliper itself, but it was hardly a major cause for concern.

rightly or wrongly, my standard test for lateral wheel rigidity is to stick it in a big gear, then give it some welly up a lengthy hill. this is where my problem with a low spoke count usualy kicks in, with the rim rubbing quite noticeably on the brake pads. on the khamsins, it didn't happen; well, that's not entirely true, there was slight movement, but not enough to write home about. the wheels also seemed comfortable enough despite straight spokes and radial front, and while many have criticised campagnolo's revamped skewers, i thought they were ok. while in the process of unleashing some welly on the wheels, it was very noticeable that there was no movement whatsoever from the bottom bracket area, but given the size of that part of the frame, i would have been very surprised if my tinsy thigh muscles could have accomplished this anyway.

i've tested the bar and stem combo before, so nowt to say here other than they continued the bike's overall comfort trend with no suprises. and they're very white. there was again the usual find the serial number competition, this time it's stamped on the inside of the left rear dropout.

all in all, the ace is a very successful attempt at a sportive bike; the ride position has been very well thought out, though i'm not too sure that colnago needed to come up with a name for it (real x). on my 100km ride i felt perfectly comfortable all day, and not too stirred or shaken at home time. it's hard to say whether the integrated headset makes that much difference to the bike's handling, or the massively oversized tubes (sic) but that is very much the way of the bicycle world these days and cambiago seem intent on being part of it. who can blame them really, since fashion is just as applicable to bicycles as it is to most everything else.

the colnago ace is available in eight different sizes, and two colourways (you can have white other than the red and white tested) for £2299. a most enjoyable ride, and a bike that could well attract a newer, younger and perhaps less experienced cyclist to the colnago fold. yes there are niggles, but none of them are insurmountable, mostly confined to the componentry and the realms of subjectivitiy and comparison. the frame is a colnago through and through (though i do have my concerns over those chainstays).

posted saturday 12th september

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