My new CX bicycle

I decided to try a cyclocross bike this season but I did not want to spend a lot of money on my 3rd bike so I bought an used frame at Allegro (sort of local Ebay) and plan to utilize unneeded bicycle parts. As usual, in the end, the bike price was considerably higher than planned.

The bike is equipped with a mixture of Campagnolo Centaur (Ergopowers, Rear Derailleurs and Crankset) and Veloce parts. Standard 53 chainring was replaced with 46 one (namely Spécialités T.A. Vento chainring bought here. Building Campagnolo equipped CX bike is not easy, particularly in Poland.

Timelapse video made with Coolpix S3000 compact camera run with gphoto2

Timelapse video made with RaspberryPi/RaspberryPi native camera

My love for Campagnolo faded out

As a dedicated fan of Campagnolo I was really disappointed to realize that removing Power Torque cranks can be a real problem. I see no point of designing two incompatibly cranks but to get extra money from the customers.

If one has to deinstall PT cranks one has to use a tool which is ridiculously expensive (100--150 EUR). The bike shop which services my bike refused to buy it and I do not blame them. They service three Campagnolo bikes (two of them Ultra Torque).

Fortunately for me they managed to get a tool using their contacts with CCC cycling team. (BTW CCC do not ride Campagnolo any more but they did in the past).

The tool in question is depicted below (it is the cheapest tool as far as I know):

The tool is so uncomplicated that it seems not particularly difficult to make a homemade copy. That's why Campagnolo do not sell it on their own?

Lime green Hüdz replacements hoods

I have bought Hüdz replacements hoods for my Campagnolo Ergopowers. I insist on lime (Milano Lime) ones and thus have some problems to get them. There are in stock at Wiggle but Available to order, stock expected Mid January 2013 and the delivery costs are high as it is 14 GBP for an 19 GBP item.

I have found a cheaper seller at Ebay, namely mojo-cycles. Not only the hoods arrived within a week (very fast) but the seller refunded 8 dollars for excessive delivery costs! In result, I paid ca 18 GBP for the item and delivery.

Mojo-cycles appeared to be an excellent seller.

My new road bike

Details on my new road bike: Campagnolo Centaur 10s groupset + Ridley aluminium frame with a (full) carbon fork.

I bought Centaur groupset from www.bike24.com. Complains can be found in the Internet forums concerning theirs service but in my case everything was OK!