It’s time to address the elephant in the room–specifically, the pink one:
Of my current road bikes, the Roadini sits at the top of the pile:
Though this past Friday we got screwed pretty badly:
See?
If you look closely it looks like it even left an exit wound in the sidewall:
This was my first time deploying the whimsically-named “Mike Frameplumper” frame pump in battle and I’m pleased to report it worked beautifully, bringing the tire to full pressure in just a few strokes.
And yes, I’m still using the tire.
By the way, Mike Framepumper is of course an homage to the 1970s adult film star of the same name:
Oh, and here’s what the AI gives you if you tell it to generate an image for “Mike Frameplumper:”
Presumably if you were to zoom out you’d find he wasn’t wearing pants.
But yes, when it comes to my road bikes–by which I mean the sporty pavement-oriented bikes with drop bars I ride in ritualistic fashion, complete with special clothes and shoes–the Roadini is currently the Top Dog; the Alpha Male; the Mike Frameplumper of the bunch:
This is by virtue of its optimal-for-an-aging-Fred combination of comfort, versatility, and aesthetics, and the bike I would put forth as most representative of my current road cycling ethos.
Then there’s the Milwaukee–a.k.a. the Rolling 105 Showcase–which I also rode this past weekend:
It’s also nothing short of excellent, and while it has been supplanted as my Primary All-Around Road Bike by the Roadini…
…it has stepped into its latest role as a modern road bike without hesitation, and is acquitting itself with aplomb.
But then on Sunday I rode the Faggin, and I must admit I found it deeply vexing:
The recent addition of some premium Campagnolo components notwithstanding, it is otherwise a hodge-podge, right down to the 130mm rear wheel jammed rudely into its 126mm rear end.
And yet, as I headed out for my Sunday ride, my impression of the bicycle’s ride quality was that it was…and how do I say this without sounding like one of those wine taster assholes…exquisite?
This troubles me because I don’t really understand what’s going on here. With the Roadini there’s no great mystery: it’s longer and slacker than a race bike, plus it accommodates wider tires, so of course it’s going to feel more stable and comfortable. But why the difference between these two similarly-proportioned bikes?
It’s not like the Milwaukee doesn’t feel great, because it does; it’s just that there’s an extra plushiness to the Faggin that feels like the way bike reviewers are always telling you steel and titanium frames are supposed to feel. Both bikes are even using the same wheels, an in fact the tires on the Milwaukee are wider, while the Faggin is shod in 23s, which I’m not even sure it’s legal to use anymore. Usually the tires are the main determinant when it comes to how your bike feels, but I’m not sure that’s what’s going on here.
So is it the tubing? I don’t know what the Faggin is made from, for its original seat tube decal has been lost to the ravages of time:
Certainly the tubes are quite skinny by modern standards, but can you really feel the difference between frames made from different tubesets? That famous blind test suggest that you can’t:
Maybe it’s as simple as the differences between the front ends of the bikes. The MIlwaukee uses a threadless 1 1/8th” headtube and “oversized” (now standard) bar:
Whereas the Faggin uses the 1″ threaded configuration of yesteryear, along with a light (probably too light) 26.0 handlebar:
Certainly it seems like I can see the fork deflecting quite a bit on the Faggin too, so maybe that’s it.
Or is it the haggard, eclectic character of the Faggin that informs this sensation? Perhaps the surprising gap between its rough appearance and its smooth performance alone is enough to register as an extra layer of ride quality that is somehow “magical:”
The Super Record probably also helps, as it’s very, very nice, plus no roadie is immune to the psychological effect of riding a fully (or in this case mostly) Italian bicycle. And I can’t also rule out the cumulative effect of three days of cycling, culminating in Sunday’s ride, by which point I had a few miles in my legs and was feeling concomitantly more sprightly.
Whatever it is, while I won’t profess to fully understand what makes bikes feel the way they do–especially road bikes, which are so similar and so minimal–I will add the Faggin to a short list of road bikes that I found ride the way they’re “supposed” to, including the Davidson:
And the LeMond:
And the Litespeed:
By the way, it would be easy for me to conclude that titanium bikes ride the way everyone says they do except for the fact that I’ve not found this universally to be the case:
It was a very cool bike and lots of fun to ride, but it didn’t evoke the usual titanium clichés for some reason.
Clearly I need to try more titanium bikes.
Most vexing of all is that now I run the risk of getting carried away with the Faggin. Clearly I should enjoy the bike for the happy accident that it is, but instead I find myself tempted to to fill in the missing Super Record bits or put some zippy superlight wheels on it or have it refinished to meet its full aesthetic potential:
Better to quit while I’m ahead.
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