Some carbon bling

I've been quite content with my road bike which I put together about 18 months ago. Given our lack of disposable funds for my cycling habit, I built up an old Scott AFD aluminium frame from the mid 2000's that I got off Ebay with mostly Shimano 105 components that I acquired along the way. I'm quite happy with the geometry and the fit - it has a fairly long head tube so I can sit relativley upright which suits me with my back issues. I don't obsess too much about the bike fit thing. I'm inclined to think that if you are in the ball park with the frame size, you can fiddle around with different stem lengths and angles, seat heights and get it right. Mind you, I've never had a professional bike fit so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. I just put the seat as high as I can manage, adjust the handlebar to a height so that my back isn't too uncomfortable, then set the seat so my sit bones are across the widest part of the seat. It's fairly simplistic but it seems to work okay bacause I feel quite comfortable on the bike. My lower back is always an issue - I don't think any amount of bike fitting will change that - but I can generally still manage to walk upright after 4 or 5 hours in the saddle.

Anyway, the main problem with my frame (as with most aluminium frames) is that the ride is a bit on the harsh side. I fitted a carbon fork with a carbon steerer which made the front end a bit less skitty, but I still tend to feel every bump and roads with any sort of rough surface can be a bit of a pain. I've fancied getting a carbon fibre frame for a while because of it's 'laterally stiff yet vertically compliant' qualities (ie. it doesn't flex much when you pedal hard so all the power gets through to the back wheel, but it gives a bit when you go over bumps, absorbing some of the harshness). However, a new carbon fibre bike or a just a frame is out of my price range. I've been looking secondhand for the last six months or so and everything has either been the wrong size, too expensive or too crappy. I'm also bit concerned about buying secondhand CF in case there's any cracks etc., so I'm not keen on buying anything from interstate that I cant see first.

On Saturday a frame popped up on Gumtree. It was a large size Malvern Star Oppy Le Mauco full carbon frame, fork and headset, advertised for $300. It was from the first range of Malvern Star bikes that were relaunced on to the market in 2008 and the Le Mauco was the top of the range Dura-Ace equipped model, selling for around $4000. It was well reviewed and considered to be great value for money at the time and they got Phil Anderson to promote it, riding it around for a while extolling it's virtues. Looking at the opinions expressed at the time there seemed to be a bit of bike snobbery about Malvern Star, given that historcally it's been such a ubiqitous bike brand in Australia (undoubtedly the most recognised Australian bike brand - bit like Raleigh in England). Anyway, they're still around and making pretty good, well reviewed bikes.

So I rang up about it and the guy explained that there was a tiny crack in the white paint on one of the rear stays. He was working in a bike shop when he bought it back in 2008 and this was evidently a common problem with this model and, although there was no stuctural problems, the distributor still replaced the affected frames as a goodwill thing. Given this information I had my doubts about it, but still decided to go and have a look. It was in pretty good condition, with not a lot of use or abuse (nor any sign of a crash) evident. I had a close look at the crack, flexed the rear stay in and out to see if the crack opened up, which it didn't. I also did some research on paint cracks on carbon fibre and apparently it's not uncommon. Anyway, he seemed like a good guy and I satisfied myself that it was worth taking a punt on the frame, so we haggled and I got it for $275. I'm still not sure if I've done the right thing - I'll just keep an eye on it. Anyway, I built it up on Saturday night using the components from the Scott. Most of the bits date from around the same time as the frame (Shimano 5700 series shifters and derailluers, Ultegra calipers and FSA Gossamer compact crankset) which is a good thing. It looks a treat:

I took it for a short spin on Sunday and it's very nice. It's lighter (but still a tad over 9kg because my components aren't exactly light) and is significantly smoother than the old frame. To try it out I went up the Veloway back down again. The path is quite rough and the decent can be bit hairy in spots but it was so much smoother than the old bike. I straight away felt confident and comfortable on it, which is a good sign. I'm looking forward to taking it out next weekend for a longer ride. The fit is pretty good. The head tube is a bit shorter than the old bike but still not too extreme so my riding position is relatively relaxed. And so am I.