My most faithful machine is my training roadie. The Wilier Triestina.
I bought her in 2004 from a middle aged guy in Darwin who used it as his training/rain bike. It was well and truly over the hill. Fitted with full Campagnolo Daytona running gear, including hubs laced to Mavic CPX23s. I picked the bike up for around a grand and removed most of the drive train to sell on eBay. For a measly couple of hundred bucks difference I upgraded the bike to Centaur and replaced the wheels with the wheels that came on the Cervelo R2.5.
Over the years the paint job started to lift as a result of sweat and rain so I stripped it back and repainted it by hand with Killrust.
For four years it has been my training bike, rain hail or shine. Hundreds of kilometres a week.
When people say they ride a fixie because there's less to go wrong I laugh. She just keeps on going and going; the most I do to her is clean the chain and cogs, and replace the chain every time my Rohloff Caliber 2 tells me to.
Great lights from Ay-Up allow me to ride day or night, as is the way when your chained to a desk most days.
My Fizik Arione saddle is perfectly shaped to my arse bones, but has seen better days. The Campagnolo Record Titanium seat post smooths out the ride a little (or at least I think it does).
For an alloy frame she rides better than many road bikes I've ridden.
The shifters are worn shiny from constant manipulation, and show battle scars from encounters with cars and bitumen.
So why am i telling you this? Well here's a sneak preview of what is sitting in the workshop........
