The Colnago CLX3.0 has arrived!
The complete bike arrives in a box with extremely careful packaging.
I have to unwrap it and assemble it, but
The king of unnecessary kindness — complete bikes that come with bar tape already wrapped — are a bit of a hassle.
99% of the time it needs to be removed,
but if you mess up you've wasted the bar tape.
But really, having it pre-assembled in the first place is unnecessary kindness itself.
It's extra work since you have to take it apart anyway,
though I guess some shops appreciate receiving it pre-assembled.
There are various reasons to remove the bar tape:
the lever position isn't right, the lever heights differ left to right,
the bar tape wrapping job isn't great, and so on, but
with shifters that run the shift cable housing along the handlebar,
you definitely need to unwrap at least the lever area. (I won't say why)
This time I removed it all.
Nowadays Campagnolo, SRAM, and Shimano — all three — run their shift cable housing under the bar tape,
so I really wish they'd skip wrapping the bar tape during pre-assembly...
And finally, it's assembled. Really, this should've been the opening photo.
Something about the parts that personally made me happy:
They've switched the saddle brand on complete bikes from Prologo to Selle Italia.
Since I'm a Selle Italia fan, that made me pretty pleased.
Pinarello has been consistently using Selle Italia and De Rosa has been using Fizik for over 15 years,
but Colnago keeps changing their OEM saddle — from Selle Bassano to Selle San Marco,
Prologo, and now Selle Italia.
The headset top cap is extremely thin,
but I really like this kind of design.
The complete bike arrives in a box with extremely careful packaging.
I have to unwrap it and assemble it, but
The king of unnecessary kindness — complete bikes that come with bar tape already wrapped — are a bit of a hassle.
99% of the time it needs to be removed,
but if you mess up you've wasted the bar tape.
But really, having it pre-assembled in the first place is unnecessary kindness itself.
It's extra work since you have to take it apart anyway,
though I guess some shops appreciate receiving it pre-assembled.
There are various reasons to remove the bar tape:
the lever position isn't right, the lever heights differ left to right,
the bar tape wrapping job isn't great, and so on, but
with shifters that run the shift cable housing along the handlebar,
you definitely need to unwrap at least the lever area. (I won't say why)
This time I removed it all.
Nowadays Campagnolo, SRAM, and Shimano — all three — run their shift cable housing under the bar tape,
so I really wish they'd skip wrapping the bar tape during pre-assembly...
And finally, it's assembled. Really, this should've been the opening photo.
Something about the parts that personally made me happy:
They've switched the saddle brand on complete bikes from Prologo to Selle Italia.
Since I'm a Selle Italia fan, that made me pretty pleased.
Pinarello has been consistently using Selle Italia and De Rosa has been using Fizik for over 15 years,
but Colnago keeps changing their OEM saddle — from Selle Bassano to Selle San Marco,
Prologo, and now Selle Italia.
The headset top cap is extremely thin,
but I really like this kind of design.