Ti vs Steel

If your Colnago was built for modern components, with an aheadset, then maybe the answer would be different, but in essence for what you want, you are asking us to compare an old steel bike designed to work with outdated and since massively surpassed technology, against a modern titanium road bike?

I wouldn't says outdated.

You can buy a new Colnago steel fork from Colnago so you can run aheadset, mine being an example with 130mm spacing and 20 speeds Centaur with external BB.

it still feel awesome to ride.

downside? the old Colnago SL is heavy in comparison to my dad's Bob Jackson 631 Audax, and both of them have the exact same component minus the saddle and cockpit.

Modern steel frame is defintely better than the old one, but the old one still have plenty of life in them.

Both those Colnagos would get kicked to touch by a Boardman Comp.

Time... Moves... On...

VN Mistral on its way :)

Glad you didn't go for XACD for your frame. Mine failed in 3 places after a couple of months use.

^weighs half a metric ton

strength of ten tigers

oh, why dint u tell this to me before? (of course I wasn't gonna go for it anyway)
So now its VN Mistral with Ultegra 6700 and condor built mavic open pros on ultegra hubs all comes to arnd £2k (fuck me)

It all adds up when you go custom build.

Sell the Colnago.

Use the money for a custom frame, says a Chas Roberts, or Dave Yates, etc.

I recognise this bike.

Nice, but slow...

It all adds up when you go custom build.

is it worth it? (i want reply ONLY from Dov) :P

oh, why dint u tell this to me before?

Why didn't you do some research?

dropping 2k on a bicycle isn't like a picnic.

i didn't a read a single negative review about XACD in my research

is it worth it? (i want reply ONLY from Dov) :P

Depends, generally not when you spend 2k as that's a price point manufacturers compete at so the deals are better than at the very top of the market.

If you're happy and to you it represents money well spent, then that's enough

Many people are very happy with XACD, and have bikes that have lasted years. All i would say is, avoid ordering any details that are non-standard from them

Yep, £2000 can get a fairly good bike. Not saying any of these are better for you but as an example;

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinarello/fp3-ultegra-2009-road-bike-ec017687
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/trek/madone-52-pro-2009-road-bike-ec016752
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuji/sl-1-pro-shimano-2010-road-bike-ec022167
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/litespeed/archon-c3-2010-road-bike-ec024301

Well, you get the picture just looking at the first page of around £2000 bikes at Evans!

The point is they are not what you want, if you want a Ti framed bike with the components of your choice for £2000 then choosing you own build would be the best option.

i bought iy from these guys: http://www.cyclesense.co.uk/
they have interest free loan scheme going on, so now i am not even in hurry to sell the colnago :P
gotta get rid of my planet X uncle john soon (no space for 2 bikes)

No such thing as interest free.

Did you just order the frame or whole bike?

the frame, yea i know no such thing as interest free but very low interest

Man, glad you don't put Ultegra 6700 on that Colnago, that'd be a really ugly bike.
I have 6700 on my enigma steel frame, and that just about works cuz it's blue. I think it's gonna look alright on a Ti frame as well, but on that Colnago it would've been minging.

I was faced with the same question and test rode ti and steel enigma, then decided on steel because it felt better (to me at least), and the weight diff was minimal. But yeah, VN frames look awesome, and I talked to a couple of people that really like theirs. good choice.

Cool. I got mine form Cyclesense, they're nice guys in there...very helpful.

One thing I'd mention with the Ti frame, make sure whichever hubs and skewers you're planning using have decent teeth on them and will do up tightly. Easton have had some bother with a certain model of wheel not being able to 'bite' enough into the Ti dropouts to hold the wheel in the frame.

hmm, i m getting ultegra hubs on mavic open pro rims handbuilt at condor, anything specific i need to tell them?

I'm getting dressed. White socks or black socks? and which foot should I do first.

Racist and left.

I've no idea, really. I just know that the Aeros that came on the full bike I bought kept coming out (to get it to stay in when climbing, the skewer had to be so tight that I had to prise it open with a bar when I got back). VN have admitted that I'm not the only one with the problem and that the cause was the Easton skewer/hub. Just yesterday they got back in touch with me and Easton have offered me a free set of fancy dan EC70 SLs to make amends and fix the problem. I note, looking at the EC70s compared with the original wheels, that the non-driveside of the hub on the EC70s has a plain metal interface with teeth, whereas on the stock wheels, that's just on the drive side. The non-driveside is just flat anodised metal with a few tiny groove machined into it. It's just conjecture on my part, but I think this is where it's been failing.

The problem has only come to light since the 2011 bikes with this new wheelset have shipped so I don't know how big an issue it really is.

I will say one thing though, VN and Cyclesense were really good in dealing with it. Cyclesense sent me out a different skewer to try as soon as I mentioned it, when that didn't work they asked me to go in and try a different wheelset. I'd also e-mailed VN about the issue. I got a reply from some customer service guy, but as soon as I explained the issue, I had the company founder/head guy Jan Sintnicolaas e-mailing me personally to sort out the issue and he's been chasing it up with Easton USA.

This probably won't be the last VN bike I buy and I'll be going through Cyclesense again when the time comes.