Serotta CSI (Another Yellow Bike)

Would you be interested in a heavily discounted pair of lightly used Challenge Forte "open tubular" tyres? I bought them when they were on special offer with Planet X for £20 (I think) each and got about 300 dry, puncture-free miles out of them, then swapped them out for a pair of Michelin Pro4's purely on aesthetic grounds. You're welcome to an inspection or I can take some close-ups of what the tread looks like at the moment. No real marks or cuts at all as far as I can recall.

(This is a very recent photo in mileage terms...)

Have had challenge criteriums with good luck but others experience seem to differ. Currently have vittoria sc with no punctures but i did have to replace the resr recently after the sidewall failed after very low milage.

Would you be interested in a heavily discounted pair of lightly used Challenge Forte "open tubular" tyres?

Yeh, i'd be interested in giving them a go. Drop me a PM and we'll work something out if postage isnt too much hassle

Could you let me know what the front mech clamp and seatpost diameters are please?

35mm front derailleur and 27.2mm seatpost. Shame about needing to blast it, any plans for the colour after a respray?

Incidentally, if anyone's after a 32mm Athena FD then drop me a pm, its been out of the box for about 30 seconds and placed directly back in it

Not sure yet- I wonder what colours they came in?

I'd rather blast it than discover 8 months down the road that it's now fuxxored due to hidden damage.

Love the cockpit and might do a similar thing on my Somec (when it arrives)

What is your feedback on the bars?

lovely bike by the way..

the bars are great, have been thinking about replicating the pro-chrome and hwy-1 combo for a long ride set up on my Mercian vig. I 've got a set of carbon record levers in a box under my bed that i've been meaning to use for ages.

Dammit - If it had been front-ended i'd have thought it'd show in the forks which i doubt are very easily replaceable. Better safe than sorry though and the metallic gunmetal gray on the faded CSI on the first page is pretty nice.

Hawt.

Cool thanks for the feedback, I've started a thread now, ordered the same bars :)

What's the maximum tyre size that you could run Luke?

i'm running 25's on a 23mm rim and i wouldnt want to go too much wider. I don't have a 28 i can test with but can take a photo for clearance for you tomorrow

That would be great, thanks.

Please excuse the state of it, after 37 miles in the rain this afternoon i couldnt bring myself to clean it as it'll probably be damp again tomorrow anyway

Paceline forum suggests that the F1 fork is the limiting factor rather than the rear chainstays. Its got 25c Conti 4 Seasons on it for the winter and i wouldn't want to go much bigger than that. They're on archetypes which will make a difference to the tyre profile, i'd imagine they'd almost touch on Open Pro's

http://forums.thepaceline.net/archive/index.php?t-125100.html

Thanks for that- so I might get a 25c Veloflex Roubaix tub in there, but on old-school narrow clinchers I'd be best off with a 23.

it was fine with 25c veloflex master clinchers on the same rims. I'll stick a 23c gatorskin on an open sport in and report back

Thanks again!

I've got those carbon clinchers, but the first proper outing that this bike is likely to see is the Paris-Roubaix sportive next year.

The clinchers have a fairly old-school internal width which means that a tyre is going to have quite a tall profile, so I think anything bigger than a 23 will struggle.

I'm very tempted to build up some Ambrosio Nemesis rims, it would be great if I could run 27c Veloflex Roubaix on those.

I wonder how many spokes it would be wise to use with Nemesis rims at Roubaix?

a bit more clearance with the 23's, you might be able to squeeze a 25 on narrow rims.

I'm not sure how much the tyre profile would change with tubulars but i think you'd be taking a bit of a risk with 27c. There's a bit more clearance at the back but there'd be no room for mud/debris clearance on the fork if the tyre fitted at all.

As for P-R i'd probably want as many spokes as possible but 32/32 would cover it i'd have thought

Just noticed that you mention yours is a '96, do you mind if I ask what the serial number is?

Mine is CS (=it's a CSi) 57(size, square) 1361(Position in the ranks of total CSi's built).

It's CS 57 1534

the C is very clear but the S isnt that clear. My only indication that its from 96 is from the listing. It also has the name Hansruedi Ott written on the toptube, presumably the chap that it was built for

Mine's older than yours then!

I guessed at 1998 for mine but that was based on looking through catalogues until I spotted a CSi in the "USA! USA!" paint.

Catalogues are here

I don't think they're from '96 as they have the downtube mounted shift cable stops, and both of our bikes have them on the head tube, and if our bikes were the 1997 then they'd have both had 25 year anniversary stickers on them.

Just had a look in the sale thread i got mine from and he suggests its from around '95. Have forgotten my login for the paceline forum so cant view the catalogs unfortunately

'95's didn't have the headtube mounted cable stops for the CSi- insofar as the pictures in the catalogue suggest at least.