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I also like the big tray underneath to collect stuff falling out of the bottom of the engine :)

Don't see many of these over here, it looks faster than it is but I think this fastback version, which wiki says is often described as the 86 and half version as it wasn't available at launch in 86, is actually a looker for a late 80's budget American car. And this one is in remarkably good condition, papped during the pissing down rain earlier in the week. A 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT.


And from today, another GT, this time the Vauxhall Viva GT :)

Thanks again for yet more ace tips. Thanks @andyp that Bernina Pass-Forcola di Livigno, -Livigno- Eira and Foscagno, before a lovely long descent back down to Bormio looks another great local ride. Its Malpensa airport I arrive at, and have hired the smallest most basic car they have, so I shall be a honorary Italian for a fortnight revving it to death to get enough speed on those short slipways @ghostface mentioned :)

And thanks @damitamit, as much as I have mentioned some of the famous passes I'm not there just to tick off the big climbs, so beautiful rides rather than challenging are fine by me and I'll try and squeeze in those suggestions. Having watched a load of cycling in Italy Youtube clips since booking the holiday, I think I've fallen in love with the place already and I've not set foot there yet. Thanks all, the next few months until departure are really going to drag.

@andyp yeah no hiding from those hills, but I'll try and squeeze in all you said. I just seen a few GPX files and there's seemingly no flat ever, just up or down, this from RWGPS has the Bormio-Stelvio-Umbrail-Stelvio-Bormio route at just under 12,000 ft climbing in 66 miles.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42089809

Mortirolo and Gavia 11,000ft climbing in 77 miles
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42089889

That's what I've dreamed of tho, even if I'm questioning my eating habits all the way round. Hard work but think I can manage those, cannot wait.

Wow thanks a lot, great info and duly noted, time to get route planning. I am already ridiculously excited, and was kind of expecting ones like the Stelvio to be super popular with sports cars and bikes too, but hopefully still nice compared to cycling around London.

Actually the drive from Milan airport to Bormio is the bit I most anxious about as I not driven on the wrong side of the road for 15 years, and never in Italy, so only have the old stereo types to go on, so lean on the horn and do the sign of the cross before each roundabout and hope for the best. And those aren't dents, they're parking kisses :)

Do you get mobile phone reception in all these high mountain places?

I'm off to northern Italy for 2 weeks at end of June. My first time there so super excited after watching the Giro every year to finally get to go.

I'll be based in Bormio so have the Stelvio, Gavia and Mortirolo on the doortstep, but any other recommendations around there? I'll have a car so can drive around to find some epic spots.

Its quite near the borders of Switzerlnd and Austria, I don't even know if I'm allowed to take my hire car to those countries or if I have to stay in Italy where I booked car, but if I take my passport with me on a ride is it quick and easy to just pass to and fro across borders lycra'd up on a bike, if I wanted to venture into some Swiss or Austrian rides? And any nearby you'd recommend? Or is border crossing like this likely to be a lengthy ball ache and best avoided? Any other tips, I've heard you can get fucked over with data roaming charges in Switzerland, but I think you get fucked over financially for everything there so that's no real surprise.

I was always wide eyed with wonder watching the Giro seeing them ride stages with descents that go on for 40km, and so I'd love to do a bit of that. Any idea what the actual longest descent in northern Italy would be? The Colle del Nivolet from Locana seems to be one such 40km descent/ascent, so I may venture over there for that as that looks lovely riding too. And on the way to there/way back I may visit around Lake Maggiore/Como/Garda too. I'm not a fan of cycling in super hot weather so if the lakes are proper scorchio at end of June/early July I'll maybe stick to the mountains.

Other options I've loosely penciled in are a few days in the Dolomites, Passo Pordoi looks pretty amazing, Passo Boldo with the crazy tunnels. Any other must do's?

As just mentioned on the MTB thread I'm also due to go to Val Di Sole to watch and cheer on a mates son who is in the yoof UCI downhill champs, and may try and some MTB there, so will be there from 30th June to 2nd July, but otherwise I'm free to do what I want. I can't be arsed with any city action so just cycling fun for 2 weeks. Any other recommendations or GPX's for nice rides there you've done there you can share? Thanks all.

Is anyone going to the UCI MTB World Cup in Val Di Sole, Trentino, Italy around 30th June to 2nd July?

I'm taking a road bike and plan on cycling for 2 weeks in the lakes and mountains of northern Italy. I'll be based in Bormio and have a car so will be travelling around, but am meeting with mates to watch and cheer on their son who is in the yoof downhill WC at Val Di Sole, and assuming he hasn't already destroyed one of his bikes in the previous rounds, I was hoping to blag his spare bike and do a day or two of MTB'ing around there.

Finished my On One 456 26'er from a few pages back. As I don't fancy drilling holes in the ti frame I was limited to a dropper post that had external routing, and further hindered by the old school 27.2 seatpost. As a result the best I could find was the 125mm drop Thomson gravel post.

Also wanted a bigger large chainring for fast ripping around town, so scrapped the standard mtb rings for some 48/36/26 rings. I looked for silver or black rings but the only big ring I could find to fit these old XT triples were from Shimano's DHi-WBG range (dry heave inducing wheelie bin grey)

...which in addition to looking rank on a bike with any colour at all, even manages to look shit on a grey ti bike. I resisted my initial urges to get coloured anodised parts like 90's me would have, but wheelie bin grey is not tolerable so I ended up getting as ASBO anyway as it was out with the rattle cans.

I then discovered the XT front derailleur I had would not shift to the big ring no matter what adjustments I made, and after consulting with the internet I discover the leap to 48 was a no go with the FD I had, and I needed a treking XT front derailleur to handle that.

When I initially got the bike my initial thoughts were the bars were too wide, a few months later and 2 doors and 3 flights of stairs to get into and out of the flat was like this every time......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_CrIu01SnM

I also fancied more rise than the Easton bars had, so got some Renthal Fatbar's with a 2 inch rise and cut them down to 660mm and added some DMR V12 mags like I used to ride in the olden days, so finally finished all that this afternoon.

What the fuck is the yeti creature in the first pic, I can't tell if I'm looking at its face or its arsehole.

I've not been recently but the cable car is brilliant, its like being on holiday! During COVID times I had a carriage all to myself, I felt fully VIP.

Great views too, tho probs not today, fucking hell that rain this afternoon was brutal, think I'd less less wet if I jumped in the Thames.

Oh great they would be perfect if I can have one please, let me know how much and how to pay you/arrange postage etc, thanks.

Thanks,as tester says its actually the FD clamp that's the closest point, but its fine even with my 90kg on board, I've not got any gravel biking planned for this :)

I thought the fork/frame/brake/tyre area would be the problem for clearances, but there's more space there but still won't get anything bigger than 28's in there.

Would definitely be improved by the Trade Marked svelte Tester Look top cap thingy if there's any of those still in circulation.

Cheers :)

I did try but couldn't find a -17 degree one, so took that as a sign the universe did not approve. I'm happy enough with the result so will leave as is, I don't want to anger the gods.

Finished building up my old lugged 585 today so have joined the Look club.

Did LOL, which hurts as I've been off work all week with cracked ribs.

While that sucks it has given me the chance to slowly do some overdue maintenance and finish some recent builds.

First up on the slab is my Nikor which did all my hard winter miles so was due a drivetrain overhaul. New cables, brake pads, cassette, chain, tape and tyres gets things all running smoothly again.

Also being turned upside down up to a dozen times a day to remove a wheel to get bike in a car over the last year with work, has changed the religion of my Flite saddle, which has gone and got itself circumcised.

I may as well strip that back completely now, which I can do on a rainy midweek evening.....so basically any day this coming week then :/

In the meantime I've thrown on a Turbo and the with the drivetrain refresh its scrubbed up nicely. The only thing it needs now is a replacement Cinelli roundel that has fallen out of the front of the XA stem, but thanks to some 3D printing wizardry from @kiskubai this may hopefully be sorted soon. Full Columbus Max frame, modern wider rims and 28c tyres with 10 speed Campag, might not be a brand me or anyone has ever heard of, but I've been really impressed with this bike.

And I'm a bit late to the carbon party, but I just finished my first plastic bike, not a new one a Look 585, a 'vintage' lugged carbon chariot that should see me ride into the sunset of my MAMIL-hood.
Well happy with how this turned out.



I managed to find a white Look Superlight cage on ebay for 30 quid, so snapped that up....

...but needed a black one to match the black half of the bike. None on eBay, so I check Look's website, which seems to be divided into stockists of bikes, pedals and apparel, but doesn't allow any more specific filtering than that, so I guess it has to be apparel then. I phone the first 5 on list for London, no luck, they all stock cleats and pedals but no cages. One helpful place checks his suppliers but the only Look cages they can get hold of are the different wavey kind, and as I want a cage to match the one I already have, that's no use.

Frustrated at this point I'm going to end up calling evey Look cleat stockist in London, which is pretty much every shop, only to discover none stock the cages, I decide fuck it, I'll go back to the Look website and just buy direct from them in France, if I have to pay extra post Brexit fees so be it, take my money and send me the thing FFS! I try this and it just redirects me back to the UK stockists list, le sigh

I've got to think like a MAMIL, what would a MAMIL do?... so I phone Condor, probably should have thought of that sooner. I get through, the helpful person on the phone says it sounds like the kind of thing they should have, but they don't, and when he checks about ordering one, its only of the different wavey type cage again, bah!

Channel your inner MAMIL, now what? ....I phone SIgma sports. A helpful bloke again says its the kind of the thing they would have, but they haven't, he then comes back and says, 'there appears to be some on Amazon'. I reply this is surely one of those ads that has the pic but is never in stock, or its probs dodge as fuck as its priced at £25 new, which was less than half the RRP. Nevertheless Amazon says it has 2 black ones.

I try not to buy from Amazon, in fact its been so long since I did, when I try to buy the cage I'm told my account is inactive and I have to phone someone in a far away land and get them to reactivate my account, oh FFS all this for a bottle cage. I do it and its all very quick and easy and its done, and I buy it and wait and see what, if anything arrives. 2 days later it arrives, brand new in packaging, seems fully legit and less than half price.

And that folks is I guess why that Bezos fucker has his own space program, I begrudgingly doff my cap, but still kind of wish his galactic trips were one way.

And now to follow through with the MTB bar change and chop, change to bigger chain rings and fit a dropper post, which has not been without drama, so hope to get that finished before the end of the weekend.

Excellent :)

Bike looks fun, you and @mashton and his bike built around the saddle should lead a ride.

Just like the effect of a good rug as the Dude noted, I reckon a white stem would really bring the whole thing together ;)

But when I suggested that for my Look a few weeks ago you said they look shit and nobody would buy them, and now this.....I can only assume you'd received a sizeable whack to the head since then :)

It was probably the mountains of cocaine in the film that made u think it was white, it was snowing all over ;)

Wow, nice collectiom!

I've never had a white stem before, this would be a first, but the universe is seemingly not having it :)

Maybe but I don't like the look of compact drops :)

Yeah I'm keeping the bars, that cockpit set up was just as it came to me and the weather was so shit I'd not had a chance to ride it, so the shifters will be moving and I'll be playing around with spacers, but I'm too old for it to be totally slammed :)

Ha, another non believer:)

Luckily for you all, and maybe me in the end, I can't find any, anywhere in the world, so maybe that's a sign.

On the subject of old Mercs, saw this lovely condition old battle tank today, a 1979 450SEL with the whopping 6.9 litre engine. First production car with ABS, and hard to believe looking at the barge-ness of it, that it was the fastest accelerating and fastest saloon car in the world for a few years.