Bike Setup:
w/ painted to-match Wound Up fork and full Dura-Ace kit Summary:
I really like this bike. It is made by ALAN of Italy w/ Columbus Altec 2 w/ megadown tube and painted and badged by Torelli in the US. The geometry in my size (62 cm) was spot on (THE most important criteria in buying a bike), about the same I would want if I had bought custom. I had a little bit of a wait (5 months) as I had to wait for ALAN to make one in my size and ship it to the US, and then I waited a couple more weeks for it to get painted.
The bike has a fairly steeper seat and head angle than normal in a big bike (73.5 and 75 respectively), but again, it fits me well and steers quick but is also very stable hands-off. I find that I am not any more tired at the end of 100 miles on this bike than I was on the much flexier Reynolds 853 LeMond Zurich I owned prior.
I did initially have a problem with the rear wheel not fitting in straight when I was originally building the bike up. I called Torelli about it and they were apologetic and offered to call tag it and fix the problem. The frame was prepped prior to shipment (chased and faced), but they must have forgotten to put in a rear wheel to check for alignment. I ended up fixing the problem myself w/ a circular file, so it wasn't too big of a deal, but that is about the only thing I have been disappointed in with this frame.
Torelli was a good company to deal with, and they even painted a Wound Up fork I sent them along with the frame for no charge!! Alan did a great job on the welds and the small details like attaching the rear dropouts, fr. der. hanger, and cable stops.
I feel the bike really rides great, even on rough roads I don't ever feel like it is overly harsh. The Columbus tubing is manipulated and butted, and I'm sure that helps with the ride quality. But it is still stiff in the BB area when I get out of the saddle and the short chainstays (40.0 cm) really make it go. The frame is also very light, about 3.5 lbs w/ paint (3.3 lbs before paint), and that's for a 62 cm c to c bike!! I weight 165 lbs and am 6'3". Strengths:
Columbus Altec 2 tubeset, you can have your cake and eat it too!!!!
Beautiful DuPont Imron paint in Molteni Orange w/ matching
painted fork
nice welds, good attention to detail, polished aluminum right chainstay Weaknesses:
paint chips easily
rear dropout not parallel and needed filing, but problem was easily fixed and probably an exception rather than the rule at Torelli Similar Products Used:
Bianchi CDI, LeMond Zurich
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