Strengths: Stiff but smooth, well built, goes where you want it to with no muss, a hand-built classic from the old country.
Weaknesses: It does develop a speed wobble at around 28 mph with the hands off the bars, but with hands on the bars it's smooth and well behaved, and does what you want it to. Not sure if that's a frame problem or something else contributing to it. Not a 15 pound featherweight, but I don't really care, when it rides as well as this.
Bottom Line:
This is for a 2004 EL-OS, because this site has no review spot for more recent Mondonico models. I figured I would finally get around to writing one.
I was looking for a real Italian bike, and rediscovered Torelli in the process. Something about the fact that the guy whose name is on the frame actually built it with his own hands realy appealed to me. No matter how nice a Colnago or DeRosa may be, you know that ol' Ernesto or Ugo weren't the ones brazing up the tubesets. Decided on the EL-OS for two reasons, one being my weight, and the other the chance to have a modern bike built out of this classic set of pipes. And when I discovered that Antonio Mondonico and his son Mauro would be visiting this shop fairly close to me to measure people for custom-built frames, I just had to get one. My dealer and Torelli were very nice about getting exactly what I wanted, and making changes I requested, such as horizontal rear dropouts, and a fully-chromed rear triangle, as well as a hand-built wheelset from Torelli.
This bike is very smooth riding, but stiff at the same time. When climbing or powering over the little rollers, every pedal stroke seems to go directly into making the bike go forward. But it rides great too, little bumps, like pavement cracks or railroad crossings are muted much better on this bike than my previous bike. It's also not as quick steering, but hardly sluggish. My old bike was very susceptible to gusts of wind from the side sending it off track, the Mondonico tracks a straight line much better and shrugs those off easier, and is also easier to ride no-hands. And it's a great climbing bike, even though it's not a featherweight. Going downhill, it tracks a line as straight and true as can be, and never seems to get ruffled. And it's just gorgeous to look at, lugged steel frame, deep burgundy paint with chromed stays and fork. And all in all, not that bad a deal, considering there are mass produced aluminum bikes that can cost more.
Similar Products Used: Nothing this nice. My older bike is a 1989 Specialized Sirrus, a very nice bike for the money.
Bike Setup: Hand-built steel frame of Columbus EL-OS, threaded steel fork, burgundy with chromed stays and fork. Mine's a 52cm frame with 54.5cm toptube, where the regular EL-OS frame the toptube would be 53.5cm.
Horizontal dropouts, full Chorus 10 speed groupset(shiny silver alloy, before they changed over to carbon), handbuilt wheelset featuring Torelli Triumph rims(made by Ambrosio) on Chorus hubs. TTT bar and stem, Time Equipe pedals, old Selle Italia Turbo saddle. Weighs in at 20.5 pounds, even with all the older heavier stuff I've got on it. Could easily be 19 lbs. with modern bars and stem, pedals, saddle and threadless headset, and 18 if I wanted a carbon fork. But i don't, I want it exactly as it is. A modern, but classic-looking bike.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Michael Murray
a Commuter
from Encinitas, CA
Date Reviewed: March 28, 2002
Strengths: The attention to detail and high quality of the frame are obvious when you compare the beautiful lug-work to any mass produced bike that will still cost you a pile of cash. This thing handles like a dream, it climbs well and it’s solid and nimble when you’re bombing downhill. A joy to ride. The imron paint job is pretty snazzy too and it holds up extremely well.
Weaknesses: You won’t get a good deal on one of these at a major bicycle retailer, there just aren’t enough of them made for that.
Bottom Line:
I've had my eye on one of these for a good while and ultimately, the notion of having a hand-made bike built by a genuine italian master was too great to pass up. Thus far the bike has not disappointed, it's an absolutely beautiful bicycle to ride and it looks great too. Plus you don't see many of them on the road.
