Le Bike

Back in 2009 I was lucky enough to be able to afford to buy my first carbon fibre bike. I still have it. We've done nearly 13,000 km together. It's my summer bike, normally used for fairly short rides (30-60 km) local to where I live.

It's a Willier Izoard, named after the Col d'Izoard, a pass in the Alps between Jausiers and Briancon. I bought it with a Campagnolo Athena groupset. At the time, it was one of the first Izoards with this group set in the country. It had a compact double chainset and a fairly normal 12-23 cassette. While the bike's incredibly light weight was a revelation, the gearing initially caused me some trouble on my local roads. There are quite a few hills that kick up to more than 11%, even though they are fairly short. I'm no lightweight and found the low cadence I ended up using a real struggle on the hardest of these climbs.

After a year or so, I changed the chain and at the same time went for a more 'fat man-friendly' 12-28 cassette and long cage rear derailleur. This was an immediate improvement, and has served well for the last few years, though the gearing definitely feels too short on fast descents.

As the time approached to replace the chain once more, and the plan to holiday in the Alps firmed up, the question, of replacing the groupset with something more suitable for mountains, arose. Luckily, at about this time, Campagnolo announced a triple version of their Athena groupset. This would allow me to have a 53 tooth big ring, 39 tooth small ring and a 12-28 cassette. Finally, a transmission to get a fat man up a mountain. Perfect!

Ordering the components proved simple, with a number of national cycle shop chains stocking the parts. One tricky element was the mounting of the front derailleur. The Willier needs a band-on derailleur, whereas the Athena front mechs now seem available only as braze-on items. Campagnolo does list a band on converter for attaching braze on items, but it seemed to be becoming obsolete. Fortunately, an eBay shop had a few left. Phew!

Fitting the groupset was pretty straighforward, but required a couple of special tools. The bike was originally supplied with an Ultra Torque crankset. This is the one with the joint in the middle of the crank axle and requires a special tool to undo it. That part was easy. Athena now uses Power Torque cranksets, where the non-drive side crank fits onto splines on the end of the axle. The problem in fitting these is that the tolerances of the splines are very tight. Despite liberal applications of grease, it proved impossible to push the crank onto the splines, during assembly. In the end, I used a woodworking sash cramp, together with a couple of pieces of wood, to press the crank onto the splines. That was really the only tricky process. Of course, the groupset also includes new cables, shifters, rear cassette and both derailleurs, but fitting them was straightforward.

I fitted the components a couple of months ago, and have been riding with them ever since. The change in my riding has been a real eye-opener. I now spin up hills that were a real struggle before the change. And I have a higher top gear for descending, and can easily be pedaling hard at speeds above 30 mph.

It's safe to say that if I fail to get up the climbs I'm planning to do, it won't be the bike's fault!