The Dancelli

The Dancelli was my very first bike - well, street racing [or, as it's called in America, "road bike"] bike, that is, as I had a bike when I was a schoolboy and as a child.

It was built by Cicli Baldo in Trento, Italy, to my specifications, and it's a Dancelli frame, with a Modolo handlebar and brakes and Ofmega front and rear deraillers, a 6-speed cassette [14-16-18-20-22-24] and a Campagnolo 53-39 crankset. After a fall I exchanged the original saddle for a Selle Italia and am quite comfortable with it.

Alas, it's ruined. I had set it behind the car and forgotten. And when I backed out of the garage, I partly ran over it and bent the frame irreparably.

For information about Michele Dancelli klick here.

The Marin

That's me and the Marin at Mission Espada in San Antonio.

It's a "Mill Valley" [slightly modified with Ergon grips on the handle bar and a 12 - 32 rear cassette]. In fact, it has a Shimano Tiagra crankset and a Shimano Deore rear cassette and derailler. The brakes are AVID v-brakes. I have replaced the original saddle, first with a Selle Italia and then with a Selle SMP, but am still not quite comfortable. Therefore, a few weeks ago, I put on a 610 Gel made by SQ-Lab. And that is THE saddle.

I bought the bike some years ago [in the summer of 2003] to be able to ride a bike in the US, as it was quite expensive - or at least I thought it was - to take a bike on the plane to the US

The Stevens

I had wanted to have what is called "Randonneur" [that is - basically - a frame based on cross bikes with a racing handle bar plus a luggage rack] for quite some time. There's not many on the market. I was only able to find one made by Stevens, Orbea and Patria. Well, actually there was one by Specialized, too. And I decided on the Stevens for two reasons:

• It was the lightest in weight [10.8 kilos] and
• it was available at a local dealer's.

The one I really wanted, the Stevens Gran Turismo was not available any longer. Thus the dealer modified a Stevens Strada 800, on the frame of which the Gran Turismo is based anyway.

The saddle here, btw, is not the one that came with the bike but a 602 Ergolux made by SQ-Lab. Some other modifications are a triple front crankset [50-39-30] and a rear cassette 12-27.

I bought it here in Germany in the summer of 2007 as it seemed really expensive - more about that later - to bring one of my other bikes back to Germany.