My New Bike.

After much procrastination I purchased a new frame. The best my money could buy.The name sold it to me. Wielier Triestina Gran Turisma. I did a little internet search though and all reviews were mostly favourable. Like 'if we could have just one bike this could be the one'. Anyway the frame is very light weighing in under 1.5 ks including the forks. I thought of assembling it myself but as I didn't have the spanner for the bottom bracket I had my neighbour, a bike mechanic, do it for me. He had a few problems but managed all right. My old bike an Avanti Corsa with carbon back stays was pretty good, with all the parts Ultegra which had to be moved over to the new frame. I set off for my first ride and on a small hill I changed down to my biggest cog on the cluster with the chain on the middle chain ring, but after a few turns it just jumped off onto the small chain ring with no help from the deralier. I asked him about it and he said it was because this was a modern frame with a different alignment or something like that, which didn't make any sense to me. I went to Avanti plus to pick their brains but they were not at all obliging and at one point said something about 'trade secret',and me making a note about going somewhere else when I wanted a part. I went back home to ponder the problem and with a bit of luck after trying a couple of Heath Robinson solutions turned the bike upside down to put the back wheel on again, and noticed that the back stays were about 1.5 mm wider than the cones on the wheel. This didn't seem much but when tightening the quick release pulled the stays together and pulling the cluster out of alignment especially on this frame with the stay opposite the cluster being much larger than the one on the chain side.I found a washer 1.5 mm and inserted it on the distal side and hey presto it worked. Now after a few hundred ks I find the bike exceptional and very comfortable on the saddle. Choosing the size was a problem as the choice was between xtra small and Medium. There didn't seem to be much difference but I just wasn't extra small. The main difference was in the head tube. If I had taken the xtra small I would have had to have too many spacers in place to raise the bars for my comfort, so I chose the medium. I think I am enjoying riding it more than I have enjoyed any other bike that I have had.