Pinarello FT-1

So, I had a CIOCC time trial bike, amazing bike, but it died (another story). Anyway, I needed something else if I was going to get back into doing TTs. I was pretty keen to get back to it, because there was a time when I really loved it.

I had thought of repurposing one of my other bikes, but that’s how I had started, with a regular road bike and aero bars and I had progressed from that and felt such a retrograde step would suck the fun out of it. So I was resisting that temptation.

Then one day a customer walked in the shop looking for a lightweight mountain bike. They had just moved to the aero, had been heavily into triathlon, but had moved on from that and wanted something that was more suited to their current lifestyle. After a bit of a discussion, we identified a Specialized Chisel as being something that appealed to them and then they asked me if we did trade-ins. Well my standard response to that is usually, “No, not really, unless you have something that I’d particularly like to add to my collection.” “Well,” she said, “I’ve got this time trial bike …” “You’d better bring it in,” I said and before you know it I had acquired another bike!

A Pinarello FT-1 running 10 speed Ultegra, with a nice pair of Reynolds wheels and a mid range aero bar, but it was my size, so why not? And I did have all the parts from the Ciocc.

So, I stripped it and gave it a thorough clean and started to rebuild it with 11 speed Dura Ace R9000. First though, I stripped the wheels, and pulled off the freehub body to see if it was even possible to upgrade those from 10 speed. Turns out that I was in luck and that duly arrived and was fitted. Cassette, Pirelli P-Zero TT, and straight into the frame, stuck in a Dura Ace BB, Italian thread, 180mm cranks off another bike where I had gone back to 172.5mm (I would later regret the choice of 180mm cranks). So it was looking like a bike. Then a lot of fluffing about with the bars and stem to get that to where I thought I wanted it. Initially, this was based on perceived aesthetics that ergonomics and I would come back to that again and again trying to get it right.

The bars were an upgrade from the Ciocc to a full set op Vision carbon aero bars with extensions that I scored from my brother in exchange for something he desperately wanted and now I had a use for. Fitted the aero brake levers and 1 speed Dura Ace bar-end shifters and then the fun started. It was a bit of a mission to get the cable routing right and with the limited space from the bar s to the top of the top-tube, where the cables entered the frame made it hard to get a tidy set-up that didn’t either look like rubbish or restrict the steering.

With a Specialized Power saddle and the under-saddle bidon cage bracket and another bidon cage on the down-tube, I was ready for some serious action

Not that I got to ride it as much as I would have liked, but at least the local club was doing some time trials about once a month, so I’d roll up with the Lazer Wasp helmet and the FT-1 and at least look the part!

Well, there was one bloke who wasn’t very happy about that. What looked the part was a lot more aero than a strong rider on a regular bike in a regular riding position, who on most days would have seen me off. But against the clock with nobody to draft and no aero advantage, he did rather lose his sense of humour when I passed him. After the second race he stopped coming because he felt it was unfair. And to be fair, it definitely was not a level playing field.

But, that’s the whole point of a TT bike!

That whole series of races was a bit of an eye opener for a quite a few people in the club. At one event I opted not to ride as we were short of timekeepers so I did that. Because I wasn’t riding, I lent my aero helmet to a friend and they put in a PB over a course they’d ridden dozens of times had pretty consistent times. Well they spruiked the benefits of aero helmets better than I could as a bike shop owner and before long, there was a obvious cadre of aero helmet wearers!

As the data came in over the season, that cadre definitely floated to the top, there were a couple of exceptions that were much stronger riders anyway, but for the average club rider, a TT helmet made a lot more difference than a TT bike.

So, the FT-1? It’s a lovely bike, I really loved riding it. Just so quick, but the longer cranks, while giving me great leverage, just meant that my thighs came too close to my torso to be comfortable and to use that leverage I wanted to be further back on the saddle, which made the cockpit position uncomfortable (too far away). I shortened that stem and that helped a bit, I raised the bars, I went back to 172.5mm cranks, but I just couldn’t get properly comfortable, not so I could ride in that position for an extended period. So, I was always kind of fighting with the bike and wasting energy that could have been used for SPEED.

Realistically, I think I needed a smaller frame (and a shorter crank, maybe 170mm).

In the end, I decided that I was flogging a dead horse, so to speak. I didn’t have time to ride, it, motivation to build another one and there were many other bikes I was much more comfortable on that I also didn’t have tome to ride, so I parted it out and the frame, fork and bars are for sale.

Although I do miss just pounding along at 55kmph, with my mates struggling to hang on the back, but I think maybe I’ve moved on from that.

🙂