Time to update as I am the new owner, and, doing a lot of smiling with the BMC. The backstory is I've been riding a Trek 2.3 Al road bike for the past 6 years, this summer I've done some test rides on classic road road bikes with the thought of upgrading. Never found a ride that made me smile. I'd been lurking in this thread, thinking maybe this would be a better choice. So much thanks to all who considered this bike, and, decided not to. Sometimes, just sometimes, a no-brainer purchase comes along, this is one of those times.
The bike arrived on Tuesday, the packaging was excellent. I put 90% of it back together, a quick trip to my LBS to have rear derailleur and chain installed. Quite simply, and to borrow a term used by @Philpug when describing a great ski, the Gran Frodo is "refined" or better said "highly refined". The ride is plush, never ridden a bike anywhere near this comfortable. The Shimano Group of Dura Ace and Ultegra is superb, much easier to find the perfect gear. The tubeless tires at 28 front and 25 rear suck up the bumps at 80 psi. It fits very well as Ron and I are close in size, it has a little more aggressive riding position, I'll play around with some adjustments. I'm somewhat embarrassed in transferring my old seat and basic SPD road pedals and bottle holders, so upgrades are coming.
The Grand Frodo is getting a complete change of roads in that I live in a totally flat South Jersey Atlantic beach community. The only climbing results from riding over a bridge, no need for disc brakes on the descent. Views of tidal wetlands replace the Rocky Mountain pictures Ron shares. I hope to do some traveling to participate in events with some moderate climbing this fall. I suck, literally and figuratively, when climbing, the BMC will be a great plus. It will also be great when riding into the wind that sometimes screams off the Atlantic. We have to ride mostly north and south, my two initial rides involved riding into wind that makes flags stand straight out. Ride into the wind at 10 mph, ride with the wind in the wind easily in the 20's.
One surprise is ticking noise from the DT Swiss rear freehub when not actually peddling. I asked my LBS tech about this and he stated that because it is a very high end hub, there are more contact points internally that create the noise, So, I'm learning to keep the legs moving slowly when resting.
I've never dreamed of owning a bike of this caliber, so, I'm very thankful that disc brakes came along and made Ron want to upgrade. Now if I could only borrow Ron's aerobic power-plant!
The bike arrived on Tuesday, the packaging was excellent. I put 90% of it back together, a quick trip to my LBS to have rear derailleur and chain installed. Quite simply, and to borrow a term used by @Philpug when describing a great ski, the Gran Frodo is "refined" or better said "highly refined". The ride is plush, never ridden a bike anywhere near this comfortable. The Shimano Group of Dura Ace and Ultegra is superb, much easier to find the perfect gear. The tubeless tires at 28 front and 25 rear suck up the bumps at 80 psi. It fits very well as Ron and I are close in size, it has a little more aggressive riding position, I'll play around with some adjustments. I'm somewhat embarrassed in transferring my old seat and basic SPD road pedals and bottle holders, so upgrades are coming.
The Grand Frodo is getting a complete change of roads in that I live in a totally flat South Jersey Atlantic beach community. The only climbing results from riding over a bridge, no need for disc brakes on the descent. Views of tidal wetlands replace the Rocky Mountain pictures Ron shares. I hope to do some traveling to participate in events with some moderate climbing this fall. I suck, literally and figuratively, when climbing, the BMC will be a great plus. It will also be great when riding into the wind that sometimes screams off the Atlantic. We have to ride mostly north and south, my two initial rides involved riding into wind that makes flags stand straight out. Ride into the wind at 10 mph, ride with the wind in the wind easily in the 20's.
One surprise is ticking noise from the DT Swiss rear freehub when not actually peddling. I asked my LBS tech about this and he stated that because it is a very high end hub, there are more contact points internally that create the noise, So, I'm learning to keep the legs moving slowly when resting.
I've never dreamed of owning a bike of this caliber, so, I'm very thankful that disc brakes came along and made Ron want to upgrade. Now if I could only borrow Ron's aerobic power-plant!
