Sunday Early Edition

The Quest For Cinelli!
Is over.
Sort of.
I have been on a Quest For Cinelli quill stems of sorts, checking once or twice daily the eVil eBay for a particular size.
If you've been following along at home, you, the reader, know that when I got the Celeste Devil, it came with a 90mm stem and some bars made for a person with some gorilla type arms.
The reach was well, out of reach.
Ever since then I've working on tuning the so-called cockpit, trying to make my position comfortable.
Well, a while back I found an 80mm Cinelli quill and that seemed to work out a little better.
Still, I felt I was reaching too far forward, I wasn't comfortable on the hoods.
It was getting better though, my position on the hoods I mean.
What I really wanted was 70mm quill, and that came in the other day.
Actually I was hesitant to install it, for it looked kinda short and I heard that short stems make the steering twitchy.
Well in my experience, the long stem was twitchy, especially when climbing out of the saddle.
Talk about a side to side wobble!
Weebles wobble but thankfully they don't fall down.
Me being the Weeble I mean:



Okay, I don't really look like that.
Sort of.
Anyways, in the interim, I found a 60mm stem that felt really great, but unfortunately, the quill was really long and it made the Celeste Devil look like the Celeste Giraffe.
Which wasn't really a bad thing since I dig giraffes.
Well okay, it did look really goofy.
Here's the 80mm stem compared to the 70mm stem:




When you think about it, one centimeter difference is not that much.
Hopefully it doesn't affect the steering.
Now, I gotta say, Cinelli makes like a GAGILLION different stems so it was quite a challenge to find this one.
Toss in the different bar diameters and you can imagine what I went through.
I think I emailed twenty folks inquiring about clamp size cause for some reason, sellers seemed to assume they are all the same.
Then you got the different model stems like 1A, 1E(which the 70mm one is) and 1Idunno making things more complicated.
Those pesky Italians!
I mean it's like they have to make a different stem for everything!
We'll see how the new stem works out.
Speaking of pesky Italians, I changed out the Fizik Arione and put back the Selle Italia.
I know I gave the Arione the Flat Tire Approval, but when I first used it, I went on a twenty five out and back.
Meaning I went out about 12 miles, fooled around at the beach and then came back.
All was fine.
Well since using it on my regular rides, which are 25-30 mile loops, I've found that the Arione is not so great.
It's very strange as it's great for about 15 miles or so, but after that, well, it's not so great. What that means is that for me, it was okay doing short hops with breaks in between, not okay doing a longer distance with minimal time off the saddle.
The Arione also is particular about the bib shorts I wear, one shorts being okay, the other shorts(with a bit more padding) not so okay.
I thought I'd get used to not having the cut out in the middle of the seat, but I can't.
Get used to it I mean.
After going back to the Selle Italia SLK, the difference in comfort was way noticable. The Selle Italia felt flat while the Arione always felt like I was sitting on a hump.
Or something.
Anyways, today is a day of adjustments.
I'm trying out that new stem and playing with the position of the Selle Italia as I moved the seat a bit forward.
I hope to make it out to Makapu'u again as the famille is out there having a picnic and I said I'd ride out there.
Which is sort of strange as I'd planned to go the other way today, over where most of my family lives.
Then again, there's always the burrito stop.
Oh yeah baby.
Burritos on a Sunday!
Well okay, actually only one burrito.