This is quite a time after our first discussions. Since I have bought a Colnago CLX 3.0 and got a set of the cheapo Chinese carbon clincher type wheels. After about 6 months of heavy use I have to say that it would be pretty hard to improve upon this bike and wheel combination. I have or had several other CF bikes - Colnago C40, Look 247 and a Time Elite. I also had a lot of others like Kestrel, Trek, etc. Although I heard of CF failures I never saw one until the one that occurred to my friend at the beginning of this string.
The Colnago C40 did not ride well. It rode acceptably. Finally I crashed it in what seemed to be a loss of control which I though I traced to the fork failing. But that really could not have been it. I had a REALLY hard crash by slipping off the road to the INSIDE if a turn on a very fast downhill and then as the road turned in the opposite direction I tried to slow the bike by rubbing my shoulder against the hillside. I was just about to gain control when there was a *()(U)(* rock drainage ditch in the verge which I dropped into at about 20 to 25 mph. Luckily though my entire body was in that thing my head was clear. But my body felt that every bone was broken. I dragged my body out and walked around a little and though in a LOT of pain I started walking down the hill pushing the bike. Friends came back and gave me a lift home. Nothing was broken though a bone in my shoulder was cranked as I discovered a year later in an X-ray. That must have been when that fork was broken and not while I was riding. I think that I hit a bump really hard and lost control. The steering acted really funny and I think that maybe the wheels were wobbling from sheer pressure.
The Look was a nice enough bike but pretty flexy. Eventually I sold it to some commuter. The Time was a TERRIBLE bike with 23 mm tires on it. After several years on the shelf I put it back together again with 28 mm tires on it and it is actually a really great ride. I have an Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra with SLX tubing that would benefit with the larger tires but they don't fit.
But the CLX 3.0 is easily the best bike I've ever ridden. Colnago's masterpiece presently is the C64 but I cannot see how that could be as good let alone any better. It has 25 mm Vittoria Corsa G+ tires which are also an eye opener. I really don't see how you could improve on this combination and since I'm 74 I don't expect there to be any more large improvements in the technology in my lifetime. Maybe I'll give a try for the 90-94 world TT championship if they don't disqualify me for having a hamburger the night before.
BTW - there are plenty of these age graded world records that do not have any record holders in them so it isn't as if you'd have to be a pro at 90.
