PIGEON
Retro Guru
Just thought I'd show you my Giant Cadex. My second roadbike ever, and I still commute with it on a nearly day to day basis (except the last couple of weeks because I needed the pedals for an other bike )
I found the bike on the interwebz looking like this (actually one of the pictures from the ad):
I rode it for a bit and I decided I needed new wheels with fewer spokes because I thought that was awesome at the time:
Despite all the horror stories on the internet about the WH-R550 (or in fact any Shimano wheelset) I have never had a problem with them.
Pretty soon after I got the wheels I found myself looking for a carbon fork. I really wanted the Giant aero forks that came with OCRs and TCRs if I'm not mistaken. After a couple of weeks looking at auction sites like a hawk, I found exactly what I needed:
Only problem: the colours didn't match my bike AT ALL. So I decided to take some sandpaper to it and sand it down to bare carbon, which turned out pretty good:
The alu part at the top of the forks, which had become visible as a result of the sanding was spray painted black with a fade to blend in with the cf fork legs, and then I gave it a couple of clear coats. I also had to swap the quill stem with an ahead one. At this point, the bike looked a bit like this:
I rode it for quite a while, until recently I acquired a nicer looking (but not more comfortable I'm afraid) saddle and a black seat post to match the stem:
So that concludes the sotory of my Cadex. It's a great bike and it really got me into roadbikes!
I found the bike on the interwebz looking like this (actually one of the pictures from the ad):
I rode it for a bit and I decided I needed new wheels with fewer spokes because I thought that was awesome at the time:
Despite all the horror stories on the internet about the WH-R550 (or in fact any Shimano wheelset) I have never had a problem with them.
Pretty soon after I got the wheels I found myself looking for a carbon fork. I really wanted the Giant aero forks that came with OCRs and TCRs if I'm not mistaken. After a couple of weeks looking at auction sites like a hawk, I found exactly what I needed:
Only problem: the colours didn't match my bike AT ALL. So I decided to take some sandpaper to it and sand it down to bare carbon, which turned out pretty good:
The alu part at the top of the forks, which had become visible as a result of the sanding was spray painted black with a fade to blend in with the cf fork legs, and then I gave it a couple of clear coats. I also had to swap the quill stem with an ahead one. At this point, the bike looked a bit like this:
I rode it for quite a while, until recently I acquired a nicer looking (but not more comfortable I'm afraid) saddle and a black seat post to match the stem:
So that concludes the sotory of my Cadex. It's a great bike and it really got me into roadbikes!