van nicholas chinook

whereisthurso

Here's my partially new bike. It replaces my cracked ribble sportive and so far seems to be a pretty good upgrade, I like it anyway. Not great photos but you get the idea.



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BoydD

i love it, looks really classy. What happened to the Ribble?

DrLex

8)
Timeless elegance; very smart indeed! Is it wrong to picture the rider in Rapha or similar?

whereisthurso

Thanks for the comments.

I would love to have some rapha gear but i seem to have spent all my money on the bike!

The ribble developed a crack at the driveside dropout after about 20 months. Have been trying for some time now to get a warranty replacement but after initial contact with them they've been ignoring all my correspondence for the last month or so. Mind you i wouldn't want to put anyone off getting a ribble because it was excellent and reasonably cheap while it lasted. Just don't expect any after sales service or warranty backup.

Back on subject, the Van Nicholas has a lifetime warranty which was one of the factors in deciding on one. The Chinook does have much more 'classic' geometry which i'm really enjoying in comparison to the old sportive style bike.

noiseboyfeetman

Very nice. A ti bike fitted with Campag, very classy

red dragon

Very nice bike.

whereisthurso

yep. It had to be campagnolo. I've always like it on my road bikes and the Athena silver looks pretty good with the bare titanium.

JohnKempStarley

Hi WhereisThurso

I've got a current thread running asking opinions of their chinooks and esprits. I knew you had a chinook as I'd seen some of your posts and now I've seen the pictures of it. Not sure how many miles you've ridden on it or the longest distances but would you be able to give me a subjective view of the overall ride quality and pluses and minuses of it? I'm pondering this frame or the esprit to build up a replacement bike for one that is a carbon racing frame with a old school square geometry and starting to show age related wear and tear.

Your comments would be much appreciated, thanks.

whereisthurso

I would thoroughly recommend the chinook. On long fast roads the smoothness is something else. It climbs incredibly well and descends like a demon compared to the ribble. A lot of this is probably down to the more aggressive geometry but that said i've found the bike considerably more comfortable.

There is no trace of flex that some say is associated with titanium but the frame is built to be more rigid than a sportive style one.

I really like the finish of the frame and the detail at the dropouts.

Can't really think of anything bad about it as yet other than the van nicholas seat clamp is a little shoddy considering the price of it.

No regrets at all so far.

fleshtuxedo

DrLex wrote:

Timeless elegance; very smart indeed!

+1

JohnKempStarley

Thanks for the very positive comments WhereisThurso. Sounds like you've chosen well and have created something you love to ride. I've made note of the seat collar comment as for £18 you'd expect better.

rollingthunder

A great, great bike. I spoke to Van Nicholas 3 weeks ago about getting one of these but have just bought 2 Ridley frames, so I'll have to wait. I want to sell off my steel Pina and get one though.

What isze is yours, it looks like a solidly sized headtube! Post up some better pics, the bike deserves it!

whereisthurso

It's a 60cm. Initially when I ordered it I was worried it might look a bit like a farm gate but actually I think the proportions look pretty good. The head tube is actually a couple of cms shorter than it was on my xl ribble so the bike feels that little bit longer.

rollingthunder

Enjoy!

andrewlwood

Have to say, I was considering a RIbble as my next bike, but frames that crack and no support puts me right off.

Nice bike you've got there though!

fsd61b

whereisthurso wrote:

It's a 60cm. Initially when I ordered it I was worried it might look a bit like a farm gate but actually I think the proportions look pretty good. The head tube is actually a couple of cms shorter than it was on my xl ribble so the bike feels that little bit longer.

Hi Whereisthurso, just thought I'd drop a line to enquire how the Chinook turned out? Also what hight are you? I am considering the 62cm frame as I'm 6'4".
Regards

whereisthurso

Still love the Chinook. Haven't had any issues at all.

I'm 6' 4'' too. I'm happy with the size. I have a 120mm stem on it and it felt a little over stretched when on the drops with the deep ergo bars that were on it (as in the original picture). Now it has shallow drop compact bars on and it feels perfect. I'm not sure what difference going up a size would have made that couldn't have been adjusted with saddle height and stem length.

Only other thing that I've changed is the saddle because the SLR was literally a right pain in the arse.

One thing to be aware of is that in my opinion the Chinook doesn't give the commonly expected forgiving feel of titanium. It's stiff, direct and fast. The main quality that makes it feel different to other bikes is that it feels incredibly smooth if that makes any sense but not necessarily that forgiving.

Great frame that'll probably last longer than I do.

Hope this helps.