Van Nicholas Chinook... mmm shiny!

Milkmaid

After a four month wait (due to various reasons including delayed frame availability, a damaged frame shipped with the wrong chainset, saddle and seatpost, and a back injury which meant I was bed-bound for a month and then couldn't pick my bike up for another three weeks after I had surgery), my Van Nic Chinook has finally landed. She's as shiny as Dave Brailsford's noggin!





Added V-power:






Frame: Van Nicholas Chinook, 56cm. All that shines is titanium
Fork: VNT carbon
Bars: VNT Elements (will upgrade to 3T when the bank manager allows)
Stem: VNT Elements (will upgrade to 3T when the bank manager allows)
Groupset: Shimano Ultegra Compact: 50/34 with a 12-25 cassette.
Brakes: Shimano Ultegra
Seatpost: Van Nicholas Ti with 15mm layback
Saddle: Fizik Arione Kium
Wheels: Mavic Ksyrium Equipe
Tyres: Schwalbe Durano (23mm)
Pedals: Speedplay (stainless steel)
Bottle cages: Elite Ciussi Inox (stainless steel)

Picked her up to day, but I won't be able to ride her for a couple of weeks as I'm still suffering from post-operation back pain and stiffness. There's a spare spacer above the stem in case I need to move the cockpit up a little while my back continues to heal, but as she stands in the photos above she exactly replicates my bike-fit geometry. She replaces my Orbea Onix 105 (currently for sale if anyone's interested) and will be doing as many 200km and 300km sportives and audaxes as my little legs will allow. By August we should have bonded enough to tackle a 10 day assault on a scenic LeJog ride (planned route currently sees us covering 1,049 miles). Beyond that, I've got one eye on the Paris-Brest-Paris and London-Edinburgh-London rides :shock:

carl_p

Very nice indeed. I love my VN and I think you'll be thrilled with yours, the ride is sublime. What cables have you got there? Look much nicer than standard black.

Hope you get back on the bike soon.

RideOnTime

Nice One...

Ride hard

Milkmaid wrote:

She's as shiny as Dave Brailsford's noggin!

Come on, you're exaggerating now. Nothing else known to man is that shiny! I wonder if he buffs it up with Mr Sheen. Hmmhh...

Anyway, that's a lovely bike. I really like the embossed crest on the headtube. Very regal.

Enjoy it/her when when you're back on your feet.

Milkmaid

Carl - the cables are Jagwires: I didn't know I was getting these instead of bog-standard Shimano cables so they're an added bonus! I've used Flying Snakes in the past and have been very impressed so it'll be interesting to see how the Jags compare in terms of longevity.

RideOnTime - Cheers!

Ride hard - you make a valid point: if my bike is a hundreth as brilliant as the mind that hides within Dave B's shiny head I'll be a happy bunny.

fuzzbear

Great looking bike! classic lines..

Best of luck with the recovery, I feel your (back) pain.

ascurrell

What a lovely bike, well worth the wait, speedy recovery.

Paul 8v

I was expecting this to be matte green when I saw the name of it but it looks great in that bare ti finish. Looks like some nice attention to detail on the frame.

pdstsp

Had mine about 18 months and the love hasn't worn off yet - love it and hope you love yours too. Looks fantastic.

paul_smith_srcc

pdstsp wrote:

Had mine about 18 months and the love hasn't worn off yet - love it and hope you love yours too. Looks fantastic.

Had mine since 2007 and love it as well



I bought it after my Yukon that I use for my tours-holidays; both live in my bedroom!



Paul

Milkmaid

Mine was living in the bedroom, but we moved house at the weekend and it's now been consigned to a cold (but dry) shed. Hope she's OK! Still haven't been able to ride her, and the physio has told me I won't be able to for at least a few weeks. I'm thinking I might sneak a wee Christmas-week ride to see a) how my back holds up, and b) how the new machine rides.