Van Nicholas Euros
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One lunchtime last year, I went out to check the tyre pressures on my Van Nich ready for my commute home. Whilst the bike was on the rack, I found this alarmingly large crack in the down tube.
Obviously, I put this damage down as terminal so rode home very gently without touching the brakes then proceeded to dismantle the bike. By some amazing bureaucratic good fortune I managed to find the 7 year old receipt and contacted the shop (Fat Birds) where I originally purchased the frame. They in turn contacted Van Nicholas, who came back saying that the Euros was out of production, but would I like the more upmarket Aquilo instead. I cheekily asked if I could have the (internally routed) Aquilo SE. They agreed and a few weeks later, the frame arrived. What brilliant service!!!
I needed to buy a new headset, bottom bracket and seatpost as these were different standards / sizes to that fitted to the Euros. I opted to swap the forks for some ENVEs whilst I was at it and I didn’t like the hand position on the bars so I swapped those too. I had Deda RHM02 bars on my Lynskey, which I love and better still, at 18 quid they’re a bargain so fitted a set of those.
The old stem didn’t look quite right when I initially fitted it, but I had a spare black USE stem that was a warranty replacement in my spares box.
I wanted to reuse the titanium Van Nich 27.2mm seatpost, but it didn’t fit the frame as this takes a 30.9mm. The solution I used here was to use a plastic USE shim to make the old seatpost fit. I also found a spare seatpost clamp that came off my Lynskey frame when that went back for repair which went straight on!
New FSA headset, Chris King PF41 bottom bracket, Nokon brake cables, short battery mount fitted under the chainstay, black SLR and Merida ‘dots’ bar tape complete the look.
I finished the build this week and have put about 50 miles on the bike so far. I’ve been riding my Cervelo Soloist with Powertap DT Swiss wheels and GP4000 rubber, mechanical Ultegra and ‘slammed’ position so far this year. It’s quite amazing how different the VN feels. It seems to float over bumps that would have tripped the Soloist up and it even feels different to my old VN. Clearly this is highly subjective, but so far so good. I’m not sure it’s faster or slower, it’s more comfortable that is for sure.
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That's a very nice bike you've got yourself there. I have a VN Euros that is almost exactly 10 years old,and I have the original receipt. Unfortunately the frame is in perfect condition after what must be approaching 10,000 km...0
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That sounds very familiar. I reckon my Euros had done between 5000 and 6000 miles yet looked perfect when I put it in the box to send back, apart from that crack.0
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that Van Nicholas looks fantastic and the service you have had from them was very impressive. Not sure that I can justify another road bike at the moment but if I could than a Van Nic would definitely be on the shortlist!0
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That's a lovely bike but fark me that seat to handlebar drop would cripple me!0
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Thanks for that. All my bikes have been set up with this or even a bit more drop since I started riding on the road. Maybe it's something I've adapted to.0
