The maiden voyage with the newly finished Pinarello went fine, no major issues. The front brake lever slipped a little on the bars, but that’s an easy fix.
The harder fix is the stem. The original stem is a 3T, with Pinarello pantographed on both sides of the stem. It’s 70mm long and at least 40-50mm too short for a reasonable fit. I really don’t want to swap out the pantographed stem, but the fit isn’t good with it due to the short length. I picked up another 3T stem that is 110mm long and I think it will give me a much better fit – but I lose the pantographed stem in the swap. It really isn’t the trade I want to make, but if the bike isn’t comfortable to ride it will sit unridden – and the Pinarello deserves to be ridden and enjoyed.
The headset is better than my first assembly but it is still rough. It’s really noticeable when riding hands-off, and especially when riding hands-off and pedaling. It’s bad enough that it needs to be fixed so I bought a replacement.
<START OF RANT> Note to ebay sellers – you can’t say an item has been shipped when you print a shipping label. It’s shipped when you deliver it to the shipping company, whether that is USPS, UPS, FEDEX, or another shipper. I’ll be taking this up with the seller when I receive the headset, and the complete tracking history shows the sequence and timing of it all. <END OF RANT>
Once both parts are here, I’ll swap them both at the same time, and when it’s back together a short ride will confirm that everything is set up and working properly. Then I’ll wrap the bars and call this project done.