road bikes ⁽¹⁰⁾

When I built my Nordest Albarda in the fall of 2019, I didn’t spend the money to get all new parts for it. I took the SRAM Red eTap HRD groupset off my Ritte and used the Nox Composites wheels that had been on my red Volagi Viaje, which I had sold. A year later, the bike finally got its own drivetrain components. When I switched to 650B RoadPlus with my third Volagi Viaje, I was immediately sold on the slightly smaller but wider wheels. The Viaje felt way better with 650B wheels. If I weren’t climbing and descending as much, I’d be perfectly happy rolling around on 700C, but in the mountainous Jura, 650B just feels better.

In early 2019, I rebuilt my 2015 Ritte Snob Disc only to take it apart again to build my Nordest Albarda in the fall of the same year. Then my wife and I moved at the end of 2019 and the Ritte hung on the bike rack in our new basement missing many parts. In 2020, I purchased a SRAM eTap AXS groupset for the Nordest and moved the eTap HRD parts back to the Ritte. Over the course of the year, I bought bits and pieces here and there to complete the Ritte once again, but alas, I never quite finished.

Although the Nordest Albarda sort of was my 50th birthday present to myself, it was built on a tight budget using the wheels I had on my red Volagi Viaje and robbing my Ritte Snob Disc of most of its parts. Building the Albarda was a slow process. An hour one evening, two hours another evening, and sometimes more when I lost track of time. Everything was built in stages. One night, the BB and crankset. The next night, the drivetrain. One night headset and fork. Another for the brakes and one last evening to bleed them. No hiccups or problems, except that the Chris King headset Nordest sold with the frameset isn't suitable for the fork. At least not in my opinion. So, a Cane Creek 110 was installed instead. The fork and DT Swiss Centerlock lock ring didn't have enough clearance for me. Then I remembered that my wife's Alfine hub had an older DT Swiss lock ring with an inner spline. This one would leave a wider gap to the fork leg, so I swapped lock rings since it really doesn't matter what type of lock ring is on my wife's bike.

In early 2019, I wanted to rebuild my Ritte Snob Disc by replacing the mechanical 10-speed SRAM Red groupset and mechanical TRP Spyre brakes with a SRAM Red eTap HRD groupset. Ever since I had to change the lower headset cup after the Enve fork recall, there was a small paint damage at the bottom of the head tube. When I went about to remove the clear protective 3M tape I had applied, the whole paint came with it. The headset removal and new installation must have been enough for the paint to separate from the stainless head tube. No primer had been used under the original paint.

The third. In March 2014, I built a red/black Volagi Viaje as a road bike, and in 2016 an all-black one into a 1x11 gravel bike. To distinguish the three, I called the red one the RD, the black one the CX, and the creme one the SL. The RD went through several changes in the five years I rode it. With over 13'000 km, it's become the road bike I've liked most. In August 2018, someone posted in the Volagi Vanguard Facebook group that they were looking for a titanium Viaje. Out of curiosity, I just googled "Volagi Viaje" and discovered that a German bike shop still had some NOS Volagi material. There were several carbon Liscio framesets and one creme/black Viaje. This frame was just my size, and the price was far lower than the original retail price years ago. I loved this bike so much; it was the last chance to get my hands on a new Viaje and extend riding one for several more years. In early August, this frameset was mine.