Pedal Room: What's your name, where are you located, and what do you do?
Marcus (zouo), during the day I am based in Coventry UK, I work as a Business Analyst for a Fortune 500 company
Pedal Room: What's a typical week like in terms of rides and bike-related stuff?
Marcus: I generally ride for fun or exercise. I no longer have the opportunity to commute to work by bike but outside of work time I try to get out as much as I can. Join social rides and that type of thing. I moved away from the city recently and now I live in the countryside which is great because it is a really nice area for cycling with lots of scenic routes, rolling hills and a relatively low level of traffic.
Pedal Room: How'd you come across your Grandis/Paletti pursuit bike? How long have you owned it?
Marcus: The pursuit frame was an Italian eBay score from a couple of years ago. I think I was the only bidder. When I was younger I'd see the brightly coloured pursuit/low profile frames and wonder what they were like to ride. There's an element of risk in buying a frame with such geometry without testing it first but it seems to have worked out ok as the bike fits me just fine. If you apply a bit of common sense with the sizing it should be easy enough to figure out if it will be comfortable to ride.
Pedal Room: Love the pursuit geometry...how's it ride compared to a bike like your Henry Burton track bike?
Marcus: The geometry works out to be about the same as a 54cm centre to centre top tube on a normal frame. What makes it feel a bit different to your average road frame are the steeper head tube angle, fork rake, short wheelbase and of course the smaller front wheel. One of the positives of the 650c front wheel is that there is no toe overlap. As a negative it doesn't take pot-holes or dropping down curbs well and although I have never ridden it off-road I can imagine it would be unpleasan and pointless. There's an assumption with lo-pros and bullhorns that it will be like riding a regular bike down on the drops all the time. That's very much the case but many people have tried the bike and they always report it's more comfortable than expected - especially for climbing. The Henry Burton in contrast is actually a lot more aggressive to ride because in it's current set up the saddle to bar drop is greater and the overall geometry/angles/rake add up to a very 'lively' feel. Also those track rops look nice but they aren't comfortable over distance. I prefer the Paletti in this sense.
Pedal Room: Any future plans for this bike? How about future bike builds?
Marcus: The Paletti is really just an accumulation of parts. I didn't feel that it needed to be a period build or anything so I went with components that I had at hand or knew were reliable. Of course there are budgetary constraints as well. I thought about having it repainted but then there's the quandary of the decals/stickers. The Grandis decals are under the clear coat, the Paletti 'Cronos' decals, most of which have worn away, were on top of this but the frame is panto'd Paletti and hs been confirmed by Luciano Paletti as his build. So go figure. My current thinking is that it should stay as it is.
I have one other bike in the pipeline which is an early Aende road frame. I've been looking for one of these for a few years and managed to pick one up in my size. I'll work on this over the next couple of months and hope to get it ready for mid-summer. Aende's have a small but enthusiastic following so I will be pleased to bring another one back to the road.
Pedal Room: Anything else you'd like to say?
Marcus: Keep up the good work and I wish you the best of luck with the site.
Pedal Room: Thanks Marcus! Ride safe!