# New Century Elite



## drrjgregory (Aug 20, 2008)

This is my first post - be kind.

My wife and I just recently started road biking. My brother in law (Ridley frame, campy top line components) got us into it. I have a cannondale synapse 2 (2007) with a mix of 105/ultegra components and my wife has the female specific version of Synapse with the Tiagra components. Both bikes purchased at Littleton bike shop in NH (we vacation in NH). We are both very satisfied with the bikes and the shop is quite good. I dropped a lot of money there!

Anyway, my 15 year old son expressed interest in biking with us and I thought that was a great way to get him out of the world of warcraft. We went into the bike shop and they didn't have anything in stock his size (35 inch inseam) in my price range (<1500). We rented a bke from them for a week and my son remained interested so I decided to purchase and looked on line, figuring I could probably assemble a bike. I ended up chosing the Century Elite as it specs out pretty close to my cannondale for about $400 less than I paid for the Synapse. I don't expect it to be as good, but am not sure I could tell anyway.


The bike took about a week to reach me in Massachusetts. The box was pretty dinged with 1 corner pretty ripped up, but held together with tape. I looked inside and the damage did not seem to reach the bike - whew. Anyway I put it on my nice new Park Tools stand and started to work. Got it entirely assebled without looking at the manual (I have leafed through "Zinn and the Art of Road Bike maintainence") I took my time and had it together in about an hour. I had to true up the rear wheel (not too bad) and adjust both brakes and both derailers (sp). I am glad I have the bike stand as the derailers took a while to get perfect. The Zinn "bible" also proved useful in adjusting the derailers as the shimano instructions are small print. I have also sprung for a nice tool kit from performance cycles which I wanted for my other bikes anyway.

I have only had it out for a short ride but will get my son out this weekend for some miles and report back. The bike seems slid and has good components so I am optimistic.


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## 20sMotoSpirit (May 27, 2007)

drrjgregory said:


> This is my first post - be kind.
> 
> My wife and I just recently started road biking. My brother in law (Ridley frame, campy top line components) got us into it. I have a cannondale synapse 2 (2007) with a mix of 105/ultegra components and my wife has the female specific version of Synapse with the Tiagra components. Both bikes purchased at Littleton bike shop in NH (we vacation in NH). We are both very satisfied with the bikes and the shop is quite good. I dropped a lot of money there!
> 
> ...



so he's 15 and 6' 2?


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## drrjgregory (Aug 20, 2008)

About 6'1" but all legs. Weighs about 130 pounds. No body fat at all.


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## drrjgregory (Aug 20, 2008)

*century update*

Well my update post on the century elite has been delayed a bit due to my son breaking his elbow. Since he has not been able to ride I've had it out for a couple of short (20-22 miles) rides and switched back and forth with my C'dale Synapse. I really can't tell much difference, which is good since I love the Synapse. I did a good job of bike set up and truing the wheels and am glad I did this myself (as opposed to the LBS route) as I learned quite a bit. Nothing too hard if you are even modestly mechanically inclined, thoughI did have to invest in some tools. 

Amazingingly, I even like the seat better than the Fizik Aliante saddle on my synapse. The Fizik gets great reviews on this site but is only gradually beating me into submission. The skye seat on the Century Elite is at least as comfortable to me.

I did decide to switch out the stem as the bike came with a 110 or 120 and it was a bit of a stretch for my son. I ordered the 90 mm Ritchey stem through Bike Island. The bike comes with 26 mm bars which are a bit of an oddity today, when most bars seem to be the 31.4 mm diameter. About the only place I could find a 26 mm stem was Bike Island, which is clearly a Bikes Direct affiliated site. I guess I could have upgraded the bars, but the new stem was only about $35 so it was economical.

Thats all for now.


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