My Everyday Road Bike & Salvagno Olive Oil

I am still using my 4-5 year old Pinarello "Marvel". It's an aluminum frame with carbon seatstays and fork. The gruppo is Shimano 10 speed Ultegra with a 52-39-30 triple with 12-25 in the back. While I can't say I like how the triples look in general, I can praise how well this Shimano system works. The 30 is nice for spinning up steep climbs, or saving me at the end of a long day of climbing. At this point I'm also trying to avoid knee problems, etc., from being undergeared. I have thought about using a compact system but I think some of the jumps between gears on that set-up are too large. So, I'm happy with this as I can go anywhere without fear of having to turnaround or walk (walking is the worse, right?).

I have other bikes here as well. For a beater city bike I have an old Vicini. It's actually a cool bike with lots of Campagnolo components. It's looks beat so it doesn't attract attention. It has very weird geometry with a lot of fork rake and long chainstays. Then I have a beautiful steel bike I discovered in the back of a store here. It's a handcrafted bike, made to measure, that just fits me perfectly. The ride is sublime and I enjoy riding it so much more than the Pinarello. But the steel bike has no low gearing...using it is making me stronger though.

Photo: a stop at Olio Salvagno and the olive mill which is a few KMs from where I live. I sometimes take a backpack and bring home goodies; their olive oil is widely available in Verona shops. The Salvagno Family have their roots from Venice. After the fall of the Republic of Venice at the beginning of the eighteenth century the family left the trading business and moved to the hills outside of Verona. They went into farming and became one of the first families in the country to specialize in the growing of olive trees. After many decades, their production grew and the beginning of the nineteenth century they opened an oil-mill for family use and even though larger equipment was installed, today Salvagno still keeps the same traditional method for producing extra virgin olive oil. See http://www.oliosalvagno.it/ for more information.