I Own a Model Year 2000 Opera Leonardo in Blue: Bikefanclub.com

Hello Nev,

I own a model year 2000 Opera Leonardo painted in the blue color scheme.

It rides like a Pinarello Prince that has a carbon main triangle. The top tube, down tube, and seat tube are carbon so you get a little bit of that woody carbon ride. Everything else, the fork, head tube, bottom bracket and rear triangle are from the proven Pinarello Prince. The BB and chain stays are aluminum. The HT is aluminum. The seat stay is a carbon monostay. The fork is the Vola from the Prince. It is full carbon with a 1-1/8" steerer. The HT has an integrated headset. The fork and the integrated headset are the best parts of the frame, because they flow together and look so cool.

Because it handles exactly like a Pinarello Prince, it is a very fun bike to ride. The Prince is known for its harsh aluminum ride, but the carbon tubes on the Leonardo mute the ride quite nicely. I often take the Leonardo on century rides and it is almost as comfortable as my titanium long-distance bikes. But, because the main triangle is carbon, the bike is very laterally and torsionally stiff, probably more so than the Prince.

After about 6,000 miles I noticed some hairline cracks where the carbon tubes are bonded over the aluminum spigots which are welded to the aluminum lugs. I inspected the hell out of these hairline cracks and I even did a magnified white-light inspection with our composites technical expert at work. The lugs on this frame are heavily faired with paint filler (bondo), all the transitional surfaces are blended very smoothly for beauty. For example, the aluminum welds are heavily smoothed and bondo is used to blend them into the aluminum spigots, and then the bondo flows over the lap joint where the carbon tube is joined to the aluminum spigot.

So there is a heck of a lot of bondo over the lap joint where the carbon tubes are epoxied to the aluminum lugs. We all came to the conclusion that the hairline cracks are in the bondo. Indeed, the hairline cracks haven't even broken through the clearcoat. The hairline cracks first appeared after I finished a century ride on the first really hot day (+90 def F) of a cycling season. So we think the hairline cracks were formed due to simple expansion after the bondo had aged a couple of years. If you epoxy a carbon tube over an aluminum spigot, feather it out heavily with bondo and paint it, then load it and twist it and subject it to expansion/contraction, etc, if you don't see some hairline cracks in the bondo it would be a miracle.

In any event, I am still riding the Leonardo and the cracks haven't increased in size or even broken through the clearcoat. A very nice ride, as much fun as a Pinarello Prince but with a much smoother ride, and the bike is a real conversation piece.

That's the story of my 2000 Opera Leonardo.

Bobby

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