cfkb's garage: mostly steel (ft. surly, paul donohue, rourke)

Few follow-up comments on the above:

• I was expecting the carbon fork to work magic on the cockpit, it didn't. By magic, I meant "responsive steering", "lively" and other subjective positive experience. The old cockpit (steel fork, quill stem, nitto bar) weighs some ~630g heavier than the new one (carbon fork, threadless stem, carbon bar), yet I have not "felt" it on the road. I'm still glad I made the switch as it opens up choice of bars for me (there are a grand total of 2 25.4/26mm compact narow bar available, nitto m109 and soma highway one)

• s work stem is a stupid luxury. I have an UNO stem, but it looks chunky (partly because of its short 80mm length) and the matt finish is too "matt". The swork stem check 2 boxes: (1) polished surface (2) 12deg - parallel to the top tube.

• m9100 xtr pedals are another luxury, but at least I got them used. Perhaps I'm so used to m520s I actually find the reduced float of the m9100 more difficult to clip into. More than once I found myself slipping off the pedals when I'm clipping in. Never happens on m520s.
  
  

• I hated the sram red aerolink brakes. They weigh a mere 248g, but my god was it difficult to centre them! Particularly difficult on the small bike with short head tube. The cable bend is gauranteed to push the calipers off center. Found some DA9000 calipers, all hail modulation and ease of maintenance.
  
  

• Finally I switched to the USE seatpost purely for asthetics. The elita is also too chunky and matt-y. Could save ~40 grams saw off some 10cm post, but cba.