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The tubing is my favourite thing about the frameset. Aside from the iconic donohue tear drop down tube, the seat tubes and chainstays have a bladed shape around the seat tube, but transitioned into round shape to shelter the skewers from the wind. It's disappointing the fork doesn't share the same aerodynamics properties like the bladed steel forks of the same era e.g. Argos
Point taken on the logos as now I can't unsee them. The previous owner put a protector on top to protect the logos so I might start with sharpie out the blue "K". Quick internet search suggests there is a clear coat on top of the stickers so stripping them is a project of its own.
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2nd dibs pending price
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budget weightweenie build. Anyone has a pair in their (fancy) bin?
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I would agree with you... I think it looks worst when there is a mix of black & silver components. I do wish modern components could come with silver
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The riding experience so far:
FSA cranks. Comparing it with the older 6750 cranks, the FSA (with a 30mm spindle) is much stiffer, very similar to the 9000 cranks (but cheaper!).
DA 9000 mini group. Moving up a cassette has become effortless, crisp and quick. Also takes in a 30T no problem. The experience is pretty damn close to di2, which is quite a standard to match. Lever throw has been much reduced (probably unfair comparison with 6700), and only needs a very light touch to shift. Shifting down however is less amazing when there were a few occasions where the shifting lever stud didn't catch the shifting barrel stud. Never had this problem with the 6700. The front isn't quite as good as the 9000 cranks on the venge with di2 though, but I blame that on the FSA chainring rather than the FD. There has been (very) slight chain rub on the outermost position (big ring, small sprocket) which I could not get rid of. Perhaps due to the fact that these are marketed as 10s chainrings.
Finishing kit. I'm quite happy with the more traditional shape of the Romin. Lately I have been going on 100km+ rides with the Power and experienced some discomfort towards the end of the ride. Romin is both cheaper and lighter, so win-win if this works out. However the Romin rails are positioned pretty far back, and I might switch to an in-line post as I dislike the look of slammed forward saddle.
Speaking of seatpost, the elita one post is nice for its price. Nice finishing, and after shortening it by 15cm it yields a 110g ultra light post (I don't need much post as you can see). However the 2 bolt mechanism is not as well engineered as something like a thomson. There seems to be more friction in the rear bolt, and under the same torque the saddle would have a slight forward dip.
The cages are chinese clones bontrager xxx. They work fine, 1 of them weighs bang on 18g, the other is overweight at 22g. The bolts are pretty cheap looking. Given the very similar cost and extra long wait time, I would have gone for the zefal l2 cages instead. My ones on the venge both weighed 18g , and comes with much nicer alloy bolts.
What else... cables. Jagwire pro are a nice upgrade from the lifeline stuff. They do fray pretty easily if you are (I am) clumsy with repeated adjustments.
That's about it for now. The next upgrade would be a threadless carbon fork. I have no experience with headsets or any press fit bearings, so might be a steep learning curve. I have already grabbed a cheap mizuno fork from ebay just to "practise", and if that works well I would fork out for a columbus minimal.
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Another pain point has been the sram aerolink brakes - they just refuse to center. Less of a problem for the rear, but a major problem for the front where a 9cm headtube means unavoidable cable bend. I have already routed the brake cables in the EU/US way such that it gives the front brake cable a bit more space, but still it is causing too much push/pull for the brakes to center. So here I am, living the "I-told-you-so" moment, when the one (of the very few) agreement of the internet is to stick with shimano DA calipers.
With that said, I'm now looking for 7900/ 9000 brake calipers if anyone is looking to offload. 9100 for whatever reason seems to warrant a much higher price, yet I don't see how it performs any differently.
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Things that didn't go as planned:
Quill stem adapter - it looked completely out of place, there isn't enough head tube for it to be slammed. I took it off immediately after it went on. This has been an issue before when I was sourcing quill stem that could work with the <9cm head tube here. This means I couldn't use OS bars as I had intended.
Though not all is lost. The nitto m109aa is a lovely shape. There are worse bars to be stuck with.
So the carbon bars will have to wait while I source a threadless fork. And speaking of handlebars, the USE summit bars have its hood position too low. Maybe it could work well with the old style brake levers (e.g. shimano BL-R400), but definitely not with any modern STIs. A shame as I like the integrated cable guide, and it's 20g lighter than the FSA.
USE summit
FSA k-force light
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Progress of the past week: bike stripped, cleaned & rebuilt.
Farewell shoot with the 6700 groupo
Stripped
Rebuilt with DA9000 goodies. Weight drops from 9.3kg to 8.3kg, and more to be saved with a carbon fork / cockpit!
e14