I order a bunch of stuff two weeks ago. My road bike is sitting in various piles of all of its parts and the Roubaix ride we do every year is April 13th, so I would really like to ride my road bike then. well, about that...
Here's what I ordered and why:
3T Team Stealth 27.2/280mm Ionic 0 Seatpost
I had to triple check the length against my Woodman post, and the 3T is 10mm longer, so I have a bit more insurance. The Woodman EL Alloy came in at 122g once I cut off the excess, which is pretty damn light for a seatpost. The reason I'm replacing it with the heavier (200g) 3T is three-fold. The Woodman's cradle is beginning to bow. I weigh 165lbs at my heaviest and am between 150 and 155lbs for most of the year. There's no reason I should be bending any part of a seatpost. It also creaks like a spooky old house. It's noticeable when I climb in the saddle, but it is more than obnoxious when I'm on the trainer. It's the interface between the seat rails and the tiny little bars that clamp on top of the seat rails. 4n/m max tq doesn't help much. The 3T may be heavier, but it should be completely silent and not bend under me. It also matches my stem and new bar, so I see the added 78g of weight as more than a fair trade.
3T Team Stealth 42cm Ergonova Handlebar
The FSA bar I had on, I have absolutely loved since day one. I'm not big on a lot of FSA's stuff, but they do handlebar shape right. Once I scraped all of the gross red paint off and had a nice matte carbon look going, I was thrilled... accept for finding out that the bar was cracked. As a shop employee, it's my job to let people with cracked bars know that they should replace them immediately. When carbon is compromised, you have no idea when it will fail, and when it fails, it tends to do so spectacularly. That being said, I rode on that compromised bar for three years. I only knew about the crack for two of them, and that first year the bar was on a CX bike, so I am amazed that I'm not dead and that the bar is still intact. You would never know it was damaged if I didn't tell you. It will be missed.
I have an Ergonova on my CX bike now, and I like the shape. If I'm honest, most of the time I can't tell it's any different than the FSA bar. The drops are a touch less comfy, but I'm really reaching to find something bad to say. I just got one for the R5 and I now have a matching cockpit, which I have to admit, looks nicer than I thought it would. The new bar is also 9g lighter than the shaved FSA bar (16g when it had paint) so there's that. I'm just happy that I wont have to worry on fast descents now.
Enve S.E.S. 3.4 Clincher Rims (comes with rim tape, brake pads and spoke nipples)
I finally ordered them. I was so excited when I did. Then, 3 days after I placed the order, I got an email saying that the order was confirmed and that they were set to ship on 4/24/14. Say what now?
The wheels are going to be absolutely awesome, but they wont be ready and built until, best case, May. That's not ready for the Roubaix ride, but what really chaps my ass about the wait is...
Tune Mig70/Mag170 Hubs and DC14 Skewers
I really, really wanted these hubs in white. REALLY WANTED them in white. But Fair Wheel wouldn't have them in stock in a timely fashion, and since I ordered the rims and wanted everything ready by the 13th, I took one on the chin and ordered them in horrifically boring black. Carbon rims, black spokes, black hubs. It will look really good, and will match my black on black cockpit, but it wont look nearly as good as the white hubs would have. Hell, I was close to ordering white spokes to go with those white hubs to make a real looker of a set of wheels. But I digress.
I order the hubs in black only to find out that the rims aren't coming until the end of April. I'm crushed. On the plus side, I don't have to build the bike in a rush now. I can take my time and take pictures of everything before I ride it. At least for that.
The Tune skewers are going to replace the Control Tech bolt ons I have now. There is nothing wrong with the CT skewers, other than the end that you can put a 4mm allen into to get the front wheel off is stripped, and I have to carry a special tool with me to get my front wheel on and off. It's not the end of the world, but it's not ideal and it's one more thing for me to lose. I'm going back to quick releases and the Tune ones are a claimed 32g, but an actual 35g. 5g of weight isn't noticeable. Plus, the Tune skewers are art. Because I got boring black hubs, I got boring black skewers too.
Specialized S-Works Prevail Helmet
My old helmet is over 4 years old and is starting to become hard. In case you don't know, helmets are only god for 4-5 years, even less if you leave them in your car or the sun. The foam will do one of two things, it will either become brittle and shatter into pieces upon impact, or it becomes hard and when your helmeted head hits the ground, the hard foam wont be any kinder than the pavement it landed on. I went with the S-Works because I like nice things.
Specialized S-Works Toupé 143mm Saddle
Specialized redesigned the S-Works Toupé because most people hated the old one. I was not one of those people. The new saddle gains about 40g over the old, and most of it is padding. I wanted a black saddle, and my Romin Pro is white, so I figured "why not?" I'm going to throw the Romin on the CX bike. Also, I wanted to give a flat saddle another go because the Romin's hump is starting to bother me. I could get all nerdy about the design differences between the two saddles, but at this point, I'm getting tired of typing. just know that I've become more flexible over the past year (a lot more) and that's really why I got a new saddle.
Specialized S-Works Road Shoes
Since the new models came out, I have lusted after the white and black versions. My current shoes aren't in terrible shape, but the heart wants what the heart wants. The old shoes will make for fantastic travel or rainy day shoes.
I know, that's quite the list of choice kit. You may be asking yourself "why are you waiting until May to put your bike together when you could put it together with the old wheels now and ride it until the new ones get built?" The simple answer is that I am lazy. I want to set up the new brakes I have once, and since there is width difference between the PowerTap wheels and the Enve wheels, I don't want to set them up twice if there isn't enough adjustment with the brakes. Also, I really want to take some fancy pics of my bike after it's built, but before I ride it and make it all dirty. It's such a pain in the ass to really get a dirty bike clean enough to take serious photos, because you have to take everything apart to get all of those little places clean. I'd rather just build the bike, take pictures, and then ride it.
In the meantime, I'll be riding my Guru with the PowerTap wheels on it. I got a set of Conti 4seasons on them and I've been riding it for the past two weeks like that. It's getting the job done. The gearing is a bit tougher, but I'm really out of shape, and that will force me to push myself a little harder than I normally would. I've got to be in shape by the time I build the R5 back up. I can't be fat in lazy in May on a sub 14lb bike.
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