Argh! I'm becoming one of THEM!

Ok, so after realizing that I'm spending 90% of my saddle time on the road anyway (I ride 20-30 miles every other day after work, will step that up a bit as well soon I hope) I figured I might as well do it properly.

I splurged on one of the few Intense Fenix frames they had left in stock, it's a 60cm, but it feels like it will fit well, the top tube is slightly shorter than the one on my old Hardrock (that I'm using as a training bike) but I figure with the drops it should fit me nicely.

I'm not a light guy (but Intense assure me that I should be fine on the Fenix) so strength is more important to me than shaving 100 grams here and there, I'm ok spending money on quality parts, I learnt long ago not to try to skimp on stuff, the last time I went cheap on a bike I broke everything, twice.

For wheels I'm splurging a bit as well, Industry Nine have started making road bike wheels and since I've had good luck with my Cane Creek Aeroheats I figure the I9s will be fine, it's a 3 month lead time for these buggering things though so it gives me plenty of time to spec out the rest of it (and lose 30 lbs before I get on it)

I was planning on running an aluminum Thompson stem and seatpost, along with EC90 or EA90 bars, headset I'm not sure about, what would be the best here? You don't use star nuts in carbon steering tubes do you? Any input there?

For the groupset I'm really not sure, it seems I can get a full Dura Ace 7800 groupset from Star Bike for around $900 or go crazy and get a 7900 set for $1400, I've used starbike before for the XTR stuff on my 5.5 and apart from a 2 week wait while the stuff gets shipped over from Europe, they're fine, stupidly cheap.

Given the money I'm dropping on the thing elsewhere I might just say screw it and go 7900.

Does anything there look wrong? It's going to cost me an arm and a child, but what the hell, that's what overtime is for

Thanks.

 

if you're going to do it, do it right the first time be happy w/ the gruppo and you'll be riding happy. The last thing you want to do is upgrade later.

have you looked at the SRAM gruppo?

 

That's what I figured, no point in half arsing it and then wishing I'd spent the extra $500 later

No I haven't, I don't have anything against SRAM, it's just that Starbike don't sell them, what's the going rate for the groupsets with them?

Where's a good place to buy them?

Thanks.

 

the path i believe carries them and their gruppo is competitive to that of Shimano's stuff and some actually like the feel more.

Interesting tid bit is shimano's 09 hood/lever have been reprofiled to mimick the profile of the SRAM's hood. and conversely, campy reprofiled theirs to look like shimano's LOL

 

Hey, hey, hey. Let's keep the blasphemy to a minimum.

 

Is there any significant difference between SRAM, Shimano and Campagnolo or is it just a case of personal preference?

Incidentally, how many stupid and proprietary tools does the Dura Ace stuff use (I ask only from personal experience with XTR crankset nonsense )

 

Them!



Just kidding - I ride road bikes too.:beer:

I really like the SRAM Force Gruppo! Go SRAM Go!

 

Ergonomically, they each work differently.

 

for what it's worth (not much): on the rare occasions when i hit the road, i just use my mtb bike with the tires pumped up a little. i have the satisfaction of knowing that--every time one of those chill lycra-bots blows past me--i'm getting a better workout on my bigass bike. so there...

but don't get me wrong. i've done a handful of centuries. whatever melts your butter.

 

At the risk of getting pelted with rotten fruit.............I like road riding! Lots of places to see, lots of stops by the ocean, lots of Starbux and food places/bars. Just avoid the 'shaved leg/I want to beat you all because my parents hated me people' and you'll have a blast.

 

HA! I think I've been on that group ride. :lol:

 

That is one hell of a build you are going for. I don't know for certain but if Dura-Ace is any thing like XTR you will get more mileage out of Ultegra or Ultegra LT. If I were to build a frame scrap I would go with one level below top of the line SRAM.

As for wheels I would go with a set of DT Swiss wheels with 28 or 32 holes mounted with Mavic OP Pro. Personally I was stay away from a new product like the I9. Sure their MTB wheels may have proven themselves but the road wheel is a new design. DT Swiss is a proven design, as are wheels by Mavic, Rolf, Shimano, Reynolds, etc. I also personally don't like wheels that require proprietary parts. Have needed a spoke replaced in the field before and luckily had only needed a standard spoke and not some crazy bladed Mavic spoke.

But this all really comes down to how you see yourself using your bike. Are you going to generally use it for shorter faster rides, less than say 4 hours? Are you using it for training, commuting, other? Do you see yourself doing long all day rides, 100+ miles? Plan on doing any racing?

 

I AM one of them. Careful, you might end up like me.

 

All my road bikes had shimano until 3 years ago when I went to Campy Chorus. I couldn't be more pleased. I have worn out two cassettes and chains but that is it. It runs quieter than my old ultegra bike. I won't go back in the near future to shimano. I currently have a custom steel frame on order that I don't expect till next year and I will put Campy Record 11 speed on it.

 

If you've got the means, then going with the new Dura Ace is a fine choice, by all reports, it's a step improvement over the current version, which, everyone agrees, was swell to begin with.

As for the bars, I personally love carbon bars on the road bike. The carbon bars aleviate vibration nicely and I'd encourage you to look at the EC90 seat post for the same reason. However, run away from carbon stems, which by the looks of things, you'd figured out on your own. I haven't seen any of the road frames offered by Intense, other than the review I read in Road magazine sometime last year. You'll certainly stand out on the weekend rides. Good luck.

 

The dark side beckons...

If you can swing the cash, take the biggest bite you can. You'll know it when 60 miles into a century you look down and still say, "damn, this IS sweet bike".

 

I fully support the new sram groups. I'm running some rival parts and they are top notch... If you want to spend the dough then get the force or the red. For this bike though, I'd get the force.

Mind you, I'm no road bike expert, I'm a commuter that has a road bike and goes on group road rides every once and awhile.

 

I went with XT for the cassette and chain, I'm buggered if I'm spending $150 for a Ti cassette that I'll wear out in a couple thousand miles I thought the XTR crankset was super sweet until I found out how much replacement rings are #-o it's probably a good job I don't use the big ring much

For the same reason, I'm probably going with an Ultegra cassette in this build, but I'm still making my mind up for the rest of it - the Ultegra 6600 groupset is available in black so that's a big plus point in it's favor

The Ultegra groupset looks like it'll run me $700 or so, I don't mind shelling out the extra cash for the Dura Ace stuff and the chainrings don't appear to be quite so stupidly expensive as the XTR stuff but is there anything else I'm missing in terms of advantage/disadvantage?

I can certainly understand the problems of going with an untested wheel, but the EGO wheels are pretty sweet looking (I'm sure they'll look really sweet when I'm sliding down the road on my face )

I really like wheelsets with inverted spokes, the Aeroheats have a hub centric design and they spin up really well, plus in my experience the straight pull spokes are very strong - I've broken spokes on just about every wheelset I've ever owned, but the Aeroheats are still perfectly true.

Can you recommend any other specific wheelsets in this area I should look at?

Yep, understood, although the I9 wheels come with a few spares and I've ordered an extra set for the I9 Enduros I have coming (though yeah at $4 a spoke it adds up pretty damn quickly )

For training and commuting my old Hardrock is serving me pretty well, it's got the aeroheats and specialized fat boys on it, the Fenix will be purely for long weekend rides and I'm hoping to be in good enough shape to do the Solvang Century ride next year.

Probably no racing, unless it turns out I'm pretty quick once I get in shape

I haven't committed to anything just yet (although it's pretty obvious I'm a label whore ) and whilst I'm not TOO concerned about price, I'm not about to drop $4k on a set of carbon Zipps either

 

Yeah, I'm through trying to cut corners, as I say, I did that on my first bike and it just bit me in the ass, I broke the pedals, wheels, seatpost, fork (twice), bent the cranks and it was never a great ride, too much flexing, I ended up replacing so much of it that I effectively just flushed $1500 down the drain.

In fact, come to think of it, there is literally nothing left of the original bike, I gave the frame & shock away to a friend, I'm still using the handlebars on my Hardrock and the hubs and skewers are hanging around as spares in a couple of extra wheels I have, but that's about it.

I should have just shelled out the money for the quality stuff off the bat, I won't be making the same mistake again

 

I'm going to make a statement regarding road components: If price was not an issue, everyone would own Campagnolo.