Albannach Titanium all road project

Some context for Howard's post- he weighs roughly the same as a packet of crisps. I am ~80kg and there's no way I'd choose (road) cable discs over hydro, unless I was crossing Africa unsupported or similar.

Aye, I'm ~90kg (although I hope that'll come down) so I think I will be going for hydro. Are there any non-fugly hoods that don't cost the earth for a hydro set up?

Just to add a contrary opinion - I just got back from a week long tour of the bavarian alps / black forest on mostly dirt roads and I had spyres and they stopped me plenty, even on some pretty loose and long 20%+ descents. Didnt have to adjust them once.

Same here big rider with Spyres without issues...

By the way, where did you got the fork from?
And, out of curiosity, did you weigh it?

Fallen behind on this due to job uncertainty but some new bits arriving today...

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I didn't weigh the forks cause I've only got small kitchen scales but they didn't feel heavy at all.

Med cage ultegra mech and dinner plate SRAM 36t cassette to go with it.

Have ordered a wolftooth roadlink to make the cassette work as it should, too. Paired with 50/34 up front should make anything vertical considerably easier.

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Took delivery of some Vittoria Voyager Hyper at the recommendation of @niggle - no wheels to fit em to yet but will report back.

Also got some nice looking stainless steel cages.

Frame should be finally ready in about a month. Aside from that i've only got the wheels to get along with gubbins like pedals (probably SPDs) bartape (DSP) and a seatpost and stem (no idea.)

FYI supernova normally do 40% off for TCR racers, so worth contacting them if you want a headlight.

I've some of these if you are keen; http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-pd-a600-spd-touring-pedals/

Good tip - ta. Will have a look at their lights. I think I'll go for the Exposure TraceR rear, too.

Those pedals are top of my list if I decide to go SPD - I've got shoes and pedals already for SPD and SPD-SL so I'm gonna wait for now, but thanks.

Really excited for this build now!

I'd go for a battery rear light, not rechargable, and get 2 of them.
I used a £20 cateye and a lezyne thing. That was batteries are replaceable.
One is on all the time, the other is a spare/night/shit weather.

The supernova to get is e3 pro. It's good.

Happy to throw those pedals in with the wheels, just sit in a box. So say if you want them.

Ok - that's a kind offer, go on then - they're certainly lighter than my current (and beat up) SPDs.

I was planning on one USB light and one battery light in terms on rear. I have a decent battery one already too. The e3 pro looks great, the machined body is quite fetching too.

Further tip for the Voyager Hypers: they seem to have a fair amount of greasy mold release compound on them when new, so can be slippy on wet roads for a 100 miles or so. Alternatively you could try scrubbing them thoroughly with e.g. meths or Muck Off. Once 'scrubbed in' they grip wet tarmac very well indeed.

@niggle - good tip!

@skinny - when you used your supernova, and wanted to charge USB stuff - did you use an Igaro (or similar) and did the 'always on' nature of the Supernova mean you couldn't charge USB stuff quickly?

E3 pro turns off, switch on back of it.

I used a sine wave USB charger.

And it's USB or lights, not enough power for both. So charge during day.

E3 pro turns off, switch on back of it.

Perfect.

So charge during day.

That's the plan. I'll have a small powerbank as backup, just in case but I think in the 14 (ish?) hours of daylight I'll have plenty of time to charge garmin and phone.

Charge to a powerbank anyway. Never try charge phone or farming from dynamo, as it might cut up over a slight hill. Or what. Just safest. Then you've always got battery to charge stuff.
I use an anker. People like them too.

Got nearly everything for this now, just needing a seatpost, lights and mudguards. The latter two aren't build essential anyway...

A friend is working on an exciting design for the fork. Frame should be here in 2 weeks or so. Exciting!

A club mate is building up the same frame (with his own geo) and his frame has just landed...

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That's rully nice!

Med cage ultegra mech and dinner plate SRAM 36t cassette to go with it.

Have ordered a wolftooth roadlink to make the cassette work as it should, too. Paired with 50/34 up front should make anything vertical considerably easier.

Interested to see how this works out. I'm thinking of the exact same combo for my new groupset this Summer. Wolftooth recommend no more than 14t difference on the front chainrings with an 11-36. Have you considered getting a 48t chainring if necessary?

I've seen (on youtube) and read a few accounts of people running this setup, so I'm not too worried. I guess I can change the chainring if it doesn't work out.

I have it, works fine

Yep, nothing lost in trying it out with the 50. I'll be following this thread.