GT Pulse

Do you wanna trade for a flite titanium with white writing instead of red?

Cheers for the offer but I quite like the red, I guess maybe white lettering would look more in-keeping with the build but can't be bothered with the hassle of changing.

Go full black!

Yeah you know that was my initial thoughts on the build, but after mocking it up on photoshop it seemed to look characterless.
I think the stealth look is quite hard to pull off on a threaded/1inch frame.

very nice man, shame you couldnt get the ahead converter to work out. Did your researches throw up any 25.4 clamp compact drop bars? - i hate the idea of a shim

Cheers. With the 25.4 clamp it makes a hard job even harder. Compact bars are quite a recent innovation and I think 25.4 is the oldest clamp size for quill stems.
If you're set on using a quill, then 26.0 gives you the best chance of finding compact drops (baring an a-head converter).
Also it's worth noting cinelli giro d'italia bars are the original compact bars which are 26.4.

i would say a typical step forward. deep drops and track stems are looking good, but really unpractical if you're doing miles and miles for training. have a look at madison races, all of them riding "road looking" stems and handlebars. good decision and great build.

Couldn't have put it better, especially when using the tops on deep bars is such an annoyance. Many times I''ve heard "Tops or drops" shouted at me, ha.
Yeah I thought I could increase the stem length when reducing the reach which works and performs better too.
I think more Iljo Keisse than Michael Huebner, and taped my bars all the way to the stem in recognition.