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@hinius
So having ridden this for a few days now, a few things have abundantly clear.
At 7.25 kg it's the lightest steel bike I've ridden. I notice in particular how light the rear end is. The thing is that it's also very stiff and has all the traditional smoooothness and comfort of steel. I need more time to medidate on the exact cause behind this since there are probably too many factors, but it feels quite different from my 853 and Ti road bikes.
Because of the quite aggressive positioning, it just begs you to go faster and faster and one almost always naturally end up sprinting. And the bike is totally silent. There's been a few times, particularly at night, where I've been bombing down Clerkenwell Road when all I'm hearing is the hum of the tyres against the tarmac when I suddently realise "shit, you're going too fast, slow the hell down".
I did make a couple of mistakes though: I forgot about the relatively big reach of the Mash bullhorns compared to other Nitto and Syntace horns that I've ridden, so I've had to swap out to a shorter stem. Looks less boss, but the reach is much better now, more in line with my bike fit measurements.
Secondly, my blind insistence on my favourite setback saddle (Fizik Cyrano Carbon) has meant that the Antares saddle rails are as far forward as they can go, which may not be exactly ideal. I need to break out the plumb line and accurately measure the saddle tip to BB distance, but my guess is that I am perhaps 1-1.5 cm off my ideal positioning. The nose alignment of the Antares saddle is a little different from the others that I'm more familiar with too, I get the feeling that I will have to tilt it a little more downwards than I am used to.
So I may be in the market for a black inline seatpost. If I were going to match my stem, I'd pick up a Thomson Elite/Masterpiece, but part of me wants to try something a bit more different and more exotic, with the additional caveat that the branding has to be non-obnoxious. Anyone have any recommendations? Have been casually looking at some of the Ritchey WCS carbon models but reviews of the 1-bolt models appear mixed. Part of me wants to say "f*ck it" and get an Enve...