Project three-ish - comfort revision

Too good, don't suppose you have that fork lying around?!

Funny enough been thinking about matt silver box section rims as a second wheelset, those look really nice.

dbl post

Thanks dude, looking forward to seeing the progress on you black and gold CAAD 3

The whole bike is actually hung on the wall at a mates house, albeit with campag record cranks, chainring, wheelset.

I’ve been promising him for a while to service it for him.

Definitely go for shallow box sections!

:)

the caad 5 track is very nice. My favorite set up is the one with the GT steel stem and the campi seatpost. The Alpina fit perfeclty !

New wider/slimmer cockpit has landed. Acetone not touching the graphics so i'll need to get the wet and dry out when i can be bothered. Purple ano stem cap?

A mate sorted me with a turbo trainer which has coming in handy during these dark times. It turns out i really benefit from the additional setback on the PMP and the cut out on the Rapha saddle on my 9 when on the trainer. The ST tube angles are different between the the track and road frames so unfortunately i can't just swap over the seating without having to faff with saddle angle and height. So i've dug out the only spare black seatpost i have and stuck an SLR on it. It's neither pretty or has the right amount of setback for me so i'm on the hunt for a Fizik Cyrano which has a super minimal clamp area and helps with the lack of showing seatpost. I have two SLR's so when a cover goes on one of them i'm thinking of stripping it and doing an Alcantara cover for a more slimline look.

I did the same to my SLR saddle. Some advice: make sure the glue isn’t too wet when you put on the alcantara or else it will soak through and the finish will be poor. And keep in mind that alcantara, due to its limited felxibility, is more difficult to drape over round shapes than leather, for instance. This means you have to be economical with the limited amount of flex the material affords and use it evenly. If you pre-stretch the material too much while draping it over the top of the saddle, the edges won’t be smooth since the material will overlap rather than stretch. Also, the material is very thin so any imperfections under the alcantara will show. That’s why I’d recommend practising on a test saddle to get a better feeling for the characteristics of the material.

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Uuuh looking clean! Is that still the GT stem?

Re my cad3: many thanks! i fear though as i have to postpone it until the lockdown is over as it currently sits with my parents (and the parts are with me :v( )

Cheers for the Pro tips, looks like you managed a pretty good job. Is that glued straight to the base or is there a layer of foam underneath? Has it been durable?

Yep still the GT stem, probably my favourite part of the build although i'm not sold on the top cap.

Shame you can't the bike back to yours, lockdown has proved the perfect platform for doing numerous pointless changes on all my bikes!

numerous pointless changes

haha i loled

Well, i am pretty sure i will be able to track some of those „improvements“ on my other bikes, too!

Hope my quill stem will do a similar (aesthetic) job on the cad3 as the GT...

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I left the padding on there. So far it held up well, but i’ve only done around 500km on it, so far.

With time on my hands and a pretty much finished track bike that will not be going anywhere near a track for some time i've turned my attention to the road bike. Now that the Capo has Alpina's the Premium+ forks have been fitted to the C9 as originally intended. They ride better, are significantly lighter and have better clearances so a worthwhile forum sourced upgrade. I also think they look pretty good on there but i'm sure we can all agree the new bartape trial has not gone well.

Speaking of forum finds an Ultegra R8000 FD and 6800 RD popped up cheap and local so i bagged these whilst ticking my daily exercise allowance and adhering to strict social distancing regs. Whilst checking out compatibility (never had 5800/6800 issues) it turns out the new gen 11 speed has different front ring spacing which might explain why i couldn't get the 5800 mech that well setup (or...). To say i'm impressed with the new R8000 front mech would be an understatement. I now have silky shifting, much better cable management, on mech cable tensioner (need to remove my inline jobby) and a lot more tyre clearance. Not bad for a tenner. Rear mech is slightly underwhelming by comparison, it feels the same as the 105 but matches the colour of the FD and says Ultegra so is already better. Slightly regretting not forking out for R8000 cranks but as i wanted 165's the R7000 were from memory about half the price. If anyone wants some tidy 5800 mech's i'll do both for £15 collected and can included 34.9 clamp.

Undecided on bars atm. I've been doing laps of CP and fountain drive with a lot of climbing and descending and found that whilst i really like the flat section on the Neoclassics they're not particularly comfortable for me in the hooks if i'm trying to shift or brake. Today i tried out Deda RHM's and although i missed the flat section of the Neoclassic bar on climbs and flat roads i felt more comfortable in the drops descending. I'm not unconvinced i don't need a longer stem to get more comfortable in the drops on either bars so i'll try that next but at least for now i've found some tape i quite like.

Bars need rotating down.

Surprised you fitted 25mm tyres under neath those forks.

Excellent build btw.

The Alpina's? Yeah a 25c GP4000 is a little toight but a regular 25 would be more than happy in there.

Flexible working update time.

The CAAD9 has been getting regular use and has been particularly fun to work as each change has made a difference to how it rides. I was so impressed with the R8000 front mech that I started to look out for a matching rear mech and potentially some calipers to upgrade. I generally try to buy used but after a month of looking it turns out Ultegra doesn't seem to get much cheaper second hand. So after shifting a few more bits I treated myself to a new RD from Merlin as well as a KMC gold chain. Today's job will be fitting these

My one and only bike fit a while back told me that I need a lot of setback to avoid knee pain which I don't think has changed. As the Capo is seeing more miles and may end up on the track it's inherited the PMP post which has 30mm+ setback. Knowing I had limited options I've been looking out for an FSA K-force post in 27.2 and one popped up for a not unreasonable price on Ebay. It came in a scruffy state but after some careful work with wet and dry and polish I'm happy with the outcome. I can see in the sunlight it needs a little work around the clamp area but otherwise I think this looks much better, the distinct carbon weave is a nice change form the usual patterns.

Drivetrain upgrade for the CAAD5, thanks to @Goyt for adding some colour in my life.

And a typical lazy home picture showing RF setup. PMP and SLR are now permanent fixtures, Superleggero stem fits really nicely with the drop bars. Not quite happy with the bars in general but this has been great for doing laps around CP/Fountain Drive.

Rad.

Any chance you want to sell your me your C2 seatpost?!

Ah sorry, sold that's few weeks back

Whilst I prefer the clean look of using a photo link I’ve come to conclusion it’s a waste of time for my pics. Just got my newest (5 years old) phone so in a bid to keep this updated more regularly I’ll be using the upload method.

Test 1, Caad5 track in low profile rims look better shocker...

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Phwoar mate that's tidy looking. Black chainring away from perfection ;)? Hope it rides as well as it looks. T

Thanks Tom. Was hoping to use that 17t Superstar I got from you with a 48t black ring I have but I couldn't get the clearances I wanted with that ratio. Ideally I'd like a black 49t Aarn but they're silly money, think a Zen will look too heavy on this.

In terms or ride it's really nice, build is around 6.8kg and the pick up is rapid. Not as supple as the Dart which would be my choice for longer rides but for short blasts or hopeful track duty it's perfect.

Silver rims? Front rim is pretty worn so I'm considering re-lacing with polished silver Kinlin's. The disc XR22's are better looking rims but I think I'll want a brake track on the front and possibly rear so they can double as SS wheels for another bike.

Road bike update. After a couple weeks of contemplating a frame upgrade I've decided to stick with the 9. I like the geo, it has decent clearances and it feels stiff enough for short dashes whilst not being uncomfortable on longer rides. I also love the sheer simplicity of it and that from what I can tell is a little less dent prone than later CAAD’s.

So as I’ve been slowly selling off parts I’ve raised enough funds to splash some cash on it. Brakes have been upgraded to R8000 to match the mechs (I also discovered my £20 pedals are carbon R8000) and the bike has had a full re-cable. The braking and shifting are now noticeably better and I’m now on the hunt for some shifters to complete the group.

I’m still not quite there with the bars but going a little higher and longer with the stem has improved comfort. Hood position and flat drops are lovely but I don’t like how the hooks squash my hands. Currently thinking of trying some FSA omegas as these seem to be a highly rated budget bar. I’ll probably replace the freebie budget stem once I’ve settled on bars to something between an 8-10 degree angle to improve looks.

Finishing touches are an MT Zoom clamp, God&Famous black ti stem cap and I’ve switched back to King cages.

Now I’ve decided to keep this there’s some bigger plans in the pipeline, more on that soon

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