Great Lakes - It's finally done... kinda

After waiting 6 weeks to get the aero seat binder from Specialized, I was finally able to finish putting together the Allez Elite I was building. It's the first bike I've built from parts. Sure, I've swapped parts on my other bikes, but I wanted to build one up from nothing - and I had half the parts just laying around.

So I waited until a size-62 frame came up on Ebay that I liked, and grabbed it for $100. I had a full set (minus brifters) of 105 components that I bought new 2 years ago for my Sequoia Sport, but never did the conversion. The brakes are take-off from another Allez, which I got from Ebay. I also got the 105 10-speed shifters from Ebay. They are scratched up, as it looks like they were on a bike in a crash, but they still function just fine and the scratches are only on the side of the plastic part, not the levers themselves - so still comfortable to grab. I had the Ritchey Stem, seatpost, and biomax handlebars that I took off my Immortal Pro the day I got it. Same with the Velo saddle, but that will be replaced. Bar tape came as a spare for my Immortal Pro, so I used it up. I purchased the Sette ZRO Carbon forks, Cane Creek IS-2 headset, and the Profile bottle cages from pricepoint.

The wheels are shared with my other bike, until I get around to buying another set for this one.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/Allez%20Elite/IMG_2503800x600.jpg

I wanted to build this up for a couple reasons: To use the parts laying about my garage; to build a bike from scratch and see how everything goes together; but mainly, I wanted to (eventually) try and see what racing crits would be like. Having read the horror stories of Cat-5 crashes in crits, I decided that having a bike I could live with destroying would be ideal. If I crashed on my Immortal Pro, the carbon would probably explode, and that would be the end of that - I'm out of a bike. This was built to be (hopefully) survivable if it were crashed. Plus, it's all left-overs and completely non-OCP.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/Allez%20Elite/IMG_2515800x600.jpg


I took it for a couple quick laps around my neighborhood last night. Impressive. My other 2 bikes don't handle as well as this one does. The Sequoia way-understeers in corners. My Immortal Pro is overly twitchy in handling. This Allez seemed to be very responsive, but not too-much so. Not sure if that's frame geometry or the forks that are responsible for that, but I like it. This is also my first double, all my others are triples.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/Allez%20Elite/IMG_2504800x600.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/Allez%20Elite/IMG_2509800x600.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/Allez%20Elite/IMG_2508800x600.jpg

Eventually when I get a new set of wheels/tires/cassette for this one, I will part ways with my Sora-based 2003 Specialized Sequoia. I don't need or have room for 3 road bikes, just for myself (plus a 2007 Sequoia for my wife). The Allez will be my backup or let-a-friend-ride bike, as my 4-month old Immortal Pro is still way-nicer.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/Allez%20Elite/IMG_2521800x600.jpg

A pink scooter? :D

A pink scooter? :D

Somehow I knew that would get more attention than the other 2-wheeled devices in the picture. It's my wife's. It's new. We got it (and the black one behind it) about 2 weeks ago. It's what she wanted for her graduation present (grad school), plus they're saving us a butt-ton on gas. We're getting about 82mpg on each of them at the moment.