Good to see some Chimers-in from Road Forum and my Compact Crank thread.
As they can attest, I floated this same question out there and received lots of great replies.
Read here:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=110928
I'm going to go for it.
My crank is a Shimano 105 w/Octalink, so I will hold out for a set like that instead of going to an ISIS BB. The Ritchey WSC is such a beast, and it gets good marks and is practically priced... I'll just monitor the net and look for the best deal when it comes up. I'm off on a week tour in 2 weeks... so I won't get it done by then (too bad), but I'll have the rest of the summer to tackle the roads.
From where I'm standing, some of the losses would be:
Losing the very highest gears (over 40MPH). That is Nooooo problem with me. I'm happy to coast at 35MPH
Working mostly in the 50 cog with the 34 for hills alone. That's okay. I've yet to change to the 11-12T cog yet!
Some loss of overlap in gearing. Me? It's not like I'm a Criterium racer... I just shift until I find it.
I see the use of STI as an adaptive skill. Until February of this year, I was using DownTube friction shifters, choosing from a range of FIVE gears, of which, on any given front gear, 3 were really useable. After 700+ miles this spring, I'm beginning to understand where I am in the cassette, and where I need to shift to on the cassette PRIOR to moving up/down in front.
I look forward to the new range of gears (and the process of removing and installing a new crank myself!)