One more update with a few changes...

I've put probably 160 miles on the bike so far and it's really a nice ride. As mentioned earlier the stock Nashbar brake pads left little to be desired, so a few weeks ago, those were replaced with some Kool Stop Salmons.

Kool Stop brake pads:



The stopping power is *much* better and they seem to be wearing like brake pads should. The nashbar ones were kind of crumbling as they wore and the material was harder than the Kool Stops.



One additional change has been the stem. The one I used was something I had laying around...it was 70mm and didn't offer much rise, so I went with a Kalloy 90mm adjustable stem. I know these are kind of nerdy but I am really liking the adjustment options! So I have it set on 30* rise and like how I'm sitting a bit more upright. I probably could have accomplished something similar by leaving the steer tube longer but the stem would still have been a bit short.

Here's the new stem:



I don't think it looks too obtrusive...but some may think otherwise. You may notice I rerouted the front brake cable so the housing passes under the bars instead of over, like I had it before.


And now for what I should have used from the start - a real bike repair stand! Some of you may remember the "ghetto" stand I had bolted to my work bench. It was pretty awkward and I felt stooped over most of the time while working and it was killing my back.

Anyway, here's the new stand:



It's a dream to work on the bikes with this thing. Makes all the difference in the world and is very stable.

All in all so far so good with this bike.