Kimmo

First, see my Sheldon eagle? I scored that for my contributions to the Mechanics subforum... about 3,000 posts ago.

The rear housing loop is that short for three reasons: 1, I used a single gear set of Alligator iLink gear housing to do both brakes and gears, extending it under the tape with some Aztek beads I found. I was momentarily bummed when it looked like I didn't have quite enough, but figured I might as well see how it went with the short loop, and lo and behold, there was no excess friction. This probably wouldn't be the case with standard housing. 2, being a SRAM derailer, the upper pivot doesn't move except for wheel removal, so any potential inaccuracy from such a tight curve changing shape (the iLink isn't in the same league as Nokon and does change length with movement) is moot. 3 - turns out it looks frikken badarse next to a big ugly loop. So there's that. Folks with SRAM derailers and segmented housing may want to give it a shot.

If I had Shimano's stupid 10s system on there with standard housing I'd have a loop big enough to strangle a rugby player. But SRAM pulls enough cable to have an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio.

As for my bars and seat, that's down to my riding style (and >20 years of doing it), which differs somewhat from that of the MAMILs who frequent this forum: rather than long rides in groups which finish where they start, as previously mentioned I'm rarely on the bike more than 20 minutes, and usually riding like a courier. So long-term comfort isn't the priority (I sit on that gnarly-looking thing without a chamois); supporting an aggressive riding style is. A level seat is recommended as a starting point; breaking out a spirit level is ridiculous when you're supposed to tweak it up to a few degrees to suit yourself, and every seat is different. I used to run my seats more level than this, with only a very slight forward tilt, until I tried more tilt a couple of years ago and preferred it - now my starting point is pointing at the hoods (seems to make more sense to include some reference to bar height with seat angle, IMO). My boss thought I was nuts too, until he tried it on his commuter. Now his seat points to his hoods.

And my bars - OMG. Given the range of combinations of bar angle and lever height, what makes you think this isn't a perfectly valid setup? I've been pointing my drops at the rear axle with my levers vertical for 20 years for a number of reasons. As you can see from my gearing, I don't do much climbing at all, so that's not a consideration. And riding in street clothes, I don't get a whole lot of opportunities to hit the big ring and get in the drops, so it's optimised for having my palms on the top of the hoods, hence the flat area of the hoods lining up with the forward extension of the bars. Still works fine in the drops, but a little sub-optimal for climbing. Suits me fine, and again (IMO), looks badarse.

Everyone has their own anatomy and style of course, and the combination of mine puts me on the edge of the bell curve. Naturally, I'll set anyone else's bike up by the book.

But geez, I reckon too many folks take The Rules a little too seriously - they're tongue-in-cheek for a reason.

BTW, you forgot to have a go at me for cutting my carbon steerer flush. Since I don't like the look of the proper way to do it, the frameset cost me $0, and I'm not a brawny sprinter type, I countersunk the expansion plug to maximise the amount of steerer under the top cap, and just did the lower clamp bolt a couple of Nm tighter. Seems pretty robust a year later, so there's another Rule I'm gonna ignore on my own bikes.

Hmm. You could be right, but since the frameset itself is busy as hell, I figured I'd go with the lairiness factor... still, I might try a photochop to see how it looks.

See above.

(Apologies for the wall of text; here's a photochop of my other sweet bike as compensation)



It'll need a super-fancy anodising job (and paint for the fork) before it looks like that