Originally Posted by
kbarch
I liked it better with fenders. Could you have gotten wheels that were any more gimmicky? Those are really disturbing.
I liked the fenders too, but it was a case of function beating out form-- the bike took significantly longer to clean with the fenders than without, and there was a definite and measurable amount of drag from them, even cut down. As to the gimmick-factor of the wheels, I don't think they're any more gimmicky than super-aero CF wheels with 3" high logos, but I definitely understand where you're coming from.
Originally Posted by
99m6z28
Very interesting choice of wheels. What wheels are those anyway? Not my thing but to each his own. Apparently my wheel stickers are like puke so I feel your pain. Lol.
They're Crank Brothers Iodine 3 all-mountain wheels. The stock rims got a nice waver in them within the first few weeks, requiring constant attention with the spoke wrench, and the replacement rear WTB Frequency hoop taco-ed itself and put me on the pavement, so when searching for wheelset
#3 , I looked exclusively for strong + cheap(ish.) Absolutely zero concern given to weight. At 1,760g for the set, the Iodines are bulky for a road set, but really light for an all-mountain set without going to carbon. And I would honestly rather not go to carbon.
Originally Posted by
kbarch
Being a (mostly) law-abiding rider in NYC (I suspect bells are required in some other places as well), that's one of my favorite things about that bike.
Here in California we're not required to have a bell, but as a frequent rider of paths and trails, it's a necessity. Joggers do not operate in a single-file. They move as wide as they possibly can.
Originally Posted by
99m6z28
I like that you kept a color scheme with the gold. Also I don't think anyone has mentioned what looks like 308 rounds as valve stems. Interesting!
The gold was wholly unintentional-- I had overtorqued the crank into the factory BB and put a nice click in it, so I shopped for a replacement. Black was $39, and gold was $14. Thus began the gold accents. The old stem covers were really close to .308s, but I wasn't pleased with how the recycled maple was holding an edge, so I made a replacement set out of european beech, which holds both detail and paint a whole lot better. Forgive me for polluting the thread with non-bike pics, but I'm pretty fond of my new set, modeled off of .300 Lapua Mag:
