[MENTION=494717]Bomarc[/MENTION] Thank you I appreciate the kind words, I finally had a chance to take a shakedown ride this morning and got home a little bit ago , notes were made concerning tuning and adjustments that will be completed before I go out on the road again . The bike handled and rode wonderfully , honestly I felt like a 12 year old on it. When you put the power down the bike will take off , and the tires help provide an amazing ride. They are supple, fast and very grippy. People who think they need pizza cutters to go quickly need to try Gravel King slicks I promise you will be impressed.

I really need to rethink my position on newer drive trains, this 2 x10 shifted perfectly in every respect, it is very easy to keep your cadence up while shifting , The available gear range is really almost perfect . I need to head out of town and hit a few hills to try and use the bail out ring, but I was truly impressed with this 2 x 10 setup .


I was not as impressed with those orange VO pads, in short they suck
I had a nice little 10 mile ride with plenty of opportunities to stop thanks to Salem traffic lights on the way to the park , I was never inspired by the brake pads at any point. I will give them a little bit more time to burn in, however my opinion at this point is they might be orange, but they are NOT Koolstop pads.

Back the tires ... I purchased the Gravel Kings because they the more economical choice compared to the Compass "Rene Herse" Heine specials , and the Soma Shikoro tires, both of which are just rebranded Panaracers with a higher price point . These particular tires are actually lighter than the advertised weight of the equivalent Compass tires based on the reviews I read. Like other big tires , tire pressure is everything on these. 50 pounds is the sweet spot for me, your mileage may vary but OMG the ride was plush , fast and amazing .


Most interestingly was the difference for me in geometry compared to me daily driver, I ride a 56cm Surly LHT to work every day , and this is definitely more sporty, not as sport as the my Allez, but definitely more so than my Surly. I ended up having to raise the seatpost slightly above my standard adjustment ( the classic fist full of seat post). Not significantly but it is slightly higher than where it would normally be on the LHT or my Allez . The Technomic give me just about perfect height for the bars and I love those 52cm dirt drops , those bars will be going on more builds in the future . they have the exact same width as the 48CM Nitto Noodle up top with a tad more flare at the bottom.

I just need to deal with my rack situation and a decaleur / bag .