Originally Posted by
Andy_K
That sounds a lot like my experience with my Sequoia. I went from, "It's not very pretty, but I've heard good things so I guess I'll give it a try," to "Holy Crap! This thing is amazing!" in about a quarter mile. That first day I was ready to swear that it even coasted faster than my other bikes. (My friend Adam suggested that maybe I finally got a wheel in straight!) For my first build I used a set of wheels with Tiagra hubs and box section Salsa Delgado rims that felt dead on a couple of other bikes. For over a year I was afraid to upgrade to better wheels for fear that I wouldn't want to ride anything else if the ride got even better.
It basically invalidated every theory I had about what details might be good predictors of ride quality. Sounds like you're in that same neighborhood.
I feel like the colors of the very early Specialized bikes are so closely tied to the bikes that it's an act of rebellion to choose another color. I also feel like all of them except the red Allez are kind of frumpy. It's definitely a dilemma.
Have you considered ordering samples from Prismatic Powders? I did that with the last couple of bikes I had powder coated. The ones I chose came out looking pretty close to the samples. The "Cosmic Grey" I used for my Grand Jubilé would be a decent starting point if you want to recreate the original color.
I feel like the canti post modification kind of gave you a pass on what to do here. The original paint was right on that border where I'd be torn between trying to touch up the rough spots and getting it resprayed. The metal work makes that choice a lot easier.
For sure. The Expedition went from "We'll see" to "This is the 'center' of all my bikes...do I need other bikes???" pretty quickly. About a half mile of warm up slower speeds and then as I hit some high-speed sections (this is all on my test ride route) it became evident that it was not just "some touring bike" designed and made by another company, quality as that company may be.
The bike has 40.4mm of space between the tangs on the narrow-crown front fork. I could fit nominal 38s in there, but the 30mm Grand Bois Wobbly Hotdogs, at 290g or so, look good and more importantly, give a great front trail number that the bike likes and are under 300g. I get the whole big tire thing, but I believe in the myriad benefits of lighter tires (like 23mm and 25mm race tires), especially for how I like to ride and how I like a bike to respond.
In riding with those tires mounted on "just some wheels" it's basically paralyzed me with regard to wheel choices, which is pretty crazy until you sift through the context stated in prior posts regarding the TB14s. Open Pros have always been fine rims, though nothing overtly special in my riding past. But then, I was nowhere nearly as tuned into things as I am now. The gloss black spoke bed of these test-ride Open Pros worked really well with the tan sidewall, machined brake track, and dark grey paint. A TB14 at 505g is a lot, and the OP's come in at ~435g, which is considerably lighter. A proven track record (recent occasional QC issues aside) and a known ride quality quantity makes it a lock for me. I crudely measured the spoke diameter of these free/donor wheels at my parents' place last week and they're 2.0mm with no butting as far as I/the Crescent wrench can tell.
So yeah, we talk about what we've figured out about ride quality, and know enough to be pretty close, but then something like this goes and blows it up. I still have 32 DT Swiss Revolution spokes waiting around, which is money not doing anything, and running my 7700 hubs with Open Pros through a spoke calculator has them at 296.5mm for the front (left and right sides), and 295.9/294.3mm for the rear (left and ride sides), so actually....the barely-too long spokes could work! Well, guess who's gonna build some more wheels...lol.
Regarding colors, yeah, metallic black would be cool, but I'd for sure want to see in-person color examples. When I went to Seattle Powder Coat last to get my former 1985 Paramount done, I wanted a pretty dark grey metallic. I selected what I thought would work well, and it ended up lighter. I then ordered light gold decals from Velocals and those ended up darker. What a comedy. Though, to be fair, it ended up looking really nice, especially with the warm grey color of the Dura-Ace 7700 crankset's chain rings.
The red of the Allez is really nice, but then you (theoretically) roll my former 1985 Schwinn Peloton next to it and it looks a bit dull. The Peloton's red was fire. Rich, full, but fire. Early Sequoias in that dark blue metallic were really pretty. Just like the very early '80s Trek 410s and 610s. If talking about frumpy colors, let's include early Treks. Good night! So much 'meh' with a few stand-outs. If you have a picture of your Grand Jubilee I would would appreciate it! Thank you for swaying me in the original color direction. It brings me back to the black/tan/dark grey color combo that I really do like, and that looks dynamite on this expedition. I should add that I do have the decals to it, from Velocals, bought by the previous owner. They are a touch smaller than the original ones, but I'm ok with it. It won't be original paint! And like you said, with the metal work done, it makes my decision easy. Prior to that, strip the decals, buff the paint, touch up, put new decals on and don't look too hard and it would be passable. And I wouldn't get ran out of town by the patina crowd.
Somehow, I still go back and forth on paint versus powder coat, even if PC is just over half of what painting costs. I just like the deeper gloss look of paint. And then I think...$700 is no joke. Am I a stingy splurger? Maybe.
