In other news, I got a weird urge to restore my first road bike, a 1994 Cannondale R500. I bought this in late 1995, as I recall, and put a lot of miles on it before I bought the Ritchey in mid-1997. It's the 3.0 frame with the 'cantilevered' seatstays, and one of the early threadless headsets. It came with RX100 7 speed triple groupset, with downtube shifters. Along the way, I ditched the 170mm RX100 crank for a 175mm Campy 'Racing T', and added Sachs New Success brifters and rear derailleur. I no longer have the original rear wheel with its 7speed hub, and I was running an 8 speed 105 wheelset for most of its existence. BUT I still have the original front wheel.

I decided I wanted it with downtube shifters. I thought about just rebuilding it with the original triple crank and 7 speeds, but RX100 was available by that time with 8 speeds, and I really don't want a triple anymore. So I dug into it and ended up going a little wild on Ebay last night, buying old RX100 parts. I bought a 175mm 53x39 crankset and BB, front and rear derailleurs - the 8 speed ones are different from 7 speed - and a NOS rear 8 speed shifter. I still have the original brake levers and right and left shifters, but if you're doing indexed - and why wouldn't you? - the 7 speed won't work well with 8 speeds (so I have read).

Am I crazy? Yes.