It just occurred to me it might be nice with carbon rims, particularly in bad weather.

It'd also be nice in races with technical descending. I melted the brake track on a carbon rim at bear a couple of years back and that's like a single hard turn that required heavy braking.

I've never known a 23 year old as eager to be 55 as you are.

Also, I'm assuming, then, that you've only ever ridden modern dual-pivot calipers. I've wished for better brakes many times. The current stuff is pretty amazing. But hydraulic discs are still better. I'm not switching over any time soon, I'm not going to disc for my CX bike next season, either. But it seems inevitable at this point that my next road bike will have disc brakes, and I'm not sad about that.

I hope that was years ago because it shouldn't happen on modern carbon clinchers

I have done that race both this year and last year riding carbon clinchers and I never had any issues. I also weight probably 20 lbs more than you.

DV-46 rims, predecessor of the newer Reynolds Assaults. I know it's not much of a worry nowadays. Really I worry more about running latex in carbon rims on courses with technical downhill stuff. I'm probably just paranoid.

I swore off latex tubes after I flatted three of them (in three separate instances) just trying to remove them from the damn rim.

That's not the tube's problem.

I would argue it is. I have removed many a tube in my life, working for a bicycle tour company, as a bicycle messenger and as a mechanic at a bike shop (Not including the numerous tubes I have removed that were my own). I have never seen a tube get pinched during removal in the way I have seen those vittorias. Note that this is during removal, installation is not really an issue but there is something to be said for a tube that can't survive the removal process.

I use the same Vittorias and have not seen this issue. Ever. One data point.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with latex tubes, either. And I use the Vittorias as well.

Moot point though, as I'm going tubeless for 2016.

I only seem to run into issues with taking them out of my tires, might just be the tire / tube combination but removing them inevitably causes small rips where the tire lever has obviously squeezed the tube between itself and the tire. Sure if I had a nice rim / tire combo I could just pull the setup off without tools but that is not feasible sometimes and you just need a lever to get things started.

This is totally a 41 type question, but I avoid that place like the plague: if I have a frame that is 7005 alloy, made in the 90s, would I expect a modern frame of the same type of alloy to feel largely similar (besides the obvious geometry differences)? which is to say, if I think my ride is harsh, chances are id feel the same about any other frame with the same material? I know, many variables affect ride quality, but figured maybe there could be some apples to apples comparison

There have been big improvements since the 90's. My Al CAAD 10 is not harsh IMO. Advanced frame designs, carbon forks and seat posts and 25C tires help a lot.

I don't think you can get an apples-to-apples comparison here. There have been a lot of design changes between then and now, and gains in knowledge of how to manipulate the tubing. Shoot, right now the complaint about current Allez frames is that they're not stiff enough rather than too stiff. I've been through a CAAD9 and 2011, 2012 and 2015 Allez frames (still riding the last two) and all of them have been comfortable on 100-mile rides.

I agree that a new frame using similar aluminum would ride better. Engineers have figured out ways to soften the ride of the bikes, carbon forks have come a long way, and rear stays, esp seat stays, have gotten super supple. Forks basically determine the front end comfort of a frame, and the new forks are super stiff laterally so they corner like mad but still make the front end comfortable enough for me for 5-8+ hours. Rear stays aren't as nice on alum as on carbon but you get close, and tires and such do help tons. Having ridden Cannondales from the first generation to the 2.7, then jumping to the SystemSix (carbon front end, alum rear end), the SystemSix was incredible.

Also bar/stem can affect comfort. I'm using about as stiff a stem as possible (welded tubular steel) but with a reasonable aluminum bar (FSA Wing Compact) it's fine.

Saddle rails also help, as do posts. Newer frames generally have more post showing, so more flex, than a typical early-mid 90s frame set up. I think this helps with comfort.

Yeah, I had recently rented a trek alpha when I was visiting my in-laws and was impressed by how smooth the ride was (whereas I feel a lot of road vibrations on mine), so that got me thinking about a frame change, albeit a cheaper one given what I have. I was looking at the scattante frames by performance and noticed the frame material (7005) is the same as mine, although the scattante ones have carbon/aluminum forks whereas mine is 6061 (i think) alloy. I figured that even with similar material, that advances in frame making would make these more comfortable. A cheaper alternative could be to get a threaded 1" carbon/alu fork from nashbar, so I may look at that as well. Considering most of my riding has been on the trainer lately, I probably should be sweating this very much though!

I'm not sure that swapping out to a Nashbar carbon fork would be worth even the relatively small expense of doing it. I would recommend saving your pennies for CAAD12 or Allez E5 or something similar, and just buying a complete bike. You don't need to get one of the high-end ones, you could probably go for a sub $2,000 bike with 105 or Rival and you'll still have something much better than what you're riding now. In the meantime, the bike you have works fine and you might be better off only spending what you need to for necessary upkeep and maintenance.

Agreed, it's easy for me to spend too much time nitpicking these little details. The plan has been to move to something new, no point in going overboard with a placeholder/backup.

seriously. the value you can get these days for <$2k is insane.

Specialized Bicycle Components

Specialized Bicycle Components

if you're riding a rental and like the smoothness/feel, look first at the wheels and tires. You probably don't need to change out the entire bike.

Seriously.

I just pre-ordered an etap group through the LBS. :/ I hope it comes in before racing starts. The RD and shifters on my race bike got all banged up when I crashed a few months ago and I don't even know if it's all functional. Depending on the timing I might need to pointlessly move stuff around between different bikes just to have something to race on in the early spring.

FWIW, QBP has it listed on their webpage with zero inventory and a late April get-well date.

Yeah they were guessing April. I'm hoping for a month earlier, but we shall see.