Originally Posted by rickybails

One a completely seperate topic (well, still within the area of making a swift lighter) I have just place an order for parts to 'pimp up' my swift. I'm getting new wheels and gears as well as the bars already mentioned. I've ordered Alex r390 451 rims with ultegra front hub and capreo rear (24 spokes both wheels), ultegra rear mech and dura-ace STI shifters. Haven't decided on spokes yet and it looks like there is not much choice. All the good DT spokes are not available in short sizes. The choice is between Sapim Lazer (light but perhaps a bit weak), Sapim CX-ray (light and strong but ridiculously expensive) and plane-guage DT spokes of the type used on cheap bikes and wheelchairs (most sensible but not at all appealing). My current frame of mind is to forget about sensible and go with the aero CX-ray spokes for some unashamed bling-factor. It's going to take a while to get all the bits together as some of the parts have to be sourced from overseas.

I was also considering a regular hub (i.e. limited to 11 tooth smallest cog) as the capreo hub is a bit on the heavy side. However I did all the sums and in the end there wasn't much in it. To get the same range as a capreo 9-26 cassette you need an 11-32 cassette. This would forces me to use a mountain bike rear mech (a little heavier than a road mech) and a 62-tooth chainring instead of 52 (a little heavier again) and if I ever wanted to convert to a 2-ring chainset then I would have much more luck getting a front mech to work with a 52-tooth big ring than a 62-tooth big ring. Also with 52-tooth big ring I have the option to go for higher gears (54,56 etc.) if I need. When I worked it all out the capreo route was only slightly heavier than a dura-ace or ultegra rear hub but a fair bit cheaper. In fact with the money I saved I might just be able to justify those aero spokes.