Hey BF, I've been riding a fixed gear for a while now and training with a roadie friend. Finally got my hands on a road frame, and so I'm in the process of slowly building it up. It's a Mercier LTD30, and I've gotten some pretty good deals on some 08 SRAM Rival bits. For wheels I'm planning on using grabbing some Open Pros laced to Ultegra hubs. But now I need some help choosing bars and a stem. I don't know a lot about them, so I have a few questions. First off, is there a difference between 26 and 31.8 clamp sizes? Is one more stiff than the other? Also, I really dislike the ergo bars on my current bike, and prefer the classic round bend bars. I was thinking of getting some
3TTT Rotundo bars. A little more pricey than I'd like, but fairly light and I don't see many classic bends out there. I'm really not sure what width to get them in though. I'm also going to need a new stem. Can anyone make a recommendation for a decent, fairly inexpensive stem? I saw
this one on Competitive Cyclist. Good deal? I'm currently using an 80mm stem on my 59cm frame, and my new frame is 57cm.
If it helps at all, I'm 6' 175lbs (and dropping).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.