New Wheels - Pacenti / Circus Monkey / Sapim / DT Swiss

Today I picked up my new wheelset from Peninsula Bike Works.  The 20/24 wheels are built with Pacenti SL23 rims, orange Circus Monkey hubs, black & white Sapim CX-Ray spokes, and matte silver DT Swiss alloy nipples.  I ordered the Circus Monkey hubs directly from the supplier and had Sean order the rest of the parts.  Pacenti recommends using nipple washers on the rear drive side when building a 24 hole rim as a safety precaution, so I had Micah add those when he laced up the wheels.

I didn't weigh all of the parts individually, but the rims were 450g each (as advertised), and the hubs were 70g front and 230g rear.  Total wheel weight on the Feedback scale is 1430g.  Not too shabby.  The sale of my Boyd 38 carbon wheels paid for this wheelset and left some change in my pocket.  I had a bit of a freakout moment with the Boyds when descending Fremont Peak several weeks ago.  After that, I decided to go back to aluminum wheels and see what all the buzz is about with wider rims.  For now I'll be wrapping them with Continental Grand Prix 4000s 25c tires.  Depending on the shape and feel, I might go back to 23s.  TBD.

Bar Fly Shim for 26.0 Handlebar

A while back I bought a white Tate Labs Bar Fly for my Fuji Connoisseur retro-ish road bike.  The Bar Fly isn't available for a 26.0 bar, which is what I have mated to the Nitto Dynamic quill stem.  I was using a shim made from a Bud Light can held on with electrical tape.  It worked ok, but slid when it got warm and recently just gave up on life.  Luckily for me, I have a friend in the machine shop at work who is also a cyclist.  Armed with a CAD drawing, I headed downstairs to beg for a shim.  A day later I had this in my hands:

Below is the shim installed on a set of first generation of Easton EC90 bars.  It looks great next to the Nitto stem and reliably holds the Bar Fly in place.

More photos of the Connoisseur are on Flickr.

Martyn Ashton's Road Bike Party 2 Video!

Martyn Ashton's Road Bike Party 2 features Chris Akrigg and Danny MacAskill.  This is another amazing video of guys doing tricks on a road bike.  Not a bad plug for the Colnago C59 Disc.

Colnago C59 Disc