After spending my hard-earned (and saved) money for a long ass time, I was finally able to turn my Allez into an ultra-light race machine. The nice thing about upgrading the Allez frameset is that, with the exception of material, it is essientially no different (geometry) from the top-of-the-line Tarmac. The major drawback of getting the less glitzy bike at the outset is that the components are either heavy, of low-quality, or both. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy it stock, but it certainly had considerable heft and a few mechanical shortcomings (stay away from Shimano Sora if you can help it, seriously).
I think there's a misconception amongst cyclists and bike shop people. Everyone says, "buy the best bike you can afford." While this is usually pretty good advice, I feel like it's only solidly true for more high-end road bikes when you're deciding between SRAM Red, Dura Ace, and Super Record, for instance. But even on $5000+ racing bikes you'll get a nice carbon frame, (say) Dura Ace STI levers, and rear derailleur, but then they'll toss on a 105 or Ultegra front derailleur and Ultegra cranks. I've never understood why it seems damn near impossible to get a homogenous gruppo on a complete bike unless you order it custom from someplace online like R&A or cross the $8,000 threshold at a place like Bicycle Habitat.
When it comes to less pricey bikes, they do the same thing, but to the extreme. I feel like you get a very decent frame and fork, and then Shimano (or whoever) just tosses on the cheapest parts at random so that it'll just work good enough so the untrained cyclist won't complain... Or you get another bike where the frame and fork leave something to be desired but you get slightly nicer components like 105 or Rival (though still somewhat cobbled together).
So it's a judgement call right?
I went the route of the better frame and fork with crummier componentry since I knew I'd eventually be tinkering with things and replacing other things... which I did.
So here it is (fellow cat 5 racers, you may start quaking your fuzzy legs now):
The abridged spec's are:
Drivetrain:
SRAM Force doubletap levers (UD carbon & magnesium)
SRAM Force Crankset (UD carbon)
SRAM Force front and rear derailleurs (aluminum, UD carbon, and titanium in places)
SRAM Powerglide Cassette 23-21-19-17-16-15-14-13-12-11 (23-11, 10spd)
SRAM Powerglide Chain with masterlink
Truvativ bottom bracket.
Everything else:
SRAM Force caliper brakeset with Swisstop pads
Neuvation R28 Aero 4 Wheelset (j-bend bladed spokes, 16f -20r)
Continental GP4000 racing tires (handmade in Germany bitches!)
Ritchey WCS 4-Axis stem in "wet white"
Ritchey WCS Alloy seatpost in "wet white"
Black SRAM cables and housing
Cinelli cork handlebar tape (white)
Shimano Ultegra SPD-SL road pedals
So there you have it. Basically a brand new bike.
It really gets under my skin when people say something is the "best" only because it's what they have or use and not for any quantifiable reason, so I'll try and keep the gloating to a minimum cause I know there's always something better, lighter, and sexier out there (assuming one has the resources to obtain said things).
In all honesty, at first I really didn't like the SRAM doubletap shifting. This was due in equal parts to the fact that I wasn't used to it, and that when you first put on new cables, they stretch rapidly and shift quality quickly degrades, necessitating frequent readjustment in the first month of use. I found it awkward to use the same paddle to shift up and down and was constantly mis-shifting or shifting accidentally.
Then I got used to it, had the cables tensioned again, and now I absolutely love it. I especially love the fact that when riding in the drops, you can pull the shift paddle away from the brake lever and shift up by simply flicking your wrist toward the inside. That said, downshifting in the drops isn't as easy since you'd have to rotate your whole arm around the bar to get it far enough to shift. Also, if you try to do the wrist-flick to downshift, it feels like you're about to break the paddle off which is a little scary to say the least.
With Shimano, I was used to having the feeling of actually Shifting the chain with the lever... you could literally feel the shifter move sideways, and though it was indexed, shifting to larger sprockets always felt like it took some finger strength. With SRAM it's like a mouse-click and the derailleurs do everything for you. and it's damn precise too. I heard that the Red stuff shifts a little faster and more precisely, though I'd be curious to see if I could actually tell the difference because the Force drivetrain is (as far as I can tell) completely without issue. Where my Shimano stuff would occasionally click or creak or lag in certain spots (no matter how finely tuned I tried to get it), SRAM is like the hyper-obedient child in comparison to the Shimano brat.
I don't know how people review brakes because as far as I can tell, as long as you come to a stop smoothly, they work. end of story. The SRAM Force brakes are pretty sweet lookin' though. they're all skeletonized (unnecessary material drilled out) which looks neat and they work silently which is good.
Well, enough of the technical mumbo jumbo; it tips the scales at 15.5 lbs (give or take a few ounces), and that's what matters.
P.S. If anyone wants to rummage through my parts bin, I have the shimano/specialized version of basically everything listed above... shoot me an e-mail or call me and I'll tell you how much (if anything ) I want for it; some of it's real good shit.
