Beautiful bike, love lugged frames.
The frame & fork are magnificent. I kind of want to hang a framed picture of the fastback seat stays on my wall at home.
The stuff I've done to it, though, makes it a kind of dorky socks-and-sandals build. It's too slow to be a racer, too fast to be a commuter, too aggressive to be a great tourer, but it's a very nice compromise as a no-worries bike to just ride anywhere, anytime.
I'm very happy with how it works. I feel a bit ashamed of putting that awful twist shifter on the end of the drop bars, but it's mega-nice to use - second best to good brifters IMO. Also, putting 25mm Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on something that should have 23mm slicks isn't morally right but they work great and at this rate it seems like they'll last forever. The 36h 3x Velocity Deep V's are heavy and slow, but then again - so am I. And I've been abusing the hell out of those wheels for about 1000 miles and they're still perfectly straight & true.
Last tweak the bike needs is some new dropouts. The stockers are vertical with 8mm fore-aft adjustment, but the tallish tires eat up about 5mm of that adjustment, and I just can't keep chain tension correct with the IGH setup. I've designed some replacements that are horizontal - not super-pretty, but I'll paint 'em flat black and hope nobody notices. I tried to make a set, but using a drill press and hand tools, my meager skills weren't enough to get the tolerances close enough.
I love racing, this years a bust thought... Shoulder surgery..... But last year I did race a full season.... Some local series, the canada cup series.... And the Leadville 100.
My sister in law is racing the world cup at mount sainte Anna this week end.
Wow. Good luck with your shoulder.
The paddles are on a quick release steering wheel, there's no way into the car with it on. They are an extra, as the shifter is still there.(automatic) its kind of like tiptronic.
Groovy. I'd worry about interference, but I'm paranoid because so much of my job is about computer stuff that doesn't work the way it should.