NZPeterG thanks for that, I am bound to be passing through Taupo at some stage, so will pop into the shop and say hello, and thanks for putting me onto Chris at Puresports NZ.
il padrone - it took me ages to choose Yellow, so I'm glad there were only two choices, otherwise I'd still be trying to choose the colour! Sad news about
the cranks, but then shortly after rualexander gave me some good news, so I am very pleased about that, and re reading the pdf I see all the options for their cranks and Shimano.
macspud, that is a beautiful photo of Plockton. When I processed my Grandmother's 1966 slides, as well as trying to place them it is always interesting to try to work out where she stood when she took them. As for the Brooks, I'll be patient, I know not to expect good things immediately.
rualexander that is excellent news regarding Thorn chainrings. I'll keep what I have at the moment until I get a good feel for what my final gearing will be, then order one.
rualexander I'll hang in there with the Brooks B17 as to be fair, I've only ridden with it four times or 130km but it's nice to know my old favourite the Sella Italia Turbo has been re released.
Matt2matt2002 I went with the Andra 30 plain 32 on the front, Andra 30 CSS 32h on the rear as this is Andy Balance's new recommendation from Page 6 of the Nomad pdf, Issue 30, Winter 2013 -2014 edition. I am fairly sure from memory his old recommendation was CSS rims on front and rear but he had modified his views. Once the CSS brake surface eventually wears through wet weather breaking is impaired, so figures it is best to have a non CSS rim on the front so you will always have good braking from the front rim. But, just in case I have not interpreted that correctly, suggest to refer to the pdf. The one thing I can say about the rims and brakes, is that I instantly love the XT brakes and calipers (dry weather only so far) as I only need two fingers to feather the brakes on and off, even on steep windy descents.
Neil, I'm reluctant to comment on the GP5's at this stage as I've just don't have the miles/hours on the bike to give them a judgement call yet - I very nearly went with my favourite tried and true racing type drop bars (like Danneaux) but I am doing my best to try to forget I was a 'racing' cyclist once and start from a clean sheet with my choices. It is great to have the bike and doing rides, as up until now it has all been theory, but nothing beats riding it for real to work out what I like and don't like about it, and things I'll keep and things I might consider changing, but I don't want to make decisions until I've done a lot more hours in the saddle. As for the Rohloff, again early days, but it works well - a couple of times I've wanted to shift into the big chain ring but then realised I don't have big and small chain rings anymore - I just have to twist my wrist. Yesterday at one stage I also looked under my arm to see what sprocket I was on, on the rear cluster, which of course I don't have anymore!
