as always, parts in the mail…

so, it seems like this is a constant in my life, something to complain about right? 😉 but the majority of the components for the Trek 950’s wheelset are in the mail: some Velo Orange Diagonale 650b rims (36h as usual), Sapim double butted (14[2.0]/15[1.8]/14) spokes from Lee Kilpatrick (a great guy and always cuts my spokes), and some DT Swiss black brass nipples, and the typical Velox rim tape (17mm for the VO rims) from Velo Orange as well.

also in the mail are the rest of the brake parts for the Trek 950, i was going to go with fancy Paul levers but decided against it and went for the far cheaper option, a pair of black Shimano BL-R550 flat bar road brake Levers, off of eBay. i’ve changed the front brakes up a bit as well, deciding to go with Paul Neo-Retro‘s all the way around (since i had an extra pair from tearing down the Bianchi Volpe, since doing that i needed a hanger, and since i’m going to be mounting the headlight on the fork crown i bought a Problem Solvers hanger in black (i wanted the Paul Funky Monkey but couldn’t justify the expense).

one hiccup with the 950 is the XTR M971 rear derailleur, which i bought used and upon the belief that it was an GS (mid/short cage) and not an SGS (long cage), well, turns out my thought of, “gee, that looks awful long to be a short cage,” was right when i finally measured the distance between the wheels with a caliper. yup, the derailleur is a long cage, so thats going to get put on the new touring build and i’m going to have to buy a new GS for the 950, uhg, oh well….

there’s also a few parts coming for the new touring bike build, which will be based around an early 90’s Trek 750 or 790 Multitrack (if i can ever find one, haha), namely a Chris King Sotto Voce 1″ Grip nut headset in black (theme right? 😉 ) and a new front XTR M971 front triple, high clamp, bottom swing derailleur.

that’s it for now, too much crap, but oh well, haha, there are worse addictions i supposed….s
-peter