Here's my latest one, so far I've found a whole bunch of parts from our family spare parts bin, aside from the seat post I haven't payed over $200 yet. I would like to eventually fit modern carbon forks to see how light I can make it. I'm currently looking fora 3T Prima 199 in a 42mm bar. By this stage they're rare as hens teeth. After I swap out the seat pot tomorrow I'll reassess whether I need a new quill stem to get better reach. It's a matter of working out whether its really nescessary or not. At the moment its pretty much at the pinnacle in terms of modern and retro SRAM and Suntour components without going overboard with titanium.
1995 Giant Kronos.
SRAM Rival groupset.
SRAM Double Tap shifters.
SRAM Apex Derailleur.
Thomson Elite seat post (not fitted in this photo) 200gram.
SR-Suntour quill stem, 100mm.
SR-Suntour Road Champion bars, 42mm.
singlespeedscott wrote:The ride quality will not improve with a modern groupset. A frame that rides like a dog will still ride like a dog after tarting it up with a modern groupo.
The key for an upgrade like this is to have a great frame to start with.
Weight is not a high priority.
Your ultimate goal is to have the great riding quality of vintage steel with the luxury of modern shifting and braking.
A modern groupset will make the bike infinitely more enjoyable when your bike just clicks into gear and your chain does not fall off. There are also vast improvements such as Double Tap so I can grab as many gears as I would like. All of a sudden you go from a flat to steep incline and you click back and you're in first gear again with the right shifter. Or you happen to be on a descent, you click over into your 20th cog and you roll down the hill whilst still peddling onto the flat and keep up your rolling mass to maintain speed.
A modern groupset will make the bike feel modern, you will ignore the weight issues provided you have a decent frame, and either way you can if you like put carbon forks wheels and bars on your new steel steed which will bring its weight down to something under 12kg where you will not suffer a weight penalty.
You both gain and lose aero advantage, you have a traditional aero sense of a bike that fits you like a good Armani suit, you lose on exotic material. But the consequence of most bikes you can fit in the same price bracket is that they only come in Small, Medium or Large (and sometimes in half sizes) which means that you compromise on the rider aero to focus on the bike aero.
At the end of the day both cancel each other out. When you are sitting with your arse up in the air (due to the size of the seat post) you will be losing most of your aero advantage of carbon with the aero drag of having your arse hanging in the air. A full carbon race bike will also be incredibly uncomfortable, even in this sense where you are riding on the tops, and that's without considering riding drop.
. I also have to admit that I am testing a carbon seat at the moment (Colors matches the frame's paint work).
