Specialized was offering too sweet a deal to pass up even though I didn't love the color or the wheels. But the Price made Ebaying the wheels (the Roval star Al clinchers) worth it.

Ordered a set of Reynolds Attack carbon clinchers for the bike instead, and a set of the Swiss Stop Yellow King carbon pads to boot with some of my Ebay loot.

Its all coming together nicely. . . .

Coolhizzy...

I'm seriously considering making a related purchace. I don't ask for many gear related opinions as I have plenty of my own. However, on the BB30 carbon cranks, I lack experience. What's your impression of the Spec BB30 cranks, versus the gold standard, a set of DA7800s?

I had planned on getting a frame, in which case I'd use my beloved 7800 cranks, perhaps a set of 180mm that I have on hand. If I end up getting the pro bike, I'd have plenty of "changing out" to do, but it comes with the integrated cranks. If I got the Expert, I could get it with Rival, which I could swap for a DA/Force mix, and move the Rival to another bike. It pretty much all swings on if the integrated cranks are worth having. I'm leaning towards not, as I can't imagine they'd be any "stiffer" or happen to save more than 70 grams or so over DA.

Edit: The Expert may be a non-issue. I don't think I can deal with that color scheme. The background looked black on my computer, but blue is a no-go when combined with white AND red. Bummer.

According to specialized propaganda, they are lighter than DA by 127grams. Supposedly stiffer too..... I got them on my Tarmac Pro. They seem plenty stiff to me. But I doubt I'd notice the difference.

cheers,
scott

edit: They do look real nice.....

My team will be on Tarmac Pro's next year as well... :) We're waiting for the frames to arrive at the store right now - can't wait to start building!

Coolhizzy...

I'm seriously considering making a related purchace. I don't ask for many gear related opinions as I have plenty of my own. However, on the BB30 carbon cranks, I lack experience. What's your impression of the Spec BB30 cranks, versus the gold standard, a set of DA7800s?

I had planned on getting a frame, in which case I'd use my beloved 7800 cranks, perhaps a set of 180mm that I have on hand. If I end up getting the pro bike, I'd have plenty of "changing out" to do, but it comes with the integrated cranks. If I got the Expert, I could get it with Rival, which I could swap for a DA/Force mix, and move the Rival to another bike. It pretty much all swings on if the integrated cranks are worth having. I'm leaning towards not, as I can't imagine they'd be any "stiffer" or happen to save more than 70 grams or so over DA.

Edit: The Expert may be a non-issue. I don't think I can deal with that color scheme. The background looked black on my computer, but blue is a no-go when combined with white AND red. Bummer.


The crank will be lighter then D/A, but I doubt stiffer. Also, the Shimano D/A 10 rings probably shift better. But I am just going to roll with the integrated cranks and see what I think. The big thing for the Pro was the wheel swap (and ditching the white bar tape which I don't like normally, and looks goofy on that bike anyway).

So no real pre-buy impressions? I guess I may have to talk to C-Griff on this one. How does this factor into your SRM plan? What's ETA on yours?

For me, the Pro would entail a complete teardown and rebuild. Other than the integrated cranks, I could see keeping (perhaps) the seatpost and possibly trying the saddle. That would put me in a position to become very friendly with ebay again, which just gets exhausting. Wheelswaps would be a given, since I recently moved over to powertaps, plus (very) recently began to transition to SRAM for shifting duties. Then I like my trusty cockpit too much to change anything there...

With the Expert color being a no-go, the pro frameset is probably the smart way to go. I just don't want to miss out on all the hottness that those funny cranks would supply. If that's not the case, then I'll move along without them.

If you are going SRAM, I would just get the frameset. Swapping and ebaying that much stuff doesn't seem worth it. Stick with the D/A then.

Seeing I was ok riding Shimano for another year, and Specialized was offering shop rats an insane deal on the Pro I bought it despite some trepidation regarding the color and those funky wheels. As it is going to have the rough life of a race and training bike, I don't mind a few compromises (at least until they start allowing EP's on S-work Tarmac SL2s- then all bets are off).