Now that my new frame is safely hidden behind my couch I can turn my attention to how I'm going to transform this piece of carbon fiber into a bike. Groupset is a given , considering the black beauty in the corner is a Colnago, so I've turned to wheels, which I hear are pretty important.
My first thought was this set of hoops: The Mavic RSys SLR
I have a friend you has them and she's very happy. For my part, the fact that they're super light (for aluminum) and look like carbon wheels, sort of, attracted me. The price doesn't, though. They are €1800.
But when you're trying to dress up a new bike you want to look at other options, which brought me, via Chikashi (who has been a wealth of info on the subject), to custom-built wheel sets. I have found, and contacted, four different wheel builders in the UK and US and have had a very educational last couple of weeks, talking about previously-unknown subjects like 'spoke counts' and 'lacing styles'. Like anything else, there are lots of differing opinions on these (and other) aspects of the bike, so I've spent a good amount of time sifting through some complex issues I really don't understand. In the end, I guess you need to put your faith in someone and pull the trigger.
But I'm not quite there yet.
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