Originally Posted by kbarch

Pardon my newbness, but I'm putting a steel bike together and figured this being a fairly recent thread, it would be as good a place as any to insinuate myself into the conversation without hijacking it too much....

I think there will be something classic about this bike, but I've tallied up all the parts and think I must be missing something significant, because it's coming in just over 16 lbs without really trying. Frame does come with a carbon fork, though, and with that is only 1520g. Groupset is 2409g; stem, bars, seat, seatpost and wheels (Aksium) total 2778g; I've allowed 500g for tires, pedals, tape and cables - is that too little? What am I missing?

Since the forks are carbon, I'm going with a carbon seatpost (Superleggera!) but nothing so fancy for the bars and stem. Kinda wanted a Cinelli quill stem, but limited selection of bars and all that have dissuaded me.

By the way, does anyone think it's possible to put together a set of low-profile, custom Gran Fondo-worthy wheels with shiny silver hubs and rims and still have the set approach the weight of Mavic Ksyrium (1520g)? Off the rack, I'd prefer Campy Neutron Ultra, but frankly those seem overpriced, especially considering how a set of custom wheels with their Record hubs could be put together for much less, I'm sure.