Originally Posted by tallbikeman

Thank you for the kind words about the Nishiki. I have not measured the actual headtube and seat tube angles on the Nishiki Sebring. It has a fairly steep angle. The fork on this bicycle is a donor from an even older Kabuki brand bicycle as it has no lawyer tabs at all. However when placed side by side with the Nishiki fork this fork appears identical in its bend and rake and overall length. I have not had any problem with higher speeds. I have had bicycles that would start shaking their head at high speed, never a good thing, but this bike is not one of them. The Race Face crank set is awesome. I dropped one of the arms and when it hit the floor it rang like a bell. They have no flex when pedaling and contribute to a very direct feel with the rear end. Very good cranks. I bought them used and they are for MTB's but I don't have any problem using them on a road bike. 180mm crank sets are difficult to come by. The sprockets are 22-34-46. I run on the 34 all the time. I use the 22 to get over some of our steeper pedestrian overpasses. The 46 gets its use on windy downwind rides. The 10 speed cassette is 11-34. This bike has a huge gear range. I'm very happy with the gear range. As far as grips I've always had hand numbness issues since I got my first drop bar bike 55 yrs. ago. I run my flat bars a little lower and this puts enough pressure on my hands to cause them to go numb. For whatever reason these ODI grips don't do that. That is a first for me in 55 yrs of riding. They have been a total pleasure to ride. I don't have to let go the bar and exercise my fingers to bring back feeling in my hands anymore. My Ryan Vanguard recumbent has underseat steering and I don't get any hand numbness from that system either. My most pleasureable bike to ride for all round gravel/paved road performance is a customized Chicago Schwinn Varsity in the 26" frame size. This bike has way laid back head and seatpost angles and is very smooth. Your bike looks to have similar angles to the Schwinn. It steers the best of any of my bikes and transmits no road chatter to the rider. Varsity's are heavy because Schwinn put a lot of steel in them. I notice on mine that the bottom bracket does not move from side to side much when pedaling as it does on the Nishiki. But even with this strength it still absorbs lots of road vibration the other bikes don't I like my 40mm wide tires the best for gravel and dirt roads. I do run 35mm and 32mm tires off road and they are not as good as the 40mm. I wouldn't worry too much about bottom bracket height but wider tires work better off road in my opinion. I used to have a Trek MTB and it ran 1.9" which is about 48mm or so. That was very nice off road but 1-2mph slower than my present setups. I now think I would experiment with various brands of tires looking for the lowest rolling resistance and least weight in a 1.9" size if I still owned that bike. Windy day bike ride rules. If possible always start the ride into the wind and ride to your halfway point fighting the wind all the way there. Once there take a breather, take a drink of water, turn your bicycle 180 degrees. Start pedaling and enjoy the downwind ride home. Hilly bike rides. If possible start the hills climb early and climb to the top of your hill. Stop, take a break, drink water, turn bike 180 degrees. Start pedaling then coasting, all the way home. Rides rarely work out this way but it is always worth considering. I always start my rides upwind if at all possible.