Just a small update:
Frame arrived, and some parts were already bought:
- Cane Creek 40 headset in silver
- Shimano ST-R785 & BR-R785 Di2 levers with hydraulic brakes: These seem to be currently on sale everywhere and the cheapest option for Di2 STIs I found. And with these, the price of hydraulic and mechanical brakes were nearly the same, so let's try the hydraulic! (will still check how the oil works in my temperature ranges... Anybody experience with Trickstuff Bionol, which is Canola based brake oil? Sounds cool, just would like some experiences how it differs from Shimano's oil.)
- some random parts on sale like Panaracer Gravelking 38mm tyres (using right now the 28mm, so I know them a bit) and other small parts.
I think I have for most parts a quite good idea what I want or need, e.g. stem will be the Pro Tharsis XC stem to hide the Di2 battery inside the fork, bar most likely the Pro Discover Medium to use the bar end Di2 junction (I find basically only a couple of Pro-brand bars and the Ritchey Comp ErgoMax which allow this, and some much more expensive ones. The Ritchey bar has quite a rise, so I'd need to cut the steerer a bit shorter then with the Pro Discover...
My bigger unknown is still the crank: I could use the Alfine crankset (which I use also on my current bike), this is probably the most straightforward to ensure the chainline, has an integrated chain guard and quite cheap. Most alternatives, track/single speed cranksets I found use square taper BBs. Some of those cranks might look nicer then the Alfine, but what do you think regarding Hollowtech II vs square taper? Any recommendations for the crank?
And then the wheels: I probably should talk with a LBS who will finally build them, but maybe you have some advice? For the Alfine, should I use the 32 or 36 hole version? I'm somewhere in between 75-80 kg, and my usual daily luggage most likely will not exceed 10-15 kg (office stuff and some groceries. For everything heavy I have the cargo bike anyways). In case this bike gets one day completely changed for heavy touring or offroad, I would probably remove the Alfine and therefore change at least the rear wheel anyways. Would the 32 holes for this be ok, taken the extremely bumpy road conditions here into account? There seem to be much less 36 hole rims around?
And the front, 32 holes or less? I have as front hubs the Shimano XT hub and the DT Swiss 350 on my radar. Currently I use a (even) cheaper Shimano front hub without problems, but the cartridge type DT Swiss 350 seems a good thing?
Any rim recommendations? I am eying at different things from the probably heavy DT Swiss 545D to H+Son The Hydra (no 36 holes though, in that case it could be the non-disc H+Son Archetype). Any thoughts, ideas, recommendations?
PS: Getting Shimano stuff from Europe to North America is difficult these days! Let's see, maybe some parts I will have to transport in a suitcase after my Christmas visit...