jgwilliams

I see I came a bit late to this thread. I think he could well be right. The old Witcomb I mentioned above barely gets ridden any more - it's basically a shopping bike now, much as I love it. Modern tyres are astonishing; I've recently gone tubeless with Vittoria Corsa N.Ext (stupid name). I'm 1,100 miles in and I can't even find a nick on them from a flint. Previously I was using Michelin Pro 4 Endurance, which I regarded as a pretty good tyre, but after this distance I'd have been able to find lots of little cuts where flints had penetrated (flints being the major hazard where I live), and probably had a flat or two as well.

Enjoy your new bike.

Edit: Just been looking at the SL5. Man, that's some upgrade! My latest ride also has disc brakes and I gotta say, I love them. I live in quite a hilly area and the disc brakes just give me a level of confidence I never felt before. My last main ride (and my first carbon bike) had SRAM Force 22 groupset; the brakes were good, no doubt, but they certainly can't match hydraulic disc brakes. I see also that the Trek has fully hidden cables, as does mine (Dolan Tuono). It makes for lovely clean lines but I sincerely hope I never have to change the headset bearings!