Well it's been a couple of weeks and a lot of work on other bikes (and just work in general), but I was finally able to complete a delightful heretical build of the FX as I had alluded to earlier: as much 9000-era Dura-Ace as I could stuff into it minus brake calipers and of course $$$ wheels (which I wouldn't have wanted for this anyway). The result is a 9.35kg / 20.5 lb XL-sized bike.
Was able to get it out for a mini test ride at lunch and then a longer ride that day (yesterday evening) of about 24 miles. Tire pressures at 36 in front and 44 in the rear for these Soma 42mm tires. 35s at a higher pressure are still the ideal, but bumping the pressure up on these 42s helped keep the sluggishness away. Shifting was a breeze, the brakes were predictably strong, and with the extra bump in pressure, the bike's out-of-saddle character (and in-saddle character), as in it's springiness, were felt. This is easily the best bike for reaching and maintaining speed over all road surfaces that I've built, and here in Seattle, that, for me, counts for a lot. Maybe you or I don't necessarily get fatigued from jarring roads so much as we get increasingly annoyed and mentally "over it" with smaller tires/stiffer frames. I need to and want to get faster, but I was able to diesel on the flats. Sure, it's easier to whip around on a race bike, and I still very much like that, but man if this FX isn't just effortless in its speed and comfort!
Getting into the madness, which you can get into as well if you so choose(!), we have an Specialized S-Works 110mm stem holding some 211g FSA SL-K carbon handlebars for some always-appreciated vibration dampening. These Dura-Ace STIs actually still need some Tri-Flow spray into/through them as the colder it gets, the more often the gummed up original grease causes 'air shifts'.
Guess who
totally planned the cable housing matching the inner Trek logo lines?
All that Dura-Ace commanding ye olde run-of-the-mill stock Tektro V-brakes with pulse-tastic Kool Stop pads (my favorite). If you get on them pretty good, it's a pleasant combination of wind chime and flute.
I love these cranks. 9000 is simply one of the prettiest modern groupsets to me.
I will draw your attention to the pièce de résistance of this ENTIRE bike!
Thanks to being in Seattle and having nice parts get chucked in with the regular ones, this is a fully carbon Parlee front derialleur mount for braze-on style front derailleurs. I might have paid $5 for this much-more-than-five-dollars piece that was sitting in the bin forever (and likely would have continued to). It weighs nothing, and the front derailleur here weighs an official 76g, which feels like nothing in my hand. I definitely should have cleaned it better! Oh, and those are inner tube valve stem nuts being used as spacers to...well, actually I don't need them anymore now that the Parlee mount is on there (and so thin).
Running an 11-32T cassette is a long cage conversion (6800 Ultegra GS inner and outer cage) 9000 rear derailleur. Works really well.
