jamesdak 

Well.....damn....

I had just decided this morning to leave this pretty much like it is. Dug through the parts stash and grabbed a new 8 speed chain, new 8 speed cassette, and several FD's. I brought out the brake caliper bin too to see if there was a better looking set of 105 calipers in there. Then I also found a FC-7400 crank in my preferred 172.5 length I forgot was in there. It had a lot of rub on the arms but they actually polished up nicely. That'll get a proper 53/39 setup back on this. I just have to see if the current BB is compatible with the Dura Ace or make sure I have what I need.

Edit: Appears the original takes a 113mm BB and I see where the FC-7400 takes a 112mm so I'm betting the current BB will work. I've also just found a brand new UN55 113mm cartridge BB in my stash as well as an original Dura Ace cup/bearing BB in 112mm. So this at least is sorted, I think.

But then I took out my STI shifter bin wondering if there was maybe some 8 speed Ultegra shifters in there. What I found was a really, really nice looking set of Dura Ace 7400 STI shifters. How did I forget about those??!!

Now my dilemma. I actually have two full 7400 groupsets stashed that I don't think had STI shifters. Now maybe I should do a full Dura Ace build. Problem is, if I don't like the ride of the bike I'll never get my money back out of it locally....

Does that really matter, IDK...

Anyway, I thought I had a plan. Now I just don't know. This is why I said no more projects!

I do need to find a Shimano 8 Compatibility chart though. That may force me into a decision about sticking pretty much as is vs a 7400 build. The current FD is a mess and needs to go.