Once I put the Roadini collectively on the cusp of the yr by aim was to curabulate (that’s type of a portmanteau of “curate” and “collaborate”) a street bike that mixed the perfect attributes of all my different street bikes into one genteel age-appropriate bundle, and I daresay I succeeded:
It’s unbelievable, I really like every part about it, it’s every part I want in a street bike and extra, and with regards to “sports activities bikes” I actually might cease right here and easily experience this one into previous age, having solely to boost the handlebars one centimeter per yr–completely doable if I swap to a Nitto Tallux is 225mm lengthy, which might cowl me for the subsequent 22 years.
However in fact I’m not going to cease there, as a result of like many cyclists I’ve an issue, which is that I all the time need to have a undertaking going. So as soon as the Roadini usurped the Milwaukee’s place as Main All-Round Street Bike, I made a decision to repurpose the Milwaukee as my racy fashionable street bike as an alternative. To that finish, Ben’s Cycle despatched me a Shimano 105 R7000 drivetrain, and right here’s the place issues stood as of final week:
I had resolved to work on the bike slowly and intentionally, however with the weekend coming the temptation to experience it was too nice, and so forth Friday night I went at it with a frenzied dedication and accomplished it simply because the clock struck midnight:
The bike now feels higher than ever, however the largest enchancment to the bike isn’t the brand new drivetrain; it’s the “new” (truly actually previous) stem I dug out, which brings the bars somewhat increased and nearer to the Milwaukee’s growing older rider. See, at this level in my biking profession I’m not chasing after my handlebars anymore, they’re gonna have to return to me goddamn it! As a result of I now not have the flexibleness essential to experience a motorbike like this:
Then once more I don’t assume anyone has that form of flexibility, besides perhaps for this man:
That’s a motorbike that screams, “I can fellate myself.”
As for the Milwaukee, between the current makeover (truly it was nearly two years in the past now, however whenever you’re too previous to achieve your bars two years in the past appears like yesterday) and the brand new drivetrain it’s wanting fairly good for a ten year-old bike. Right here it was in 2015 when it was new, additionally with a 105 drivetrain:
It happens to me that over time I’ve had fairly a little bit of expertise with 105:
Or what I favor to think about as Shimano’s adequacy flagship:
In actual fact, wanting on the timeline…
…it seems I’ve owned and operated each different iteration:
My like affair with 105 began with the second model, which I had on the unique Normcore Bike:
The above bicycle is just not the unique Normcore Bike, which I bought used within the Nineteen Nineties after which bought in a stoop sale someday across the flip of the century; it’s technically the Normcore Bike’s doppelgänger, which I bought from Traditional Cycle and now serves as my elder son’s commuter:
Nonetheless this bike is about up, it’s nothing lower than adequacy incarnate.
I additionally had the fourth model, in all its 9-speed, Octalink glory, which I used largely for the cyclocrossing:
Then in fact there was the Milwaukee, which got here to me with so-called “5700,” which was each bit as enough as its predecessors with the pointless addition of under-the-bar-tape cable routing:
And now right here we’re:
Whereas I’ve had a loaner bike with this explicit model of 105…
In addition to a plastic bike with its just about indistinguishable Dura-Ace counterpart throughout my transient return to “racing”…
…this was my first time setting this explicit era up from scratch. It’s slightly concerned, significantly the entrance derailleur, which requires cautious cable routing and rigidity adjustment. In actual fact, it’s quite a bit like placing collectively Ikea furnishings, in that you just’ve bought to comply with the guide fastidiously, none of it makes any sense whilst you’re doing it, however so long as you do it proper, don’t skip any steps, and don’t assume too arduous about what you’re doing and why, all of it works out ultimately. It did work out, too, and the one adjustment I needed to make on my maiden voyage was the teeniest little twist of the rear derailleur’s barrel adjuster.
Lately I stay a fan of semi-custom friction drivetrains, since they work fantastically and are very simple and versatile:
However, as a former racer I nonetheless respect the efficiency and refinement of a contemporary built-in system, and the brand new drivetrain delivers all that I might probably need in that regard:
Although should you do go for Ultegra and Dura-Ace you get the added pleasure of a crank that may explode, a function which 105 sadly lacks:
However what endears me most to the Milwaukee’s new drivetrain is that it represents the final of its species, as going ahead 105 is now not out there with rim brakes, which means Shimano formally now not presents rim brakes for any of its street racing teams:
For that, you’ve bought to get Tiagra:
Or perhaps you should utilize the brand new mechanical CUES drop bar levers with rim brakes, I actually don’t know:
So on this sense, the Milwaukee in its present kind represents the very pinnacle of rim brake adequacy.
