Behold the new handlebar set up. With the 17 degree stem I am up about an inch or more higher than I was previously. In about an hour I am going out to ride it. Hopefully I can get it fine tuned today.
UPDATE: The bike still needs some work. I get a kink in my neck after about 15 minutes in the aero position. I must not be very flexible at all in my back. It needs come up about at least a half inch, if not a whole inch where the arm rests are. We must have stopped about 10 times so I could make little adjustments along the way. But since it was DTP with me and he isn't training for anything I didn't feel bad. Nevertheless, it was an improvement or the last set up.
Product review: TRP Euro X Brakes
I really like these brakes. They stop well, they are easy to set up and they squeal very little. In addition, it is important to note that the brakes have not caused my fork to shudder at all. Whether this is due to the fork--a Ritchey WCS carbon--or to the brakes, or both I am not sure. I have to toe-in the front brakes on my Curtlo cross bike quite a bit to make it so the Pauls Neo Retro brakes don't cause my Alpha Q CX fork to shudder in a scary way.
The brakes come with carbon pads as well as regular pads for those who have more money to burn on cross wheels than I do. The pads are probably not the best wet weather pads out there but the work well enough that I won't install a salmon or some other wet weather pad until these wear out.
Set up was pretty easy to figure out. This means I didn't have to read the instructions to install them and get them working well. I did play around with the height of the yoke, but nothing difficult.
The brake arms ca be set really wide so that with many tires I don't have to even bother releasing the straddle cable to get the wheels out. This is a huge plus.
Negative stuff. The only bad stuff is that the set screws tended to back out at first. I put a little loctite on them and all is well. I ended up losing one of the set screws on the yoke but it doesn't affect the performance of the brake at all. The set screws there just hold the straddle cable in place and so having two of them is sort of redundant anyway. Sometimes the brake rattles just a bit. This only is evident when I just barely have the brake hitting the rim. The brake moves on the brake posts on the frame and fork just a bit no matter how much I tighten them. I could put a little washer in between the brake and the brake bolt that holds each arm on, but it hasn't affected the performance at all that I can tell and I usually can't hear it rattling at all on any rides, so I haven't bothered.
Overall this is a very well done brake.
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