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 highway bike that mixed the perfect attributes of all my different highway bikes into one genteel age-appropriate package deal, and I daresay I succeeded:
It’s unbelievable, I really like all the pieces about it, it’s all the pieces I want in a highway bike and extra, and on the subject of “sports activities bikes” I actually may cease right here and easily journey this one into outdated age, having solely to boost the handlebars one centimeter per yr–completely doable if I swap to a Nitto Tallux is 225mm lengthy, which might cowl me for the following 22 years.
However after all I’m not going to cease there, as a result of like many cyclists I’ve an issue, which is that I at all times need to have a undertaking going. So as soon as the Roadini usurped the Milwaukee’s place as Major All-Round Highway Bike, I made a decision to repurpose the Milwaukee as my racy fashionable highway 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 journey it was too nice, and so forth Friday night I went at it with a frenzied willpower and accomplished it simply because the clock struck midnight:
The bike now feels higher than ever, however the greatest enchancment to the bike isn’t the brand new drivetrain; it’s the “new” (really actually outdated) stem I dug out, which brings the bars a little bit increased and nearer to the Milwaukee’s ageing rider. See, at this level in my biking profession I’m not chasing after my handlebars anymore, they’re gonna have to come back to me goddamn it! As a result of I now not have the flexibleness essential to journey a motorcycle like this:
Then once more I don’t assume anyone has that sort of flexibility, besides perhaps for this man:
That’s a motorcycle that screams, “I can fellate myself.”
As for the Milwaukee, between the latest makeover (really it was virtually two years in the past now, however while you’re too outdated to achieve your bars two years in the past looks like yesterday) and the brand new drivetrain it’s trying fairly good for a ten year-old bike.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 through the years I’ve had fairly a little bit of expertise with 105:
Or what I favor to consider as Shimano’s adequacy flagship:
In reality, trying 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 just isn’t the unique Normcore Bike, which I bought used within the Nineties after which offered in a stoop sale someday across the flip of the century; it’s technically the Normcore Bike’s doppelgänger, which I acquired from Traditional Cycle and now serves as my elder son’s commuter:
Nevertheless this bike is ready 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 after all there was the Milwaukee, which got here to me with so-called “5700,” which was each bit as ample 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 specific model of 105…
In addition to a plastic bike with its nearly indistinguishable Dura-Ace counterpart throughout my transient return to “racing”…
…this was my first time setting this specific technology up from scratch. It’s somewhat concerned, significantly the entrance derailleur, which requires cautious cable routing and pressure adjustment. In reality, it’s lots like placing collectively Ikea furnishings, in that you simply’ve acquired to comply with the guide rigorously, none of it makes any sense when you’re doing it, however so long as you do it proper, don’t skip any steps, and don’t assume too exhausting about what you’re doing and why, all of it works out in the long run. 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.
Nowadays I stay keen on semi-custom friction drivetrains, since they work fantastically and are very simple and versatile:
Nonetheless, 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 may probably need in that regard:
Although in case you do go for Ultegra and Dura-Ace you get the added pleasure of a crank that may explode, a characteristic 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 accessible with rim brakes, that means Shimano formally now not affords rim brakes for any of its highway racing teams:
For that, you’ve acquired to get Tiagra:
Or perhaps you should use 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 type represents the very pinnacle of rim brake adequacy.