General: The Room

The purpose of rim tape is to cover up the spoke holes and anything other sharp, so you are good if it does that.

Posted By: Mancha150Well in both pictures you should be able to see that the sharpish outline of the nipple holes is peeking out...which is what I am worried about. Might just get new tape to be safe

looks like there is just enough nipple hole edge poking through in that top photo to cause a problem. i had chronic flat problems from a situation that looked a lot like that, the tape just pulled over a little like that.

New boots. Wanted to replace them with soma new xpress, but couldnt find cheap and wanted to try something new. Not quite skinwall, but still classy looking "brownwall". Will see how these conti gran prix classics (25c) hold up

Yeah I hear they measure more like 24.1, not 25, but they are noticeably larger than my soma new xpress. I assume this is also because the rims are wider. In any event, they look like they will be pretty damn comfortable. I am looking forward to riding them tomorrow morning!

those should ride really nice and last a long time. the tread/compound is the same as the grandprix and i got 5500 mi out of my last pair of contis

Anyone here ever deal with a fizik warranty? The shell on my Antares kium on my big block cracked yesterday when I hit up a bump (I guess), and this seems weird because I am only 165 pounds and the bump wasn't anything special. I read a few things online that fizik is not very good about warranties? Another issue is that this came with the bike, I did not purchase it.

So you just called fizik? You didnt fill out the online form? It might have been easier because you work at a shop, so they assume the shop got it direct from a distributor. I dont have proof of purchase

I didn't have proof of purchase either. Just find a Fizik dealer (Haegan is right, I called HW2) and ask them to warranty it for you. Ideally, find a shop employee you are friends with (or at least friendly with) and see if they'll at least try for you.

So thinking more about changing the group on the GT edge: even if I went with a shimano ultegra group for 600 USD from probikekit or wherever I saw it, I would probably spend at least 400 more on wheels, which I would need whether I went campy or shimano, because I wouldnt want to get some crappy wheels with a good group. So I was thinking, my group works fine, its just the rear hub that is thrashed, so I thought the cheapest and best solution to "upgrade" my GT but keep it period appropriate (and sometime down the road when I get a custom frame I would get a nice new 11 speed group) would be to order a NOS rear chorus or record 8 speed hub (a few nice athena ones on ebay right now too), and lace this new rear hub as well as my current front hub (which spins great but could use a polish) to a new wheelset, either mavic open pro CDs or h plus son TB14s or archetypes, and put some nice skinwalls on there. What do you guys think? I imagine I could get a single hub for 150 or the set for around 250 if I am lucky, 100 for rims, 40 for spokes, and maybe free labor (myself?). Less than 400 for an updated wheelset sounds pretty good to me.

Mancha150 FWIW I just picked up the new 105 11 speed group from Merlin Cycles for a bout $425 and it is a lot of bang for your buck. shifts really smooth. Front derailluer is a bit tricky to adjust. It is much narrower than the 5700, so you really have to dial it in spot on. Shipped from UK to DC in under a week. Don't know if this helps or not.
cheers