Iro Mark V

12/09: Decided to add on my first bike build to the database. Used daily for fitness, great for making it up and maintaining a perfect max cadence down the steep hills by my house. Looking to pick up SRAM Omnium cranks to finish up the bike.

2/10: Finally found a cheap brand new set of black Omnium cranks. Also picked up a Selle Italia Turbo saddle. This should complete the build for now. Installed the cranks and the chainline is perfect, so for those of you who are still questioning the compatibility of the GXP outboard BB, an EAI cog on a Formula hub works fine with the crank setup. The cranks are a huge improvement over the stock Iro and the 48T vs. 46T stock makes hill climbing faster with equal/less struggle and downhill is faster with a more manageable cadence. The BB does have noticeable drag under hard load.. Once it craps out (which I'm expecting it to based on all the reviews I've read), looking to replace it with an Enduro Seals ceramic BB.

3/10: Picked up a cheap 46T Sugino Zen ring locally to experiment with the crank setup. In addition to the longer crank arms, switching back to a 46/17 combo made the bike feel so much faster. I also noticed the BB no longer drags under hard load since there's less stress on the crank due to the lower gear ratio.

4/10: Frame has been sold. Moving on to a new frame with tighter geometry. Looking back at the past 6-months of consistent riding, I feel that this bike has done everything that I expected for me in terms of getting in shape and helping me achieve the level of fitness I was aiming for. Now it's more to just maintain and improve my strength as a cyclist. New build should be up shortly.