Bicycle Build

[Triskeliongirl]

My understanding is that chorus and ultegra level components give you the biggest bang for the buck, in terms of quality, performance and weight vs price. You pay a lot to get a little more w record and durace, but then I think you lose a lot ore for the price savings when you go down to ultegra, at least that's what the fellow that built by custom crank set told me (and he is a biomechanicist for the cycling stars).

Given that you are springing for another custom bike, I would guess the diff in price between 105 and ultegra is a small percentage of the total bill on this bike. If it were me I'd go ultegra all the way, or for you if you really like campy shifters ultegra/chorus. I think you'll enjoy it more, especially in the mountains. If you wanted to save $ you could have had your present bike retrofitted with s/s couplers. I did that and was very pleased with the result (bilenky did it for me).

[indysteel]

If you're concerned about price, you might also consider not getting a set of wheels for the new bike, but instead just using the ones you have on your other Waterford. Since you won't be riding the new bike most of the time, there's no reason that you need a dedicated set of wheels for it.

Just a thought on something you didn't ask any advice on!