Bike is ready to go

Well, the Seven is ready to go! New tyres, chain, gear/brake cables and brake blocks have been fitted. The new wheels are in. It's all been fettled, cleaned and polished and everything's sweet. The bike will be disassembled and packed into a bike-bag later this week, ready for the flight and undoubted abuse at the hands of the baggage handlers.

Notice the all-around loveliness...

(Warning, technical bit...) I've decided to raise my chainring sizes a little for this ride. This is primarily to give me a higher top gear of 50x12 for descents and following fast pacelines. I bought some Rotor Q-Rings (50T-36T) a while back and have been testing them recently. These rings are elliptical (but nothing like Shimano Biopace) and are designed to reduce the 'dead spot' when pedalling. I've been reasonably impressed with the apparent small increase in my performance, especially pushing headwinds and climbing. Despite the slightly strange shape, my cadence is unaffected and may be even slightly improved. They didn't take any time to get used to and felt 'natural' straightaway. Apparently, returning to round chainrings will feel a bit weird and inefficient!

...and the elliptical chainrings.