09 cannondale caad9 + DURA-ACE 7900 review

here you will find a review of my 09 cannondale caad9 featuring the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain... okay, so i have sram rival otherwise but the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain is pretty awesome. i also really really really really really really really like being on the road bike again with sram rival. i like the new lever shape a lot. it reminds me of the sram red that i had on my supersix last year but well, actually i think its the exact same but it cost a lot less. so basically the bike is:



2009 cannondale caad9 56cm frame
sram rival shifters
sram rival front derailleur
sram rival rear derailleur
fsa slk light 34/50 crank
shimano 105 11-25 cassette
shimano NEW DURA ACE 7900 chain
tektro junk brakes
c3 junk handlebars and c4 stem. the stem is actually okay, but the bars will be replaced soon
thomson masterpiece post
bontrager inform rl saddle
king cages
conti grand prix 4SEASON 700x25 tyres
chris king/mavic open pro wheels (custom built by me) with spoke washers. yes, spoke washers. if you haven't heard of them, you're probably not classy enough to have them. so thats it. oh, and no you can't put spoke washers on your mavic ksyrium. good try though

so, the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain is pretty awesome and well, it only took 10 minutes to put the chain together using a sm-cn79 quick link. i've gotten two rides in so far totaling about 45 miles and i'm really enjoying the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain. i love love love my sram shifters and stuff and while i really really like sram's pc-991 hollow chain on my mountain bikes, i found that their pc-1090 chain wasn't so good. it seemed to work about as good as a shimano 7speed chain on a 9speed drivetrain. with the chain cut too short. and rusted fraying shift cables. however the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain seemed to work super wicked super awesome good on the 105 11-25 cassette. it silently glides from cog to cog and chainring to chainring without effort. i think shimano does a good job of making chains and cassettes. however, their new DURA-ACE 7900 shifters are well, about as exciting as sram's pc-1090 chain... and their new derailleurs look, well, like XTR. boring. oh well. thankfully we have both sram and SHIMANO to choose our parts from. so my bike is really awesome and weighs 17.1 pounds which isn't so bad for a alloy bike with junk heavy brakes, alloy bar, and heavy winter 700x25 tyres. i think it will be 16.5 pounds with some nice sram rival brakes, bontrager xxx lite bars, and conti gp4000s tyres. alright, i'm off to work on reading jacob florence's blog. it is the most boringest blog in all the internets you know??