New Toy: The M5 Carbon High Racer

So, I've been saving my pennies for a few months, in order to pick up a dedicated go-fast. Rob Gentry at RBR, with the connivance of Tom Hovan, came across a lovely used M5 Carbon High Racer, and decided it had my name all over it. (Eventually, I was to find that this was not merely a figure of speech...)

So, without further ado...

From M5 Carbon High Racer: Initial Build

(Ignore my filthy basement, please.)

It's quite a bit different from the original incarnation: when I first took it for a spin, the package included HED3 wheels, a bunch of really nice XTR/Dura Ace components, and a matching tailbox:

Amusingly, the initial owner's name was Don, which had been added to the boom as part of the unique and attention-getting custom tribal paint job. In order to *ahem* help cement the deal, Frank (who wrenches at Rob's shop) personalized it for my benefit with the stroke of a Sharpie.

Before	After

Honestly, it didn't take much to get me to decide to spring for it. Tom (on his Musashi), Frank (on his Baron), and I on the M5 CHR went for a lovely 30+ mile test ride; while I had a bit of difficulty dealing with high crosswinds, I was delighted to find that the bike climbs as well as my old P-38, and is significantly more aerodynamic.

After purchase, I simplified things a bit: went to a nice 10-speed system using Paul's Thumbies and Dura-Ace 10-spd barcons. Also swapped out the minuscule bars for slightly larger ones, and tightened up the cable routing a bit. Made a bit of difference in the cockpit, as you can see:

Before	After

For wheels, I went with a couple of mismatched Velocity hoops that were floating around. I'll likely do a new wheelset based on a pair of Deep-Vs at some point, but that's not urgent...what I have now is enough to get rolling.

Had a couple eccentricities with which to deal as well. For some reason, the cable for the front derailleur had been run bare through a tunnel in the carbon fiber boom, so had been gradually sawing its way through one edge of the upper hole. I threw in the lower portion of a rivet for leatherworking to act as a grommet...should be a decent temporary fix, but I'll need to work out something a little better suited.

All told, with seat pad and the ridiculously heavy A530 pedals I'm wont to throw on my bikes, it weighs in at something in the 22 pound range. I suspect I could get it sub-20 without trying too hard, but I'm going to spend some time getting to know 'er before I do much more tinkering.

Tomorrow, I'll take it out for the Tuesday evening North Park ride. We'll see how things hold together...