Mark’s road disc bike

Mark asked me for an all-weather road bike for the hills and rough roads around Santa Cruz. I was able to meet with him in person to do a fitting based on his current bike, where we worked out the changes needed to improve his fit and comfort. To help with an old knee injury I shortened his crank length to 165mm, using a Lightning carbon crankset with 28/46 chainrings to provide the ability to keep the legs spinning when climbing. For neck comfort Mark needed the bars fairly high, so the bike has a tall headtube. For ironing out rough roads, the Pacenti tubeless rims are shod with Hutchinson Secteur 28C tubeless tires, and the Enve compact bars have Fizik Bargel underneath extra thick Lizard Skins DSP 3.2 bartape.

Disc brakes made sense for consistent braking – Avid BB7SLs fill this role, whilst shifting is taking care of by Campagnolo Record driving a 12-27 cassette. The carbon fork is a Whiskey No.9, which has a through axle design – there aren’t a lot of options for a hubset to match a QR15 front disc hub with a Campy freehub rear disc hub, but DT240s fit the bill.

I worked with Bob at Custom Powderworks to try something new with the finish – this is the first time I have done a powder finish with an additional clear coat of powder over the base and decals. It all came out nicely, and will make for a more durable finish. The white finish with mostly black components is highlighted with a little orange for the headset, spacers, chainring bolts and nipples.

Cable routing is all internal, with the gear cables entering through the oversize headtube. The rear brake runs inside the downtube, and features removable stops allowing for a change to hydraulics in the future. Final weight comes in at 18lbs.

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