The original bike that I bought in July 2007 in Osaka, Japan was a 2008 model Specialized Roubaix Elite Compact. The image I grabbed from the Specialized website is the exact same colour of my bike (I would have gone for something more interesting looking but it was hard enough finding a frame in my size in Japan, let alone being picky about colour).

I bought her from Yoshito Yamamoto at Cycle Station Speed for about AU$2,000, roughly $1k less than the equivalent price here in Australia at the time (and subsequently got hit with $350-odd in duty by Australian Customs on the way home.. damnit!).

5000kms on Melbourne roads later my drive train was pretty worn out and the spokes on both wheels were becoming quite a pain (either frequently loosening or siezing up completely so that I couldn’t adjust them to re-true the wheels).

I recently upgraded the wheels to Easton EA90 SL for approx AU$500 (big ups to ebay). At 1532 grams they’re a lot lighter than my old Specialized wheels. They’re similar to Easton’s flagship EA90 SLX wheelset except that they have some extra steel spokes, which is great for someone looking for light but durable wheels. I’m not sure if it’s just psychological, but they feel really responsive when accelerating.

I’ve also started upgrading my groupset from Shimano 105 to Dura-Ace. So far I’ve done the crankset, bottom bracket, rear cassette, chain-rings, and chain. The bottom bracket has had a ceramic bearing upgrade. Not sure if I can feel the difference with the ceramic bearnings, but overall it’s definitely smoother than with my worn out old 105 components.

Here’s a couple of recent pictures post-upgrade: