It's not much, but I like it. The paintjob's nonstandard (though still rather plain), and it kind of glows/sparkles from close up. I think it's a really pretty bike.
I have to say that the Rival is really pretty cool. It took me a bit to get used to the shifting... probably about 10 minutes Big Grin
That being said, shifting was slow for the first hour and a half. Now, with around 5 hours on the bike (Hey, I only got it Saturday!) the shifting's a lot faster; the problem wasn't ever the derailleur, it was more me moving slowly on the levers. The RD shifts as soon as you release the paddle, and it shifts before the paddles even back to neutral - very fast, very positive feeling. The FD is a tad slower, but it's faster than my Ultegra.
I would say the 'feel' of the shifting is good. Campy has always felt a bit heavier but more 'solid' to me, whereas Shimano has always felt very light and fast, but not as 'solid'. SRAM takes the best of both of these it seems - it's got a solid feel to it but it's still very light and fast, not at all clunky (my apologies to Campy fans... it just feels like that to me).
The Chris King headset... all I can say is "Wow." I've always thought that people just raved about CK headsets because they were trying to justify paying that much to themselves. Now that I've ridden a CK headset, I think I'm going to have to get one for my Litespeed!
The bike's a bit porky, 19 pounds as shown (according to my bathroom scale lol ). I'm not sure where to shave weight, since it's best to stick to my sponsors. I'm going to stick on some Easton Tempest II carbons eventually - they're on my list of things to acquire in the next few months.
I'd love to hear any recommendations about what to do with it - I'd like to get it a bit lighter.
If anyone needs it later I can list the components.
-estone2
