Velobuild VB-R-168 Frame

[memebike]

Nice looking bike! Looks familiar 

Mine: https://i.imgur.com/MKwL5nj.jpg?1

ahahha yeah, pretty sure I sent Chris one of your photos for painting purposes. When I saw your build, it was one of the reasons I ordered the frame and wheels.

[hazzer19]

ahahha yeah, pretty sure I sent Chris one of your photos for painting purposes. When I saw your build, it was one of the reasons I ordered the frame and wheels.

haha twinsies

Zdrenka89 this is your bike right? https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca3IkZBvkNm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[bamboo_mountain]

Question for everyone who is running a mechanical front derailleur, how the f**k did you manage to get the outer cable in the cable stop behind the bottom bracket?

Did you figure out how to route this yet? There were some posts about this earlier in the thread, and at least one person routed theirs above the BB. http://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,3147.msg28515.html#msg28515

[OlieSimpson]

Did you figure out how to route this yet? There were some posts about this earlier in the thread, and at least one person routed theirs above the BB. http://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,3147.msg28515.html#msg28515

Hey Bamboo!

It took a bit of filing to take some material off the inside of the frame stop where the cable enters, this opened up the angle a little bit and allowed me to fit the cable and ferrule into the stop, routing it underneath the bottom bracket. It means that there is no tight bend inside the frame as the cable is not going to run almost vertically from under the bottom bracket directly up to the front derailleur.

Honestly it took a good few hours and MANY attempts to get it to sit properly but I'm happy with how it's turned out.

My next challenge is the bars, I'm now finding it pretty hard to sort the internal cable routing out which I'm guessing is going to take many more hours and attempts to get the cables through. I may just file a little bit of material away from where the cables exit close to the shifters to create a slightly bigger hole, as the problem I'm having is the hole is SUPER tight to get both a shifter cable and a brake cable through.

Any other suggestions?

[memebike]

Hey Bamboo!

It took a bit of filing to take some material off the inside of the frame stop where the cable enters, this opened up the angle a little bit and allowed me to fit the cable and ferrule into the stop, routing it underneath the bottom bracket. It means that there is no tight bend inside the frame as the cable is not going to run almost vertically from under the bottom bracket directly up to the front derailleur.

Honestly it took a good few hours and MANY attempts to get it to sit properly but I'm happy with how it's turned out.

My next challenge is the bars, I'm now finding it pretty hard to sort the internal cable routing out which I'm guessing is going to take many more hours and attempts to get the cables through. I may just file a little bit of material away from where the cables exit close to the shifters to create a slightly bigger hole, as the problem I'm having is the hole is SUPER tight to get both a shifter cable and a brake cable through.

Any other suggestions?

Hey Ollie, it is punish to go get those cables in through the headset, I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I lightly put some grease on the cable housing  to get it to slide through nicely.

[OlieSimpson]

Hey Ollie, it is punish to go get those cables in through the headset, I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I lightly put some grease on the cable housing  to get it to slide through nicely.

Success! After failing miserably yesterday using one of the internal cable tools to try and route the bars, I ditched the tool and just used a spare brake cable which took around 30 mins to route all 4 cables!

Inspiration came from this video: https://youtu.be/gt9cW70vFwM]https://youtu.be/gt9cW70vFwM

[memebike]

Juin Tech F1's arrived

build list :
54 VBR-168 Frame with Painted Dark Metallic Blue
50mm VeloBuild Wheels
25 Conti GP5000 with Transparent sidewalls
Full 105 Groupo with Juin Tech F1 Calipers
Some random saddle I had sitting in a draw

Previous bike was a Triban RC500. Riding this 168 is so damn quick

[Zdrenka89]

ahahha yeah, pretty sure I sent Chris one of your photos for painting purposes. When I saw your build, it was one of the reasons I ordered the frame and wheels.

Nice! It is a lovely colour and finish indeed.

Zdrenka89 this is your bike right? https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca3IkZBvkNm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Correct

[OlieSimpson]

Juin Tech F1's arrived

build list :
54 VBR-168 Frame with Painted Dark Metallic Blue
50mm VeloBuild Wheels
25 Conti GP5000 with Transparent sidewalls
Full 105 Groupo with Juin Tech F1 Calipers
Some random saddle I had sitting in a draw

Previous bike was a Triban RC500. Riding this 168 is so damn quick

Very nice!

I've also just received my Juin Tech's so am finalising my build. Also went from a Triban RC520 to a VB-R-168 so am very much looking forward to (hopefully) going a bit faster!

[memebike]

Very nice!

I've also just received my Juin Tech's so am finalising my build. Also went from a Triban RC520 to a VB-R-168 so am very much looking forward to (hopefully) going a bit faster!

 Did some test laps today, took 5 seconds off an effort averaging 29 less watts, the thing i noticed the most was how fast it accelerated compared to the Triban.

[jokage]

Reporting in. Clocked almost 5000km. Completed the last Festive500 and a 200km Randonneuring/Audax with it.

[OlieSimpson]

Hi all,

Had my first ride on my VB-R-168 today and absolutely LOVE it.

The build went together really well, with the only issue being that I needed to file around 2mm of material off the inside of the front derailleur stop so the cable and ferrule could sit in correctly when routing under the bottom bracket. I did experience difficulty in routing the cables through the bars but it's my first time building a bike so it was to be expected.

In general I would say the overall quality of the bike is great, especially when considering how much the frame is!

For context, I'm coming off a Triban RC520, a full aluminium, relaxed geo, 9kg beginners road bike, and up until today was the only road bike I had ridden.

Compared to the RC520, the 168 is much stiffer, accelerates faster, transfers power better and holds speed very well once you get going, however it also seems very comfortable and compliant with no issues on the cobbles I rode today. My 35km ride today was a local loop I know very well and I managed to get a number of Strava PR's (smashing some of my previous times). I haven't ridden/trained for the last 6 weeks so fitness wasn't great and there were some hellish headwinds, which shows just how fast the bike is.

Without a power meter I can only go off avg. speed, and based on todays ride I think I've gained between 4 to 5km/h with the 168 which is more than I expected if I'm honest - I was averaging 32km/h on my ride and it felt pretty straightforward to maintain 37km/h, when pushing I was hitting between 44 to 52km/h which I could get nowhere near on my RC520 - all of this was on flat roads so no benefit from going downhill it's a VERY fast bike.

I got the frame with the HB011 bar, when static and you test the bar for flex there is a small amount which I was a bit disappointed with, however when you're actually on the bike and sprinting in the drops I couldn't feel any flex at all, which was a very pleasant surprise.

Aside from the frame, the other Chiner components I have are the Juin Tech GT's which are great, much better than my previous TRP HY/RDs, and the SROAD SLR2 cassette which shifts very well and is super light!

Overall, super happy and would highly recommend the frame!

A full parts list and weight per part for my build is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JRhus6SxSn-_OqfEiuNH-_bxQrsS67ouus0gICANTKk/edit#gid=704196738

I'll put some better pictures of the bike up when I have time. If you have any questions on the build, fire away!

Olie

[bamboo_mountain]

If you have any questions on the build, fire away!

Great looking build, for a first time you did really well, very smart component choices! How is the ZTTO BB?

[OlieSimpson]

Great looking build, for a first time you did really well, very smart component choices! How is the ZTTO BB?

Thanks!

The ZTTO BB seems very well machined and a quality bit of kit when in your hands. It was super simple to install, took around 1 minute as you just thread it together. Much easier to install than a true press-fit BB I imagine however it is around 40g heavier than a Dura-ace BB for example.

With the cranks on but no chain, and the preload set-up on the crank arms you get four or five rotations of the crank before they stop spinning. The bearings seem nice and smooth however I've got no idea how they're going to hold up in the long-run, only time will tell. On the plus side if it does't last long it's easy to uninstall and cheap to replace!

If I had the tools or wanted a shop to complete the build I would probably go for the Dura-ace press-fit as I guess the bearings and seals will be better than the ZTTO, plus it's lighter. Personally I wanted the simplicity of a threaded press-fit as it was a self-build bike and am really happy with it so far.

[hazzer19]

Had my first ride on my VB-R-168 today and absolutely LOVE it.

Nice build! Is that a faded paint job or chameleon?