VeloBuild VB-R-068 Build thread

[dpitel]

Hey all, so I finally got my frame from VB about two weeks ago and finished building it last weekend but was only able to ride it for the first time this past Saturday and Sunday due to life stuff. I'm coming from riding a Cervelo P3 that I converted into an aero road bike. It was actually really fun and fast but there were some issues that I just couldn't fix/get dialed in to my liking. Seeing as how I'm getting into racing I wanted what I thought would be a good reliable training/racing frame. I did as much research as I could and settled on the VB-R-068 aero frame- I chose rim brakes because all of my wheels and groupos are mechanical rim and I'm also a weight weenie who prefers rim over disc for that reason- I don't ride in the rain often and I've never had any issues with brake fade or anything like that on any of the local descents.

The reason I chose an aero frame instead of a climbing/endurance frame is because at 85~kg/185~lbs I'm no lightweight and in my personal experience I go faster on a heavier aero frame than on a considerably lighter climbing frame. I'm still all about the weight weenie-ism but I'd rather get the lightest possible aero frame I can and use the lightest components on it. The P3 had a mixture of SRAM stuff on it- Rival22 right shifter and RD, Red 10s left shifter and a Force (and then Ultegra 6500 b/c the Force FD was quite shitty) FD with Apex brakes and a 6800 crank. I wanted a change and also saw that Merlin was selling Dura-Ace 9100 shifters for $410, R8000 brakes for $87 (the whole set, both front and rear!!) and front and rear Ultegra derailleurs for less than $150. I was going the weight weenie route when I was rocking the SRAM but the front shifting was really underwhelming plus I was ready for a change and honestly felt like spending some money- what can I say.

Here's a list of weights for the build:
-VB-R-068 frame in 56cm: 1276g
-VB uncut fork: 404.5g
-VB uncut aero seat-post: 192.1
-ICAN 38mm carbon clinchers: 1394g
-Bontrager R3 tires (non tubeless): 415g
-Continental/Bontrager tubes: 170g
-VB Headset: 130g
-BBR60 Shimano threaded BB: 75.6g
-Generic Amazon Ti QR skewers: 42.5g
-EC90 carbon stem (120mm/-7): 131.9g
-Selle carbon saddle clone: 97.5g
-Generic Amazon carbon aero drop bars (40cm): 184.1
-Dura-Ace 9100 shifters: 369.1g
-Ultegra R8000 FD: 90g
-Ultegra RX800 RD: 242g
-Ultegra R8000 brakes (with SwissStop Black Prince pads): 367.4g
-SROAD 11-32 cassette: 219.8g
-Amazon carbon bottle cage: 15.8g
-Ultegra R6800 crank- 53/39 and 172.5mm: 696g (as per Shimano's website- I took the crank off the P3 and didn't remove the pedals and forgot to weight everything)
-Garmin V2 Dual-Sided PM pedals: 358g~ (I didn't feel like taking them off the crank just to weigh them and I don't have the numbers at my apartment- this is based on Google search results)
-The cumulative weight is 7.5kg with bottle cage and pedals

I *think* that's about it. The build was fairly straightforward but I'm not sure I'd suggest it for someone that doesn't have any experience in working on bikes. I did a ton of research before buying/building this so I more or less knew what I was dealing with. 2 miles into my first ride on Saturday the rail clamp shifted a few degrees upwards- guess I hadn't tightened it enough. Annoyingly enough, the wedges that I had initially not tightened enough got stuck in the upward position leaving me pretty uncomfortable for the rest of my 30~ mile ride. The drivetrain shifted nicely and was quite in the stand but was noisy once I got it onto the road but that's not all that uncommon- just need to finish dialing in the indexing and maybe the front mech to get it perfect. About 20 miles into that ride, I realized the saddle must've slipped way down because I felt like I was on a clown bike- from from I've read, this is a super common issue on the open mold bikes that have aero seat-posts. I ended up riding out of the saddle for a lot of those 10 miles (silver lining, I set 20s, 30s and 60s power PRs because of that lol).

I get home and remove the saddle and get a flat-head screwdriver and a soft mallet to knock the wedges out of the seat-post and tightened it a little tighter (12nm instead of 8.5nm). I got a piece of plastic from those bags that linen comes in- for some reason that's the shim of choice for these seat-posts- and I rubbed some carbon paste on a piece and wedged it in the back of the seat-post and tightened to 4nm. I also changed the bar tape- I had originally bought some pink Supacaz knock-off tape and it was AWFUL- without a doubt the worst tape I've ever used. The Marque tape I'd ordered two nights before had come so I used that instead. Oh, and this was a first, I noticed that whenever I turned the bars sharply to the left, the front brake would tighten a little bit, so I had to redo the tape holding the cable- I even cut a new length of housing but it wasn't needed.

I went on a longer 50 mile ride yesterday and it was considerably better- I put on a different saddle just to try it out on this bike and it wasn't nearly as comfortable as I recalled- but aside from that it was a fun and dope ride. Two things to note: the front shifting on the 9100/8000 shifter/FD combo is absolutely phenomenal- like, all I have to do is barely even touch the lever and it'll shift from small to big with the utmost of ease- it's honestly so amazing. Gotta say that I'm still getting used to the trim function on the front shifter- having been using SRAM for the past 2000+ miles and having used 1x for a while before that, sometimes I'll downshift when I mean to trim. The other noteworthy thing is the brakes- I was super hesitant to buy Ultegra brakes that were actually a good bit HEAVIER than my Apex brakes but I kept reading about how good they were and since they were on sale, I pulled the trigger and got them. I'm glad I did, I thought I'd felt good to decent braking before but the Ultegra brakes are something else entirely- the modulation, the precision- I'll gladly take a weight penalty to run brakes like this. I tried indexing the RD a little bit before the ride but it was still a bit noisy- I ended up getting the rear shifting dialed in nicely last night once I got home but it's still being a bit loud for my taste- I'm thinking running a 6800 crank with the SROAD cassette and a current gen Dura-Ace chain might just make for a noisier than usual drivetrain. I'm installing a 36 tooth chainring today so I'll make sure there's no undue noise from the FD/crank area.

Here's a few pics- I can always post more if anyone would like.

[jcr]

Nice build. I was thinking of picking up this frame. Does the cable housing also run internally or does it stop at the entry point?

For the plastic wrap on the seatpost is it just one layer of plastic? Does the seatpost come textured already?

[Jonnan_NOR]

Hello

Glad to hear you like your bike.
I've built one this year as well. And I had no previous experience. Watched a lot of velobuild's videos on youtube that inspired me to build one.
Some things came easy and some took a bit of research. When tightening the headset nothing would turn. Had to buy shims to put under the bottom cap. Didn't know there were supposed to be something there, and none came with the frame/headset.
Also massive problems with seat post. Ended up with some electrical tape around the seat post and making it as tight a fit as possible.

@jcr: The cable housings stop at the entry point. I was thinking of drilling a bigger hole in the inserts and just run the housing thru, but opted for open wires inside the frame.

[jcr]

Thanks. I have bought one and I have just finished building it up. I will post my build up soon.

Yes for the headset I ran into the same issue, needed to build 3 shims, Chris claims it doesn’t need but it was binding very badly if you want to tighten it.

I do not have issues with the seatpost but I have questions about the seat clamp. I am running 7mm seat rails and it does like to clamp it tight. I am trying to figure out if this is for 9mm or 10mm oval rails? Right now I have wrapped my 7mm rails with one layer of electrical tape and it seems to holding tight.

[Jonnan_NOR]

I didn't really like the clamp that came with the frame. I bought another from ebay. I think it was from here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/302721145535
I got for both round rail and 7x10mm oval.

I first mounted a carbon seat from toseek, but later switched to a fizik seat.

[jcr]

So that clamp fits? It said for Specialized but not sure if this this the same size.

[Jonnan_NOR]

Hmm I see from my ebay history I bought two different clamps initially for the 7x10 carbon seat. Specialized and trek/bontrager.
But later I ordered for round rails, and that was this item here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/202604990703
For Trek/Bontrager. And that is the clamp I'm using now with the fizik seat.

[dpitel]

So that clamp fits? It said for Specialized but not sure if this this the same size.

I bought that Specialized clamp because even though Chris said the rail clamp that comes with the bike works for 7x9 rails- he's 100% wrong. My favorite saddle is a Selle SLR full carbon clone and I really wanted to use it on this bike. The Specialized clamp on ebay does NOT fit into the seat-post. The wedges aren't thick enough and as such they go too deep into the seat-post. Really disappointing because Chris was pretty good about everything else except this. I likely still would've bought the bike or at least A bike from him, but being able to use a carbon saddle is pretty fucking important to me. I have a bunch of those Bontrager seat-posts in my workshop at my folks' house, so I'll see if the clamps from them fit in mine. As far as holding the saddle tight, as long as you're using regular 7x7 round rails, it's been fine- I personally have been using 16nm-18nm of torque when tightening them.

[jcr]

I bought that Specialized clamp because even though Chris said the rail clamp that comes with the bike works for 7x9 rails- he's 100% wrong. My favorite saddle is a Selle SLR full carbon clone and I really wanted to use it on this bike. The Specialized clamp on ebay does NOT fit into the seat-post. The wedges aren't thick enough and as such they go too deep into the seat-post. Really disappointing because Chris was pretty good about everything else except this. I likely still would've bought the bike or at least A bike from him, but being able to use a carbon saddle is pretty fucking important to me. I have a bunch of those Bontrager seat-posts in my workshop at my folks' house, so I'll see if the clamps from them fit in mine. As far as holding the saddle tight, as long as you're using regular 7x7 round rails, it's been fine- I personally have been using 16nm-18nm of torque when tightening them.

For me with a 7x7 rail it seems to wobble even when tight. If I put one strip of electrical tape on the rails, problem seems to be solved. Just slightly gap in mine I think.... let me know if you have found other clamps. Chris said it was supposed to work with 7x7 and 7x9... but my one might be more for 7x9 than 7x7 (which seems too smaller).

[igorunya]

Hello! Tell me, are the dropouts of this frame made of carbon or aluminum?

[jcr]

they are aluminum drop outs

[igorunya]

if possible, take a close-up photo of the dropouts!
If you objectively evaluate the 068 frame, what are its disadvantages?

[dpitel]

if possible, take a close-up photo of the dropouts!
If you objectively evaluate the 068 frame, what are its disadvantages?

I'll take pics later, but I'm honestly pretty let down overall. The communication with Chris was horrible- anywhere from a day or two to a week for replies. I'm not sure if he was purposely lying or just terribly misinformed about his products, but he assured me that the saddle rail clamps were compatible with carbon rails. When the frame came, it was about 100 grams heavier than advertised at 1260g for a 56 when it said it would be 1050g. Not the end of the world but it pissed me off a little. In terms of the paint/carbon- the threads for the bottom bracket were covered in primer/paint/carbon or whatever- I had to scrub with acetone and buy a thread chasing tool on Amazon to clean the threads and make them usable- I ruined the threads on a Shimano BBR60 bottom bracket before doing that. So that was strike 2, so to speak. After installing the groupo and doing the first ride, the seat-post slipped all the way into the seat-tube, despite having tightened it to the torque that Chris provided me and using carbon paste. I ended up researching how to get the seat-post to stick in place- on here and other places and was able to get it clamped in place and to keep from slipping. Although, from everything I've read, that was a common issue, still- strike 3. Final issue that pissed me way the fuck off- VeloBuild says that it fits 25c tires, I ran Bontrager R3 and R2 tires and Continental GP5000, as well- all three in 25c and the left non-drive side of the tire kept rubbing on the inside chain stays, even though it appeared to have at least 5mm~ of clearance on either side. So yeah, that pissed me off a lot and it contributed to me feeling it lacked stiffness.

So yeah, that's  my evaluation of this frame and I would NEVER do business with VeloBuild ever again no matter what- the frames are ok at best and the customer service is horrible. I'm not anti all Chinese carbon/open mold frames, I'd consider buying something from one of the more popular ones with a good reputation that's been around for a while like DengFu, ICAN (who I've bought wheels from and they've held up amazingly  for 4K miles and they have terrific customer service) or Winspace.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask- and, I'll try to get pics of the drops, but IIRC, they're carbon.

[igorunya]

thank you for your comprehensive answer!
I'd rather go on my old chesini

[jcr]

Opps the drop outs are carbon but the hanger is aluminum.

My take on it, pre-sale Chris was ok and I guess it was to get the business. After sales like what dpitel has said not so great.

• As mentioned the seat clamp claims to be carbon rail compatible but I don't see how that is possible.
• Paint wasn't as terrible on my experience. There were some over spray especially for the brake caliper mount so you need to ream it out a little.
• Bottom bracket was tight on the non-drive side but I don't think it was due to Velobuild but my BB since I have tried a different one that went in smooth.
• Seat post did not slip, I have used the Park tool assembly grease and the seat post has factory grit paint on it which seems to be working for me.
• Headset was missing the micro shims that goes above the upper bearing which I need to buy (3 in total). Chris claims the new headset does not need it but without it, massive binding in my case

Can't comment about the chain stay flex which seems a little surprising on how thick they are (I am running something different.... 25C wheels with 23C tires to get a flush profile). Almost sounds like wheel is flexing in dpitel case but I cannot confirm if that is the case.