Let's make the slickest bike on the planet

[00Garza]

This is sooooo stupid. I love it! 

I know there used to be a brand making transparent/clear handle bar tape. Not sure if they are still around. Might be a consideration to up the "cringe"-factor even more 

Yikes. Do it! lol

[debaser]

This is sooooo stupid. I love it! 

I know there used to be a brand making transparent/clear handle bar tape. Not sure if they are still around. Might be a consideration to up the "cringe"-factor even more 

I have to admit i love this idea.

Nothing shows up on AliEx of the sort, but this shows up on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/197201475613

Unfortunately, this listing will not ship to Norway. If someone is willing to buy it and ship it to me (i will of course cover all cost and pay you a service charge) please PM me or something.

Obviously, if someone knows a place that sells/ships it, let me know too.

I am thinking that all the overlapping oil slicks might give a little bit of a nauseating feel, so a transparent bar tape solution lets both the expensive handlebars shine and eases the eyes of the rider at least a little. Or not? I'll give it a coin flip chance that it will look really weird and/or bad, or absolutely stunning.

[SillyMochi]

I think it was Deda who used to make a transparent version. Seems like they discontinued it. Probably too low demand. If you do not wrap it super nicely, it will look like shit 

Did not find much online either. Only this seller in Taiwan but the min. order size is 500
http://www.counion.com.tw/Clear-Handlebar-Tape-CB-0108PUH-pd6827384.html

[debaser]

I think it was Deda who used to make a transparent version. Seems like they discontinued it. Probably too low demand. If you do not wrap it super nicely, it will look like shit 

Did not find much online either. Only this seller in Taiwan but the min. order size is 500
http://www.counion.com.tw/Clear-Handlebar-Tape-CB-0108PUH-pd6827384.html

I wrap new bartape like twice a month on average and would hope i have the technique down well enough to not make it look entirely crap... But every tape is different and things always turn out a little wonky, don't they? And looking at that stuff, it's kinda hard to tell if it will look good or just make the nice metal handlebar look dull and...cobwebby?

I'll keep a look out for that Amadeus stuff, maybe i can find a compatible/shippable listing somewhere. I see that that ebay listing at least has been offered by several different accounts, so it might not be that much of a holy grail and at $8 it's not expensive at all.

Quite giddy about this now, i must admit haha!

[debaser]

Holy crap turns out it was only my default browser setting messing with my shipping options... The seller of the Amadeus tape is located in Italy, and will in fact ship it my way, haha!

Two pairs of transparent tape are now ordered. And yeah, the shipping was still more expensive than two packs, but whatever. If you're not interested in spending money on stupid stuff then you should not be interested in building bikes

[debaser]

So another big order went in at the tail end of the last mini-sale here, for all the tiny bits & bobs that are available in oilslick color. Lots of Risk stuff, lots of titanium, lots of useless little pieces i had from before.

This should at least also help stock up my big box of spare parts with some pristine screws and other junk. Which i likely won't ever use, like when is the last time you stripped a brifter fixing screw?

Also, as some other build projects have come around i ended up with a GRX 1x11 gruppo to spare, so that's what is going to go on this bike. I have milled back and forth for a long time about some details here. Lot of considerations to write out here, but the short part of it is i will lose out on the opportunity to get 3-4 additional screws or small parts oil slicked by making this choice (as opposed to jerry rigging a 1x12 Deore shifter and XT 8k MTB calipers), but all in all it saves me some trouble and a bit of money for very small gains. The overall impression will still be banging, and every part of the groupset will have oil slick parts on it.

There's a lot of green in the Spreadsheet now: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rijnv8PMk7xFtnipKxQlh5-QqzKrYwkKbFE4DLIcKU4/edit?usp=sharing

Just a few small pieces to go apart from the last hurdle: The wheels. Upcoming sale is gonna help settle that part of the bike, finally.

[maza]

Just a few small pieces to go apart from the last hurdle: The wheels. Upcoming sale is gonna help settle that part of the bike, finally.

You could order the wheelset custom painted from one of the popular suppliers here. Maybe use same or different chameleon paint to contrast them from the frame? Anything can be done. Just depends on how many krone you want to spend!

[SillyMochi]

Mate, hate to break it to you, but I think "Dragon Bikes" beat you to it ...

They don't have the transparent bar tape though!

Source:

Code: [Select]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvUlH2JOUm8&t=1048s

[debaser]

You could order the wheelset custom painted from one of the popular suppliers here. Maybe use same or different chameleon paint to contrast them from the frame? Anything can be done. Just depends on how many krone you want to spend!

That's the thing! The hubs and spokes and nipples come in really cheap, it's only the rims that are causing me a headache. I'll be building them myself and am generally doing this build for "cheap", but i have lurked around and seen these suppliers have a good rep on here, so will surely consider that on the next iteration of this build or whenever the need for a new, proper wheelset arrives. In the meantime, there are just a few too many wheelsets lying around in the workshop that need to get put on bikes and sold

[debaser]

Mate, hate to break it to you, but I think "Dragon Bikes" beat you to it ...

They don't have the transparent bar tape though!

Source:

Code: [Select]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvUlH2JOUm8&t=1048s

Well well well! Someone out there is reading this thread, haha!

Not miffed about this at all of course, i'm not expecting this build to be a first-ever invention for sure. That thing looks brilliant though.

For a while i considered a bespoke seatpost/frame set but i tend to dislike non-standard parts like that and opted for the standard seatpost solution, mainly because aluminium oil slicked parts have to look better than the painted carbon counterparts.

For this build, we will be looking at a bit of a different (and certainly way jankier) feel, and, dare i say it - MORE slick parts than pictured! Chain, cassette, spacers and screws, details on the gruppo, hubs and spokes!

That Dragon bike has one thing which i really would want though. Them rims!

[SillyMochi]

Yeah, I agree. Thought you might like it and could use it as inspiration - or, even better, would kindle some rivalry and drive you to even crazier efforts

[debaser]

Time to pull the trigger on the wheels, very soon - as soon as we can land the rims.

So once more, we have seen how the chiner industry seems to think mountainbikers prefer silly colors and all that. Oil slick hubs are only available with 15x100 in the front, so we have to run an adapter. Searching for road bike rims (700c, 28 inch) yields no useful results, but hey! 29 inch rims and 650B wheels are in fact out there!

Just look at this! Listing here: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005008427929719.html



Now i'm gonna avoid 650B wheels if i can, this is QR trash and as you can see the rims are non-oilslicked so the search continues. Is it possible to find this rim alone? I will try to send a message to the seller but as we all know that surely won't help. Maybe ask Meroca directly? Any tips you guys?

The closest possible result i have found so far would be this, listing here: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006853466738.html



It's even given as a road bike rim! Problem is it seems to be listed with 24 holes, which the existing offering of hubs doesn't comply with. So it seems we are locked into this MTB problem. The frontrunner then ends up being these, listing here: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005008571530066.html



The problem is they're just not it, are they? They're also heavy and simply built (joined, not double walled it seems) and really, a pink or purple rim would kinda mess with the rest of the colour setup.

Still no luck finding a proper white rim. I still think that's where we have to end up going. Sigh...

[Lotnik]

Wheels are easy. Any supplier such as TanTan or Lightcarbon will paint your rims any color you want.
White wheels from LC:
https://www.lightcarbon.com/lightcarbon-non-paint-road-disc-wheels-super-light-full-carbon-spoke-wheels-anti-scratch_p249.html

[debaser]

Wheels are easy. Any supplier such as TanTan or Lightcarbon will paint your rims any color you want.
White wheels from LC:
https://www.lightcarbon.com/lightcarbon-non-paint-road-disc-wheels-super-light-full-carbon-spoke-wheels-anti-scratch_p249.html

Cheers, thank you!

I have been in touch with several manufacturers and different sellers on AliEx these last days, and it seems my biggest problem simply is these stupid MTB-specific hubs. There is little will to cooperate between decent-looking carbon rims and MTB standards, and anything close to what i would want (even white or something like the picture below) with 28 or 32 holes would force me to put in an order for at least a 1000....!



So, we have to find a way to make this work. Luckily, i found someone who did more or less that, with some Bitex hubs. Appearantly a dude in the US has these ordered in bulk and in funny colors, so when i found this here listing (https://www.bikehubstore.com/product-p/bx106fr-os.htm) and found out i could get the set of them home here for around $300 i figured, you know, whatever. It costs like 5-6 times as much as the stupid Tanke/Koozer MTB hubs but at least i'll get to build some proper road wheels, and finally maybe persuade someone over there to sell me some of those rims like that Dragon Bike thing earlier in this thread had.

[debaser]

OK, ok! The frame has arrived!

Picked it up this morning and only had two hours to spare, but that was at least enough to put it together and check the quality, no weird layup, no crooked BB threads, and so on. So i went and slapped together a few of the parts i have so far (by the way, the Hong Kong Weapon handlebars and transparent tape are here too!) just to try the fit.

And, well...


Please don't laugh

But seriously...Bwahahahaha! 

The frame is excellent, on first sight. Not the lightest in the world, but seems solid and straight, everything that should be straight is straight. The hellscape that is modern internal cable routing is easy to combine with the components of choice. I am still waiting on white shift and hydraulic lines before i start to mess about with mounting the rest, but... well. Is this even the right color?

Sure it's "chameleony" and in the light it reflects some sparkles and all, but otherwise, looking at it in the shop it's just like in this picture - a mottled, dark almost military green sort of colour. This at least gives me a clearer understanding of what the difference is between the carbon and aluminium. And what metal really does for the color. Like look at those components pop!

Big question now though. Do we build it up like this and go with it, or do we try with a different frame, or another custom paint?
Would love to hear opinions on that!

This frame is by no means a wash, i can build it up and sell it at a profit but damn i just wish i could find an aluminium frame in oil slick...