Chinertown
Chinese Carbon Road Bikes => Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components => Topic started by: Klaster_1 on November 04, 2016, 05:02:27 AM
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Crossposting from WW, I figured this info might be of use here too.
First time (well, almost) poster here, took awhile before I've gathered enough courage to post one of my bikes here. It'a Hongfu FM-079, the build was started in 2014. Back then I didn't have any prior experience with road bikes and wanted something more suitable for pavement than an 26" XC hardtail. During June 2014 - March 2015 I've picked, bought and built everything together. Initially, the budget was about 2500USD+ with the following requirements:
- Road specific carbon fibre disc frame. After some search, I've picked FM79. Not like there were much other options.
- Shimano 11 speed hydraulic groupset. I wanted something modern and didn't might to become an early adopter. Compatibility with tools and MTB parts already owned played a big role too. Hydraulic shifter options were limited at the day to RS-785 and ST-RS685. Since ST-RS505 wasn't out yet and DI2 was out of budget, 785 became an only option with 5800 filling the rest.
- Tubeless compatible clinchers, but not XC-tier shallow. Light-Bicycle laced to Novatec 711/712 proved to be a good choice, albeit on a heavy side.
Due to points above and general lack of expeience, the first version of build came to be about 8.1kg. Summer 2015 helped me to understand where to and how the bike might progress towards. I also got more disposable income to spend.
During 2016, I've progressively swapped most of easy gain parts to their lightweight counterparts.
Build list as of today:
Component Type Component Weight (Grams) Note
Frame Hongfu FM-079 1040 Claimed weight, 56cm
Fork Hongfu HF-FK166 415 Steerer cut, with crown race; 22.3mm internal diameter
Fork hose clamp Hongfu 3 Two phillips screws and U-clamp
Headset bearings Neco 50 educated guess
Headset cap Neco 11 5mm
Steerer spacer Hongfu 5 1cm
Top cap MT ZOOM 3 Works with sunken expander only
Top cap bolt MT ZOOM 2
Bars Hylix Ergonova 186 44cm, uncut
Stem Kalloy Uno 7 94 11cm, paint stripped
Stem bolts J&L 12 ti, black
Expander plug J&L 12 Tuned, new brass bottom with longer shaft (+5g)
Bar tape Velo Gel Wrap 64 cut
Seatpost (bare) Hongfu 105 Cut off 80mm and 23g; 141 total
Seatpost cradle Hongfu 15
Seatpost bolt 3 ti
Seatpost bolt 4 ti
Seatpost yokes J&L 14 M5, 7075
Seatpost clamp MT ZOOM 10 34.9mm shimmed down to 32.3mm
Saddle Saevid Alien 78
Bar end plugs SRAM 4 educated guess
Crankarms Zipp Vumaquad 442 172.5; with rings; decals sanded down
Chainring big Fibre-Lyte 50
Chainring small Fibre-Lyte 34
Chainring bolts Zipp
Bottom bracket Zipp 72 ceramic bearings
Front deraileur Shimano FD-9000 65 stock
Rear deraileur Shimano RD-9000 161 stock
Shifters Shimano ST-RS785 648
Cassette+lockring Shimano CS-5800 277 11-28
Chain Shimano HG600 246 cut down from 266
Pedals Xpedo R-Force Ti 166
Brake calipers Shimano BR-RS685 218 109 per set
Brake pads+spring 42 21 per set
Brake olives+barbs 14 7 per set
Shifting cables 38 uncut
Hydraulic hoses Shimano 52 2700mm
Rims Light-Bicycle 870 35mm U hookless, 2 total
Front hub Novatec D711SB 139 408
Rear hub Novatec D712SB 269
Skewers J&L 30 Bolt on
Spokes+nipples Pillar PSR X-TRA1420 280 56 total; 4 spares weight 20g
Front tire Schwalbe One Tubeless 370 25mm, used & with sealant stuck
Rear tire Schwalbe Pro One 240 25mm, new
Tire sealant Stan's NoTubes 50 40ml per wheel
Bottle cage TUNE Wasserträger 2.0 9 750ml bottle
Bottle cage bolts TUNE Wasserträger 2.0 2
Rim tape Stan's Yellow Tape 12 6 per wheel
Valve stems Gredes 20 60mm, 10 per set
Front rotor KCNC Razor 61 140mm
Rear rotor KCNC Razor 62 140mm
Rotor bolts J&L 15 ti
Computer sensor Cateye Strada Slim 13
Computer head unit+clamp Cateye Strada Slim 16
Caliper bolts J&L 12 ti
Total 7041
Unfortunately, I didn't weight the frame, headset and housings, so those are listed with claimed values or a rough estimate. To my surprise, scales show exactly 7.00kg, a respectable disc bike weight in my book.
Since the winter is at door, the bike's going to serve as wall decoration until April. I plan to drop the weight down to about 6.8kg mark with these:
- Schwalbe Pro One in the front, about 70g less than One Tubeless. Already own it.
- XG-1190, still not sure if 11-26 or 11-28, -100-110g.
- PC Red-22 chain, -10-15g.
- Minor derailleurs tuning. J&L inner cage, carbon pulleys, nylon limit bolts and FD clamp bolt will save about 10g.
- Bar tape, current one is way too porky, but it was the only thing I could source locally fast. I'd be glad to drop 10g here.
Obviously, there are more substantial gains, but prices skyrocket fast.
- Frameset. 250g+ saving can't be made with open mold products of today. Big brands will cost at least 1500USD. New frame also requires thru axle hubs and flat mount calipers.
- ST-R9120 shifters are 150g lighter, but cost about 1000EUR at the moment. Not an option unless price drops at least twice, which isn't going to happen until used units become readily available in several years. Works only with FD-9100 too, so add a new derailleur cost.
- Wheels. Tons of options here. I'd replace Novatecs with Cyber hubs SPD-2 for ~200g saving, but those are not available in 28 holes. All open mold rims weight about the same and I'm not going shallower. 77 Compistes go for 1000EUR apiece, way out of budget. And as a casual rider I'm very hesitant of tubulars. Potentially, there's about 500g to save with top of the line clinchers for 2800EUR.
- Seat/seatpost combo. At least 100g to lose here for a reasonable 400EUR. Still, I will have to be 100% sure about fitting, which I'm not.
- Marginal 10-30g savings everywhere for hunders of EUR. Worth a shot if it's the cheapest option to reach 6.8kg.
All in all, I think 6.0kg is possible, but would cost 4000EUR or more and I'm not willing to go down that road.
Oh, and I don't race or go for really long rides, but riding experience has been great so far. There were some annoying moments, though:
- FM079 has clearance issue with FD-9000 design. The smaller small chainring becomes, the more evident it is. Making 34 shift acceptably was harder than 36, but then again, I don't do that often. Other people already wrote about this several times.
- Overbuilt fork. The steerer tube has quite small internal diameter, I had to heavily modify J&L UltraStar 2 clone so it would fit in.
- Seat tube diameters are off. I suspect that inner diameter is less than it should have been, since stock seatpost measures 27.0mm and fits just great. Outside diameter is 32.3mm, which limits clamp design. Stock clamp with rotating nut works fine, but is way heavy at 25g. MTZOOM 31.8 collar, on the other hand, didn't allow to screw the bolt in due to messed up angle. I had to use 34.9 collar and a shim.
- Frontmost seatpost yokes had to be cut at angle a bit due to interference with Saevid Alien bottom edge.
- New frame had defects missed by quality control. One of the post mount holes wasn't completely threaded, so I had to ask friend with tools to help. The other issue was with one of bolt holes in seatpost head, I had to sand a drop of resin inside one bolt hole in order to put it in.
Looking back, I'd advice against purchase of FM079 or it's updated version. There are products that offer both lesser weight, flat caliper mounts, 12mm through axle support and no front derailleur clearence issues.
(http://i.imgur.com/CIif8DGg.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/CIif8DG.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/nOvz5GHg.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/nOvz5GH.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/AMAqw4Ug.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/AMAqw4U.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/iG2Kmd1g.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/iG2Kmd1.jpg)
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Awesome! Great looking bike! May I ask why you decided on hydraulic vs mechanical disc? From what I've heard, the new TRP Spyres are pretty good.
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May I ask why you decided on hydraulic vs mechanical disc? From what I've heard, the new TRP Spyres are pretty good.
Sure, Spyre or Juin would be good as well, but I wanted something I had expeience with, since my MTB has BR-M615. Tools and spares I already own played a part too.
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What alternative disc road frames would you recommend?