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Messages - Sebastian

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1
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: May 13, 2024, 11:45:10 PM »
A total noob question: What kind of software are you using to design stuff like this? Some sort of CAD-software? Is it free/open source? I’d be interested to design a storage box to mount inbetween the water bottles in the frame triangle on my TT-X38.


2
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: May 11, 2024, 12:30:49 AM »
Since this thread is back from the dead, I thought I might as well give an update. More than 8000k done. No issues. Still the first headset with no signs of wear which is a pleasant surprise.  I wasn’t too confident in those bearings. This is the bike with the race wheels on: 60mm deep/1300g with 28mm tubulars. These feel soo nice when accelerating and the cornering feel is insane. I’m still in love with the handling of this frame and the super quick steering response.

3
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: May 10, 2024, 05:46:29 AM »
But I will definitely try to tighten the top cap before clamping the stem although I guess it doesn't really matter.

Just to clarify: Of course it makes a difference. Tightening down the top cap does nothing if you’ve already clamped your stem to the steerer. The top cap/expander assembly is there to press the stem down whilst pulling the fork up and therefore put preload on the upper and lower headset bearing. If the stem can’t move cuz it’s clamped to the steerer, you won’t get any preload on the headset. And sure, if you then go on and tighten down the top cap more and more, it might even break. Though in almost twenty years of biking I have never managed to kill a top cap like that. You might have had particularly bad quality ones.

4
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: May 10, 2024, 12:43:33 AM »
You probably have spare split spacers lying around, right? Use one the to stack your stem a tad higher and tighten everything down and see if the play is gone. If yes, then your fork steerer still is a tad too long. If not, then something else is going on.

5
I'm on the opposite spectrum of ER9/X users on here, because my ER9 has been working great.

Well, you haven't had it for that long so too early to tell, I'd say.
Mine's also working fine still all the way through a very wet winter here. I'm past 3000k/1800miles now. I too am cautiously optimistic that I might have a well working unit. But so thought SergeK, until they all broke down on him.

6
I'm based in Germany. I used cells from German company (reseller?) PATONA. They do all kinds of batteries including big ones for e-scooters and e-bikes. They were slightly more expensive - something like double the price of the cheap stuff on Amazon. But they're working reliably. I guess you really shouldn't save money on the battery.

7
My RD's serial number starts with 250123 as well. Bought in Sept 23.
No issues yet apart from one ride with intermittent shifting due to humidity in the plug. Without issues since I weatherproofed the connection.
I've done roughly 3000km and 16.000 shifts with it. Fingers crossed.

I did shy away from using the bike in a race recently due to the number of reports here. I didn't want to be stranded on the side of the road with non working derailleurs, so I used my mechanical bike. But I've done 6+ hour long gran fondos with this and used the battery with as little as around 25% of its capacity. It kept working. I also regularly ride cobbled and dirt roads on my rides and the vibrations have not been a problem so far.

8
They are all same. I bought different brands and noticed that the lockring on which brand name is printed comes in its own little pouch sticky-taped to main cassette body. One manufacturer is producing those cassettes and ZTTO, Wuzei, Goldix, Sunshine just add brand lockrings on top and make it theirs. Those mid range lightweight cassettes are really good. I am yet to try scary light cassettes like Riro branded.

Naah, Thanks. 250g for a 11-34 12sp cassette is light enough for me. I’ll steer clear of steel/aluminium cassettes from Ali for the time being.

9
the lower pulley has a narrow / wide teeth config, so you have to feed the chain correctly. i guess it helps with shifting quality?

+1 on that
Mine has the pulley with the narrow/wide teeth in the lower position.
I swapped my cheap aluminium/steel hybrid cassette for a ZTTO lightweight one piece steel cassette. It has absolutely transformed the shifting and it‘s now WAAAY better, quicker, quieter and smoother. Only confirms my assumption that these cheap cassettes are not worth it. (Mine was the Goldix one but they’re all the same I think). But even more so, I’m only realising now how much this has hampered my er9 groupset. It’s soo much better now. Amazing.

10
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: April 13, 2024, 04:34:38 AM »
Good outcome!
I guess the morale of the story is, stay away from non standard features. A round seat post is best. A D-shaped seatpost with a "standard" clamp, we've seen on dozen of bikes. But the clamping system on this one just doesn't make sense.

They chose this clamping arrangement because the top tube/seat tube junction is simply not wide enough to put a clamping wedge in there, I think. At least not one of the wedges you typically find on other frames. And I don't think the seatpost clamping expander is inherently a bad design. It actually works quite well and it spreads the load on the seatpost on a reasonably big area. But obviously you have to build the frame durable enough to withstand the load. And also, the 218 is so narrow at the seatpost/seattube that it flexes from side to side. It doesn't bother me and it is something that reviewers have also lamented about the actual Dogma F. And I think this might put additional stress on this area.

11
If anyone knows of an OSPW option that fits er9/erx, then I'd be interested as well. I'm happy to admit that for me it's mainly for the sake of vanity.  :P More adjustability in spring tension is a welcomed side effect, however.

12
So far I'm quite pleased with my ER9 groupset. I've been riding it back-to-back with my mechanical Ultegra bike and they're both good in their own ways. In my opinion, it's similar to driving an auto assist car versus a manual transmission. I find installing the ER9 easier than mechanical, but it's faster to tune mechanical once installed. Though I wish there were RD cage options with the ER9/X. The one thing I like with the OSPW Ceramic Speed knock-off I'm using on the Ultegra bike is the 4 levels of spring tension. For someone like me who climbs and descend rough California fire roads the added tension keeps the chain from bouncing without having to use a clutch RD. LTwoo's looser cage tension and smaller spring are a bit bouncy on rougher roads.

Really? My er9 RD has the highest spring tension I ever had on a 2x derailleur without a clutch mechanism. I get virtually no chain slap from it but the FD has to work quite a bit to make the front shift smoothly as a result. I wonder if it's different to yours. My Campy Record 12sp RD is a lot looser in comparison and I do get more chain slap on it.

13
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: April 09, 2024, 01:19:48 AM »
That's kind of an irony considering you already got the disc version first instead by their mistake and now you can't build a disc version because the only left are too small for you. :D

Yeah, that's alright with me I guess. The idea was to build this up as an homage to one of the last great rim brake bikes without braking the bank. And I'm happy that I did it. It's still the fastest bike I got, despite having built up an aero disc bike in the meantime.

14
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: April 08, 2024, 02:31:51 PM »
The frame is on closeout sale. You can only order leftover stock. The disc frames are only available in size S. I know, because I asked. I like my rim brake 218 so much that I thought about building a disc version as well. My first rim brake frame cracked as well. I repaired it. It was an easy fix with a bit of carbon cloth and resin. But I still built up my replacement frame and retired the first one. It's now hanging on the wall. The replacement frame is fine after more than 6.500 km. I used 4nm on the grub screws. Also, I use a bit of textile tape on the seatpost usually to make it less slippery.

15
Keep in mind that the gear protection feature will not entirely block the big/big or small/small combo. If you are on either end of the cassette and click the FD shifter buttons it will still make the shift despite gear protection. So you should at least have it set up so your chain won’t get too slack or is not too short, otherwise you might damage your RD.

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