Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Sebastian

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 32
1
Conti’s premium tires are made in Germany. The GP5000 specifically says so on the tire I believe. The lower tier tires are from Asia. Vittoria used to be made in Italy but now they’re all from Thailand. Schwalbes are made in Asia as well I believe. Not sure about their top ranking tires. I’m not saying this is a bad thing in terms of quality. For me it’s rather about supporting my local economy, wages and working conditions and maybe for the stuff to have a slightly smaller carbon footprint.

2

 Ya, I been looking at all the bike pics seems everyone is doing either the corsa or the Continental Grand Prix 5000

And for good reason, I might add. If you're looking for max bang for the buck, I found that Schwalbe's Ones (a tad more durable) and Pro Ones (super fast but fragile) are often cheaper than Conti and Vittoria and are still on par with the best. Pricing might depend on your country and distributor, though. Same goes for the Tufo Calibra Plus. That's one hell of a fast and light tire, but a bit fragile. I'm based in Germany, so German tire brands are cheap here and so is Tufo, being a Czech brand (which is actually made in Czech Republic in contrast to all the others who are actually producing in the Far East).

3
Im at around 22.000 shifts. Another ride in torrential rain the other day. Still fine. Battery life is very good. I’m on my 4th charge IIRC.

4
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: May 29, 2024, 10:37:40 AM »
BTW what tire set up is everyone using?

Vittoria Corsa all the way. Except for my tubular wheels. I’m using Tufo tubs in 28mm. They can be used with sealant and plugged like tubeless tires. So they’re very convenient. And despite Tufo having a bad rep for slow and harsh tires, I found that that’s a myth of the past when people were riding 21mm tubs at 140psi (if it ever was true). If you use them at sensible pressures they’re actually quite supple and not really any slower than my Cotton Corsas. Plus Tufo’s gravel tubeless tires are hands down the best I’ve ever used. In a sensible price range at least.

5
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: May 29, 2024, 10:31:52 AM »
Aliexpress is still full of Dogma F and Grevil clones, though. It seems there’s a particularly high quantity of Pinarello clones from many different sources. I often wonder why? Is it just desirability and that they’re selling well? Or does Pinarello maybe not pay the necessary license fees for exclusivity or chooses to have that license expire at some point and the factory sells off the molds to third parties? Because it seems that everyone and their mother in China has a mold lying around for the Dogma F12 and the Dogma F.  ???

6
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« on: May 28, 2024, 06:10:44 PM »
Yes. They're only selling off leftover stock. No explanation as to why.

7
I’ve bult wheels with CX Rays, Wing 20s/Pillar 1420s and CN494 spokes. I couldn’t really tell much of a difference with any of them neither when building nor when riding. Maybe I’m not the most sensitive person in that regard. The quality of the threads was maybe slightly less refined on the CN spokes. They cost half as much as CX Rays so that’s to be expected, I guess. The Pillars have a slightly longer round section before they’re bladed IIRC. But no big difference at all. These days I’d probably build with whatever’s readily available in the desired length.

8
I would honestly just expect no quality control whatsoever from velobuild.

Most if not all my Chiner (frame) parts had QC stickers on them somewhere. Whether that means that somebody actually checks tolerances or whether there's just some bloke applying them to make customers feel good - I don't know.
Anyway, I've not dealt with Velobuild in the early days - only started buying from them in 2022. But ever since then I have followed the VB threads here closely and they dealt reliably with all warranty claims from what I can tell - even if it takes a while sometimes. And since they do seem to respect their warranty and ship out replacement frames and parts, you would think that they're making some kind of effort at least to not have to deal with overly many of these issues.
Also, Chris told me that all their parts undergo testing according to the ISO 4210 testing protocol. However, providing documentation of ISO 4210 fatigue tests is obligatory if you wanna sell bike parts in most countries, AFAIK. No matter how cheap the stuff is. So that is not really a distinguishing factor.

But on the flipside, you will find plenty of horror stories of bad QC from the big brand's frames. This is the internet. People are very vocal here when they have issues. And very rarely are they screaming about it when stuff just works. Though this forum seems pretty balanced most of the time. :)


9
You're welcome. Happened to me, too. And to several others. You'll definitely remember it next time ;)

10
Damn bleeding these brakes is a mess. Front brake failed to bleed multiple times.
Saw a 105 di2 group cheap around me and bought it. With all the fails, I'm gonna sell it and be safe :s


Did you back off the tiny reach adjust screws in the brake levers when bleeding? They can push the master cilynder enough to block the oil flow when bleeding otherwise. You will still be able to push the oil through but with a lot of resistance and you won’t be able to get all the air out.

11
Well, I’ve followed the VB-R 218 thread closely and while there’s been a fair number of qc issues, at least VB handled every single one of them fairly. They readily shipped out replacement frames. But of course that doesn’t necessarily speak for good qc.

12
Hey guys how do you check pm with your indoor trainer, U use Erg for that? When I put my bike on my wahoo kicker in ERG training mode the magene pm shows around 10-15 watts less then kickr - so I need to put power slope in magene app at 105%. When I use it in normal mode then difference is not that big and power slope is around 102%. This is my first power meter and it is strange to me as all the reviews online say that pes p505 pm crankset is spot on. Any ideas what should I do? I did 5 spin backwards before measuring ofcourse.

Spot on compared to what?
You will always get somewhat different readings with different powermeters. You should decide what your baseline powermeter should be and then adjust your other device's power slopes accordingly. That's what I did. My Magene P505 reads less than my Favero Assiomas. I trust the Assiomas more so I adjustet my Magene to match them. My Elite Suito trainer is way off anyway. Since both my road bikes have power meters I don't even bother with the power readings that my trainer delivers.

13
Maintenance, Mechanics, & Tools / Re: Lower headset gap?
« on: May 19, 2024, 01:55:58 AM »
There are 2 different headset bearing designs. One with 45 degree angle and the other being 36 degree angle/chamber.   One really doesn't want to mix and match the different angle bearing to different fork/centering rings.   With the above stated as one possible problem,  gaps are common even when the fork/centering ring and the bearing have the same angles.
(Tolerance stack up.)  Different bearing manufacturers can machine in larger or smaller OD chambers that cause the bearing to sit higher of lower on the fork/centering ring.  The same machining tolerances can happen with the centering ring.   

Almost all of my recent bike builds have a 1-2mm gap.

+1
Looks like your crown race clearly doesn't match the bearings inner race. Therefore the bearing sits on top of the crown race. Get another bearing or an entire lower headset. I can wholeheartedly recommend the CaneCreek 10 series enty level headsets. On the cheap side and still very good and durable.

14
has anyone ever tried these quick connectors for hydro lines? I've been eyeing these when building my bike up but ended up not using them.
But they could be a good solution. My bike has the hydro lines showing under the stem. You could put the quick connectors there and just detach the bars.

15
Yeah. I wonder how high the failure rate with first gen er9 actually is. I guess we’ll never know for sure. Mine’s still fine as well. Did a 2h rainy ride today. Cleaned the bike with a pressure washer after, intentionally blasting on the derailleurs. Works fine.

But I got to admit: If it fails, I’m probably gonna bite the bullet and get 105Di2 or Sram Rival AXS instead.

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 32