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Re: Velobuild VB-R-218 Hi everyone.
I’m happy to report that I received my replacement frame from VB the other week.
The finish on the inside does actually look considerably cleaner, especially in the headtube area and at  the seat tube clamping area where my first frame broke.
The rear brake exit port on the top tube again is too small despite Chris promising that they’d take care of it. But we’ll, that’s a minor problem to deal with.

I found another surprise in the BB area:
In contrast to my first frame, the BB thread inserts are connected by a sort of carbon bracing. Neither the disc frame I was accidentally sent nor the rim brake frame I got after this had this feature. I asked Chris whether this is a design update but haven’t heard back.

October 18, 2022, 03:09:45 AM 		1
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218 Now as for the frame that broke on me. I actually did a DIY repair that turned out to be pretty successful. I grew pretty tired of waiting as each of these frames takes at least three weeks to get to me so I decided to give it a try.

I attached pics from before and after the repair. I haven’t sanded and painted it yet as I wanted to wait and see if it holds up. What can I say? I’ve ridden around 400k and gave it some pretty hard abuse on well used cobbled roads in my area. And it held up fine. No seatpost slipping. No cracks. Nothing.

I would have never attempted this on more critical parts of the bike like handlebar or headtube. But it’s good to have learnt this skill for the future. I actually repaired a broken carbon bottle cage since. And that works fine, too.

October 18, 2022, 03:20:45 AM 		8
Re: Curious what build weights people are averaging on their bikes? Here’s my heavy duty do-it-all bike.
Custom steel frame - Columbus Life Tubing. Made by Jacek Orlowski who used to build the Polish National team’s track bikes at the Szczecin velodrome.
He also did the custom paint job.
Fork is Carbonda. Handlebar and seatpost are from Aliexpress. (Elita One and OG Evkin).
The wheels I built myself.
Asymmetric Carbon hookless rims built with Sapim CX Rays and Novatec hubs. 32 spokes front and back. Weight: A touch above 1400g.
Groupset is SRAM Rival with TRP Spyres. Sram Red Cranks. Sorry for the pic from the wrong side.

It’s a lovely ride. I use it for gravel, commuting (as pictured) and loaded bikepacking.

Weight as pictured: 9.6kg - not including the rack and bag.
October 21, 2022, 11:27:28 AM 		3
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218

This guy thinks it rides super comfy, for what it’s worth.
Also, GC Performance by his own admission pumps his tires up super hard.

I think it rides as firm as expected for an aero frame. Not as comfy as a traditional round tubed frame anyway. But by no means exceptionally harsh. I use Vittoria Corsa tubulars and Clinchers depending on the wheelset. Measured 28mm wide (25c labelled tires). It did not beat me up any more than my other bikes on longish 100km+ rides.
October 26, 2022, 11:34:50 AM 		3
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
Quote from: kongo on October 27, 2022, 11:44:07 PM

im 6'4" 235 lbs and coming from a endurance frame and i find it really comfortable. its all in your fit. i ride a 32 on the rear with 68 psi and a 28 with 65psi on front i put 420 miles on it since last month. including a road race last sunday.

Loving the white Color on yours. It really works well on this frame. I see the handlebar didn’t work out for you? Just curious because I find them probably the comfiest bars I’ve ever ridden.
October 27, 2022, 11:54:26 PM 		1
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
Quote from: kongo on October 28, 2022, 01:25:17 AM


yea i rounded them out real good. been trying to drill them out for when i find my final height.

Before you take to the drill, I’d try to gently tap in a slightly oversized torx bit with a hammer and see if you can turn it. That has worked for me a few times.
October 28, 2022, 06:38:36 AM 		1
Re: Cyclami TPU tubes - more TPU tube options!
Quote from: kbike on November 01, 2022, 08:36:02 AM
I've had 3 ride now tubes with leaks I can't find and gave up til snowed in day. 
I've had 3 tubes with patches and still use them. They are Not hard to fix with repair kit.

I've had 1 puncture from glass.  2 other tubes were tiny holes I had to find with a bucket of water. I haven't had pinch flats yet.

I just bought these new green tubes. I like to see the threaded stems. Haven't liked the glued on valves to plastic stems from ridenow.  Will see how they handle.  I don't see a patch kit yet. I hope the kit from ridenow will glue to the green tubes if they leak.

In the link that the OP posted, there's also the option to buy the green TPU tubes with a patch kit. I ordered a pair in including patches.
November 01, 2022, 10:03:52 AM 		1
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
Quote from: Serge_K on November 01, 2022, 04:22:26 PM
I am super impressed by your repair. How did you get the two parts to bond together, there must be overlap between the bit you replaced and the frame, right? And how did you get the right shape out of the bit you replaced?

I got the stuff from a local composite shop. I used dry carbon cloth sheets and 2 component ready-to-mix epoxy. I used multidirectional rather than UD sheets. Now dry carbon cloth is rather fragile to handle because you can easily move and shift the fibres in the matrix and applying the epoxy can be a rather messy job. BUT the upside is that it can easily be manipulated into any shape you want.

You need to liberally sand off the affected area to expose any cracks. I’ve read various guides as to how to do this and depending on how high stressed the area is you should reinforce at least three to five times the length of the crack.

I made sure to use material with the same properties as the T700 that the frame is made out of. I checked the spec sheet and the fibres I used have a slightly lower tensile strength but the same e-module/elasticity which means they should flex the same way under load than the original material.

I applied one layer on the inside and two layers on the outside. Now the hard part is compressing the whole thing for it to cure. On the inside, I actually used the seatpost wedge itself wrapped in thin plastic foil to compress the area. On the outside I wrapped everything tightly in plastic and heat it up slightly for it to shrink.

Once it’s completely dry you can peel the foil off.
The inside was rather messy and it took A LOT of sanding and trying until the seatpost and wedge fit correctly. It was actually too tight after the repair. Now the wedge sits flush and fits better than before arguably. On the outside the surface was pretty good to begin with.

The manufacturer recommends that the repaired area be tempered at about 50 degrees Celsius for the epoxy to cure even harder. Now that I could not do. But it still hardened reasonably well.

The final step is smoothing out the edges of the repaired area to create a smooth surface to paint over without any visible overlap. That’s what I haven’t done yet.
I’ve now ridden the frame around 800k with the repair and I’m confident it’ll hold up. Just don’t know yet how exactly I’ll paint it because I won’t be able to match the color. I’ll probably go just with black.

I thought about manipulating the fibres to form the two holes in order for the fibres to not be interrupted and increase strength. I tried it but it shifts the whole matrix around and you don’t want that. So I’m the end I just covered the in- and outside completely and drilled it afterwards.

The whole repair cost me 20EUR / about 20USD. I got a quote from a local composite expert before I tried it and he would have charged me 350 including the paintjob. He would probably have done it a bit cleaner than I was able to. But I’m glad I tried it.

Sorry for the lengthy post!
November 02, 2022, 02:35:22 AM 		4
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
Quote from: kenderu on November 07, 2022, 12:37:55 PM
I'm almost done my build and for some reason I have these leftover... what are they for?

Literally my first time building a bike, but it's been a really fun journey.

Not entirely sure but I think those are some sort of adapters to accommodate different diameter batteries for electronic groupsets. Anyway, it’s nothing you need for a mechanical build. So don’t worry.
November 07, 2022, 02:40:01 PM 		1
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
Quote from: madmax on November 10, 2022, 12:30:48 AM
Does anyone have a link to a manual or diagram on this frame that shows how the cable hose routing is laid out in the frame ?

There is none that I would be aware of.

Do I need the cable routing kit from parktool or can I just get away using fishing line and dumb luck

You don't need one IMO. It's pretty easy to route cables on this frame. Also, the big bottom bracket cover makes it easier. You can route the cables to the BB and then continue from there.

Also are the cable houses clamped anywhere in the frame to prevent rattling ?

As with most of these frames, there's a hole on either end of the frame and that's it. The rest you got to figure out yourself. Most people use full length housing and wrap it into some sort of foam. There's a housing damper kit by Jagwire. That's what I used.

I have no idea when the frame or wheel will show up so I’m asking all the questions I can think of ahead of time and getting everything ready for my first build
November 10, 2022, 05:30:48 AM 		1