3. I already have a SRAM Force D2 Powermeter (left crank). Are there any budget-friendly crankset options? I’m planning to use a 52/36T chainring but I’m not too familiar with SRAM compatibility. Would this one from AliExpress fit and be compatible with the Powermeter? Aliepress = https://tinyurl.com/3tuj9wuf
If you want the stem to flush with the top tube, VB-TT-023 is the one to check out.
If you want the aero fairing cover in front of steerer tube n made the section look super deep, tt912 is the one you wanna look at.
imo for tt/tri bike, dont look for cheapest, but look for the one that gonna make you feel like riding rocket ship.
my tt912 still gets the looks n head turner these days (also probably coz it doesnt have logo, so ppl were trying to guess what is it ;D )
Hey Team-ChinerTown,
You guys inspired me to build my own TT bike! I’ve already found some posts about builds here in the forum and just signed up to start my own thread. I’m just starting to look for parts and haven’t ordered the frame yet. I’m planning to go with a SRAM Blips setup and have already bought a Force AXS rear and front derailleur. I also got a SRAM Force D2 Powermeter (left crank)—but that’s all so far.
I’ve checked out different frames and looked into brands like Winow Sports, Tantan, ICAN, Velobuild, Falco, BXT, LightCarbon, and Mira. I’m still waiting for some replies, but I’ve already received a few offers. My goal is to find the cheapest frame with the best value for money. I like the VeloBuild VB-TT-023, but so far, the BXT-TT-119 for $860 seems to be the most affordable option. I plan to order the frame and wheelset next week.
Right now, I have some questions for you guys:
1. Did I miss any frames that might be better/cheaper?
a. Are there any upcoming sales or possible discounts I should watch out for?
2. I’m considering mechanical disc brakes to save costs compared to hydraulic. Are there specific levers for mechanical disc brakes, or anything I should be aware of?
3. I already have a SRAM Force D2 Powermeter (left crank). Are there any budget-friendly crankset options? I’m planning to use a 52/36T chainring but I’m not too familiar with SRAM compatibility. Would this one from AliExpress fit and be compatible with the Powermeter? Aliepress = https://tinyurl.com/3tuj9wuf
4. Aero bar extensions, the standard ones are good enough or should I go with ergonomic/aero ones?
5. Do you have any other advise for me?
I will update the list with parts from my build as soon as I ordered some stuff.
Would be amazing if you can give me some feedback regarding my questions or in general.
Thank you for your help!
I am thinking of the same in the future
I would try these- https://www.riderever.com/product/5/17/28
paired with Sram rival axs and blips.
still on fence about frame as i try and do UCI nationals and gran fondo TTs - unless i can get one that is very close to original and slap a UCI sticker on it!
I am thinking of the same in the future
I would try these- https://www.riderever.com/product/5/17/28
paired with Sram rival axs and blips.
still on fence about frame as i try and do UCI nationals and gran fondo TTs - unless i can get one that is very close to original and slap a UCI sticker on it!
yeoleo T9 looks exactly the same as tt912.
while few yeoleo aero bikes are uci legal, but i cant quite find if tt912 are tt legal
I am thinking of the same in the future
I would try these- https://www.riderever.com/product/5/17/28
paired with Sram rival axs and blips.
still on fence about frame as i try and do UCI nationals and gran fondo TTs - unless i can get one that is very close to original and slap a UCI sticker on it!
Havent checked out the yeoleo t9. On the yeoleo website they have no TT frames available at the moment.
I’m running these RideRever hydraulics on my Velobuild VB-TT. They’re good, haven’t used the SRAM Hydro’s to compare to. But once upon a time these RiderRevers came stock on Cervelo TT bikes.
Yeah they look good and I like that you can have your blips mounted on them. How much did you pay for them? There are not too many vendors selling them in Europe...
The cheaper option would be to go full mechanical disc brakes. Not too sure about this right now. Mabye I should just get the RideRever levers
Yeah they look good and I like that you can have your blips mounted on them. How much did you pay for them? There are not too many vendors selling them in Europe...
The cheaper option would be to go full mechanical disc brakes. Not too sure about this right now. Mabye I should just get the RideRever levers
I like the riderever TT brake lever. But I can't find any good deal on them and dont want to spend 250-300$ +It really depends on the routing, and the routing is usually horrible on TTs.
Are the mechanical disc brakes so bad? Never had any before...
Hehe, I like the idea with the sticker :)
I got mine for £170.99 on eBay (with a discount code) from a bike shop who also sell on there. You can actually pick them up there now for even less than that! (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335035938661?var=544262923126)
Haven't travelled internationally with the TT bike yet but will be in May. Plan is to put disc brake pad spacers in for the flight, maybe even turn the levers 90deg inwards.
Keep us posted, I'm in Europe too, and agree. When i looked at it, assuming the frame allows, my ccl was i'd do mech disc, because the ride rever hydro are super expensive. I have mech discs on my gravel bike, they do work. Hydro is better, but i wouldnt be descending hairpins on a TT bike.
Also, from a traveling perspective for races, sram wireless + cable actuated brakes should be easier to live with than hydro hoses. And Hambini in the last nero show podcast said he had to empty his hoses from hydro fluid several times while taking planes in Europe. I doubt he made that up.
Are the mechanical disc brakes so bad? Never had any before...
Did you use any specific mech disc setup or just what was available for you?
| Component | Price in USD |
| Frameset BXT-TT-119 | 820 |
| SQLab 613R | 65 |
| Bars w. Frame | - |
| Stem w. Frame | - |
| Casette (Aliexpress) | 75 |
| RD Force AXS D2 | 100 |
| FD Force AXS D2 | 120 |
| Batteries SRAM 2x | 85 |
| Crankset (Aliexpress) | 74 |
| Chain (Aliexpress) | 25 |
| Bar Tape (Aliexpress) | 5 |
| Hydro Brake Levers / Calipers (RideRever Triva) | 160 |
| Disc Rotor (Aliexpress) | 25 |
| Bottom Bracket (Aliexpress) | 10 |
| Pedals (Aliexpress) | 22 |
| Shifting eTap Blips 2x | 130 |
| Shifting Leap Components | 65 |
| PM SRAM Force D2 Powermeter (left Crank) | 130 |
| Elite Wheel Set ENT Disc 2.0 | 380 |
I pulled the trigger today and ordered the BXT-TT-119 frame and the EliteWheel Set ENT Disc 2.0 (82mm). I have the main components but still need to order some smaller parts. Here is an overview of the components and prices (shipping included).
Component Price in USD Frameset BXT-TT-119 820 SQLab 613R 65 Bars w. Frame - Stem w. Frame - Casette (Aliexpress) 75 RD Force AXS D2 100 FD Force AXS D2 120 Batteries SRAM 2x 85 Crankset (Aliexpress) 74 Chain (Aliexpress) 25 Bar Tape (Aliexpress) 5 Hydro Brake Levers / Calipers (RideRever Triva) 160 Disc Rotor (Aliexpress) 25 Bottom Bracket (Aliexpress) 10 Pedals (Aliexpress) 22 Shifting eTap Blips 2x 130 Shifting Leap Components 65 PM SRAM Force D2 Powermeter (left Crank) 130 Elite Wheel Set ENT Disc 2.0 380
Total with wheelset = 2300$
without wheelset = 1900$
The Aliexpress parts offer good value for money and have many positive reviews. I can give u more details if u like. I'm expecting the frame and wheelset to arrive at the end of April or the beginning of May. Hopefully, I can finish the build by mid-May and share some pictures. If you have any questions about the build, feel free to ask! :)
Very tight execution here, well done, truly. Looking fwd to the pictures! And make sure to run a big chainring, spinning out on the flat because of gearing is very annoying, it's fun to go fast.
Hey, thanks for the reply/advice! The selection of cranks and chainrings is unfortunately a bit limited for me because I already have a one-sided power meter with a 172.5mm left crank, and I’m trying to go with a budget-friendly option.You have to figure out what would be your expected power output for the key sections of the course and select chainring size accordingly.
I was planning on using a 52/36 chainring and a 10-36 cassette. I live in Switzerland, and yeah, it's quite hilly here. The event I want to participate in has a bike course with 2,200m of elevation.
Do you reckon my choice of gearing is fine, or should I reconsider? I could spend more money to customize the gearing further if necessary. My current setup is the budget option.
You have to figure out what would be your expected power output for the key sections of the course and select chainring size accordingly.
It really depends on your power output, cadence and actual course (rolling, long climbs, consistent shallow gradient etc.). For example, I have FTP around 350-365, mid season weight 72-75 kg and my TT bike has 1x12 setup with 58T (oval) front and 11-34 rear and during tempo rides (260-290 Watts@90 rpm) I slip into smaller half of the cassette. If I model the actual race scenario, I will push closer to my threshold and I will be even further down the smaller cogs which will cost quite some watts, you have to be closer to the middle of the cassette during your main effort. In this case, I need a bigger chainring, 60T or 62T.
IMHO, unless you have long very shallow gradient or very long stretches of flat terrain between steep climbs, 1.5-2.5 kg lighter road bike would be more beneficial for such event.
Hello, thanks for your input—super helpful!You'd probably need bigger chainrings in the future but for a first race it should be fine. If it's your first time on TT bike consider to spend substantial time of your training on this particular bike and position tweaking, as it will take at least several months to be able to deliver power output similar to road bike.
You’re an absolute beast! Great FTP! :)
I get your point. On the flats, I’d probably be on the three smallest cogs of my cassette. During the climbs, I should be somewhere in the middle of the cassette. In that case, I’d need a bigger chainring than a 52—probably a 53 or even a 55.
The race course is the Ironman in Thun. It’s my first triathlon and my first TT bike so I have no experience. I’ll likely need to make some adjustments after my first month on the bike.
Here the link to the bike course:
https://www.ironman.com/races/im-switzerland/course#bike
You'd probably need bigger chainrings in the future but for a first race it should be fine. If it's your first time on TT bike consider to spend substantial time of your training on this particular bike and position tweaking, as it will take at least several months to be able to deliver power output similar to road bike.
Which setup/chainrings would you pick for the bike course of the Ironman in Thun (180km/2200m elevation)? Would you be able to do it with a 1x Setup? Or go with 2x chainrings?As I said before, it really depends on your absolute power (which is important on flats) and your w/kg (as it'll affect your speed on climbs). From the gxp file it seems the course rarely has gradients above 6% but has two steady long climbs. Considering it's Ironman and a person has been prepairing for it for a while, one has to approach it as a steady tempo ride (75-86% FTP), I'd change my chainring to 56T and call it a day.
Worried I'm grinding up the hills and burn out with the wrong setup. But I will be able to figure it out when I have the bike and do some similar courses.
My FTP is waaaaay lower than Dallas, and i wouldn't run a 52 on a TT bike. But obviously, if you're not going to ride it on the flat, then it gets complicated. There are useful online tools to figure out, based on cadence, gearing and so on, the speeds at which you can ride. I can tell you that i dislike high cadences, so at 80-85 cadence, i dont want to be doing tempo in the smallest cog on the flat, because it means i spin out as soon as i start pushing, which sucks. Also, the smallest cog should always be an emergency cog, not a "i'll be doing my hard efforts in that cog".
On crank arms, be careful, you might be throwing good money after bad. I'd get pedal based power meter and shorter cranks. I'd get 165mm, now that they're cheap from China. If you plot it trigonometric-ally (?) you see how big of an impact crank length has on how high your knees go up into your chest in TT position. So it's not a marketing trick to sell more bikes. It's just objectively more comfortable to be horizontal with short cranks. And sell your 172.5mm rig before nobody wants it ;)
Hey, thanks for the reply. Great advice! I looked into the crank length topic, and it definitely makes sense now. I’ll try to find a setup with a shorter length (155-165mm) and sell my power meter.You can buy spider-based option that will fit your current crankset interface and buy some cheaper crankset at shorter lenghts to experiment with it. Or you can go to bike fitter with the proper tools and see how much you can reduce hip to torso angle and how short should you go. I think today 165 mm cranks on TT bike is generally accepted (not by manufacturers) standard.
Unfortunately, getting a setup with a spider power meter or power meter pedals will be more expensive... :-\
I guess the cheapest option would be to go with 165mm crank arms. Will I regret not going shorter, like 155mm?
Hey, thanks for the reply. Great advice! I looked into the crank length topic, and it definitely makes sense now. I’ll try to find a setup with a shorter length (155-165mm) and sell my power meter.
Unfortunately, getting a setup with a spider power meter or power meter pedals will be more expensive... :-\
I guess the cheapest option would be to go with 165mm crank arms. Will I regret not going shorter, like 155mm?
one thing that worries me about power pedals is possibly not being able to swap the pedal body when it wears out. I went with a sram rival crank because it was basically the cheapest power meter you can get. (maybe a stages 105 single arm might be cheaper but idk)
Right, I’m just saying if you aren't able to source a new pedal body it would suck.
The powermeters in the pedal are usually the spindles so you can just purchase new pedal bodies if they wear out.While it is true, I think spider-based powermeter will work better unless you have more than two bikes and want PM on all of them as it will last forever and requires zero maintenance. I know several people that have Assiomas of different fitness levels, all of them managed to destroy pedal body or brick them during an accident within 3 years. Considering how cheap some options are, one can get some common mounting option (let's say Sram 8 bolt interface) and change cranks if necessary.