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Re: Velobuild VB-R-177 Hi all,

New to this form, and joined as this thread has been pretty useful whilst I've been putting together my new 177. Unfortunately I have a had a few issues with it, and would be grateful for any comments or thoughts.




1. The main problem is that under braking, the steering seems to lock up. On inspection of the headset, it seems there is contact between the back of the fork crown and the head tube, and also the top headset bearing cap and the front of the top of the head tube. It's like the bearings have been set too far inside the head tube. Because the bearings don't contact on the flat faces, but on the chamfered inner and outer races, it's not possible to put a simple spacer in to lift them. Chris at VB has said he's sending me some new headset bearings, which are presumably taller/thicker, but this seems a bit of a bodge to fix poor moulding alignment.




2. The integrated one-piece stem/handlebar is ridiculously flexible. Admittedly it's hard to notice whilst riding, but even a small amount of force downwards on the hoods or drops gives >10mm movement. I'm not sure I trust these bars! It's probably due to the very thin aero middle section of the bars, the skinny stem which accomodates the cables, and possibly the short amount of contact with the steerer. And possibly the fact that they are cheaply made with too much focus on weight saving. I'm not impressed, but also can't quite face spending hundreds on something from a 'western' brand. I have the 100mm x 400mm set and could probably do with something a bit shorter, so will probably swap it before too long (if I keep the bike and can fix the problem above).

3. This one is probably my fault. I chose the bike size based on ETT, without really paying too much attention to the very low top tube and short head tube. I'm 5'8 and picked the Small (54cm ett). I have a lot of seatpost sticking out - about 15mm more than the minimum insertion. So whilst it's got more than the minimum insertion, it does look a bit odd and like I maybe should have got the Medium size and run a ~70mm stem.

Cheers,
July 19, 2022, 05:08:27 AM 		2
Re: Velobuild VB-R-168 Frame
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Is it just me, or has there been an increase of new Chinertown members mainly looking for confirmation bias against purchasing from VeloBuild?

I probably fall under that category! It's probably as least partly due to this forum having the most discussion about the brand, and there's been some useful knowledge sharing to fix issues like your headset/top cap problem. I wonder if VB have perhaps suffered a drop in quality recently which means there are more problems - and the customer service, at least in my experience - has been fairly poor so far.
July 19, 2022, 10:11:47 AM 		1
Re: Velobuild VB-R-177
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Good VB agreed to send new taller headset bearings.

Still nothing received though and the bike's not rideable. I'd not be recommending velobuild to anyone at the moment.
August 03, 2022, 08:22:08 AM 		2
Re: Velobuild VB-R-177 Update on my 177 after about 1000km. I got the headset rubbing issue fixed, not by the replacement bearings which VB sent, but by sanding away the paint in the areas which rubbed. Not pretty, but worked. I swapped the horrible flexy handlebar for the Deda superbox stem and some Zipp alloy bars. I'm done with internal cble routing, especially on bars!

Had a bit of a problem after a long ride last week - the frame was full of water with no obvious way to drain it, and the headset bearings were grinding and making a terrible noise. I took the front end apart and the bearings are totally rusty. I don't have spare hoses and cables to be able to swap them right now so just greased as best I can, and reassembled.

Has anyone else had issues with water ingress? I'd like to drill a hole in the bottom of the BB shell, but this seems like a perfect way to start a crack.

Current build:


Previously (same wall!):
December 30, 2022, 04:30:09 AM 		4