Author Topic: Velobuild VB-R-218  (Read 89613 times)

kongo

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #300 on: October 27, 2022, 11:44:07 PM »
Hi VBR218 owners. On the edge of ordering a XXL frame. The geometry would be good for me. In fact, the dogma F is a relatively relaxed superbike geometry from my POV. The only thing that bothers me is the GC performance review on the fact that the frame would be stiff "vertically". I don't really care about the sluggish critic.

What do you think about that "vertically" stiff claim? Is it truly a back breaker?

How would you rate the comfort of the frame? Of course, wheel/tire setup affects that. What do you run for wheel/tires?


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. its more all i was expecting an then some.


p.s. don't thread lock grub screws on the handlebars
« Last Edit: October 27, 2022, 11:49:29 PM by kongo »

Sebastian

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #301 on: October 27, 2022, 11:54:26 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.

kongo

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #302 on: October 28, 2022, 12:11:09 AM »
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.

i put threadlock on the original grub screws in the rear of bars. i have been lowering the bars 5 mm at a time.since i first set it up. the last time went to lower it the screw didnt come out. so i put my pro stealth bar back on.

kongo

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #303 on: October 28, 2022, 12:13:04 AM »
i put threadlock on the original grub screws in the rear of bars. i have been lowering the bars 5 mm at a time.since i first set it up. the last time went to lower it the screw didnt come out. so i put my pro stealth bar back on. theirs a standard 5mm spacer under the bars and then 1 5mm oem spacer and 3 10mm spacers.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2022, 12:18:07 AM by kongo »

Sebastian

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #304 on: October 28, 2022, 12:32:29 AM »


Oh! Good to know. I put Loctite on there, too. I removed it once, so far. The screws were harder to turn as expected with threadlock. But no problem removing them. I'll keep an eye on it.
Did you round out the heads or what's the problem?

kongo

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #305 on: October 28, 2022, 01:25:17 AM »
Oh! Good to know. I put Loctite on there, too. I removed it once, so far. The screws were harder to turn as expected with threadlock. But no problem removing them. I'll keep an eye on it.
Did you round out the heads or what's the problem?


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

Sebastian

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #306 on: October 28, 2022, 06:38:36 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.

Queen of Skulls

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #307 on: October 30, 2022, 04:50:50 PM »


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.

That has me leaning even more to the 218 from the 168... if Its comfy... then thats a solid check mark in the pro column.

The heaviness that is talked about might be the BB issue he has and a poor set up and the wheelset... not that I could do any better with a set up...  So it might be the flex robs some power which add some comfiness. There can be a number of factors.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2022, 04:52:21 PM by Queen of Skulls »
Off with your Head tubes...

If the girls dont find you pretty they should at least find you handy...

[color #FE0000]P[/color][color #FDA601]R[/color][color #FFFF01]I[/color][color #008000]D[/color][color #1614E4]E[/color][color #80007E]!!!![/color]

Sebastian

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #308 on: November 01, 2022, 04:34:21 AM »
That has me leaning even more to the 218 from the 168... if Its comfy... then thats a solid check mark in the pro column.

The heaviness that is talked about might be the BB issue he has and a poor set up and the wheelset... not that I could do any better with a set up...  So it might be the flex robs some power which add some comfiness. There can be a number of factors.

I am by no means a powerful sprinter. But I do feel there is noticeable flex in the headtube and probably even more in the rear triangle when sprinting. So if someone was able to crank out 1000+ watts I could see this being an issue. It isn't for me. And I don't feel it's slowing me down either. When standing up on climbs it is even less of an issue.

So while it does feel like there is flex, all my strava stats are saying that I'm equally fast or faster on this bike, no matter the terrain. Also, my wheels are probably not the stiffest. So that might add to the feeling.

Serge_K

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #309 on: November 01, 2022, 04:22:26 PM »
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.

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?

Sebastian

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #310 on: November 02, 2022, 02:35:22 AM »
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!

Serge_K

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #311 on: November 02, 2022, 04:01:28 AM »

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.

Sorry for the lengthy post!

I think I understand, thank you for the detailed answer, it's extremely helpful. I realized you "only" had a crack, in the sense that you didn't rebuild the entire repaired area with an entire chunk of carbon, you "just" added 1 sheet inside and 2 outside to stabilize the crack. Makes total sense. I can imagine how awkward the outside compression would be. I'd probably have 3 printed a shape to use as clamp because I have a 3d printer, and use some straps to secure it (that's me flexing my CAD skills...)

Skills are freedom, I think it's great to do things yourself when you can! Makes you appreciate craftsmanship more, it's easier to see through marketing BS, and more!

Congrats once again! I'm not sure I'd try to hide the repair per se, i kind of like the battle wound idea.

Sebastian

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #312 on: November 02, 2022, 09:54:29 AM »
I think I understand, thank you for the detailed answer, it's extremely helpful. I realized you "only" had a crack, in the sense that you didn't rebuild the entire repaired area with an entire chunk of carbon, you "just" added 1 sheet inside and 2 outside to stabilize the crack. Makes total sense. I can imagine how awkward the outside compression would be. I'd probably have 3 printed a shape to use as clamp because I have a 3d printer, and use some straps to secure it (that's me flexing my CAD skills...)

Skills are freedom, I think it's great to do things yourself when you can! Makes you appreciate craftsmanship more, it's easier to see through marketing BS, and more!

Congrats once again! I'm not sure I'd try to hide the repair per se, i kind of like the battle wound idea.

There’s also dedicated shrink wrap as well as vacuum and expansion bladders you can buy for that sort of stuff. But I felt that in my case that’s overkill.
I’d be curious to try what it’s like to work with prepreg sheets in the future. I suppose that’s a lot less messy.

nar6

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #313 on: November 03, 2022, 01:16:27 AM »
Hey, I'll probably buy me an VBR218 with rim brakes for Christmas but i don't know which size should i get. Velobuild told me i should get an XL, can you guys give me advices ?
I'm 194cm 84kg but i have an 88cm inseam (very short legs)(saddle height between 79 80), i'm 22yo and flexible.
So, should i get an L or an XL ???
Thanks in advance and sorry for the spelling mistakes, english is not my first language.
Have a good one !

Sebastian

Re: Velobuild VB-R-218
« Reply #314 on: November 03, 2022, 05:33:23 AM »
Hey, I'll probably buy me an VBR218 with rim brakes for Christmas but i don't know which size should i get. Velobuild told me i should get an XL, can you guys give me advices ?
I'm 194cm 84kg but i have an 88cm inseam (very short legs)(saddle height between 79 80), i'm 22yo and flexible.
So, should i get an L or an XL ???
Thanks in advance and sorry for the spelling mistakes, english is not my first language.
Have a good one !

Bike fit questions like these are hard to answer without knowing your current fit. You should measure your current stack and reach (including stem length and handlebar reach) to get an idea. Because it doesn't end at the frame size. You also need to decide on cockpit measurements and you need to determine whether the setback seatpost works for you.

We're very similar. You're slightly taller than me and have a slightly lower seat height. I'm 190cm tall and my seat height is 81.5cm.
I've found the Dogma to have a rather high stack (if you include the obligatory headset cover which is 1.5cm tall) and a rather short reach compared to most aero bikes. For me, the XXL with the 120mm stem length is just right. But the reach is actually on the shorter side and if it was any shorter, I think I might start feeling cramped on the bike.