So my frame arrived today. Well packed and undamaged. Took about 5 weeks from order placement and 14 days from shipment notification to delivery. Not super fast but not super slow either.
[...]
Looking forward to building it up in the next days. Unfortunately, still waiting for the chainrings to arrive, so full build will have to wait until ~end of next week.
I know it's been awhile, since I promised pictures of the completed build ...
Last week I
finally received another package from velobuild. First, I was a bit worried as the package said "bicycle rear hanger" and I know they have them as spare parts as well. But inside were actually the correct 7x9mm saddle rail clamps that were missing. Then I had to wait for better weather since this summer just doesn't really want to start here but well I finally went for a longer ride today and took some pictures as well. Unfortunately, there were still some wet patches on the road here and there, so I gathered a bit of dirt on the frame; just kindly ignore that
Really happy with the overall build and ride feeling. Aggressive enough for my riding, a bit of aero, and not too heavy either. The bike weights in at around 7.6kg and my full "ride-ready" weight (pedals, computer mount, bottle holder) is around 8kg. Considering I went with 2x 11-34 for hilly terrain and a built-in power meter, I think that's not too bad.
A few notes and remarks after ~400km of riding the bike:
- The saddle rails came lose a few times; just enough for the saddle to tilt. I gave the threads a bit of medium thread lock and so far it seems to hold. Time will tell if it remains like that.
- My headset developed some play quite quickly. I first though it might be the longer compression plug I got cheap from AE and installed the one that came with the frame. Same story though. Might need to tighten the handlebar stem bolts more than the recommendation ...
- Stiffness is fine in general. I noticed that when I put more torque through the pedals (hard riding up hill, maybe ~1000W), my disc brakes rub a bit. I suspect the frame is just bending a little bit "too much" under that power and my rather high weight of 90kg that it deforms so much the calipers are rubbing just a little bit from side to side movement of the frame while I push the pedals hard. Since I'm currently not able to do real sprints due to injury, I cannot comment if that might become an issue down the line once I recovered. Will observe.
Not concerning the frame but just some general notes about the build:
- Magene Powermeter just works. Install was effortless and so was the setup. Can recommend.
- Pass Quest 2x aero chainrings fit the look&feel of the Magene very well. Not sure how many aero gains those chainrings actually offer (not that it would matter to my riding at all) but I just like the clean and "closed-up" look of them.
- Goldix 12s Ultralight cassette: works fine in general but takes some time to shift from smallest to 2nd smallest cog. Other shifts are quick and easy (so indexing is correct) but that last one just does not want to down shift. Also my favorite gears (5-8) are a bit more noisy than the others. Especially when I'm in the big ring at the front. Not sure why though. Maybe it just needs a fresh wax after ~400km. Will have to observe.
PS: just the other day, another rider chased after me as I passed him just to admire the bike ("What a nice looking bike!"). Wanted to know what brand it is and where I got it from
