Hi everyone,
First post here.
I wanted to share my build because I got a lot of useful information from here while researching the frame and the build, so hopefully this can be a small contribution in return.
tl;drI've now done around 3,000 km on the bike and I'm really happy with it. It's basically exactly what I was looking for: a great-looking, high-end feeling build at a reasonable cost, with a few small quirks along the way that were easy enough to sort out with a bit of mechanical work.
OrderingI contacted Vivian on May 19th and paid the same day. The frame was shipped on June 11th and delivered in France on July 3rd. (Frame has UDH derailleur hanger) It was shipped in a very thick cardboard box and arrived completely undamaged. The frame itself was fully wrapped in foam.
While waiting for it, I ordered the tools I was missing from ali: carbon fork cutting guide, internal routing kit, bleed kit, hydraulic hose tools, BB tool, and a few other small things.
The paint job is really good. I couldn't find any major defect. There are a few tiny bubbles if you look very closely under strong light, but honestly you really have to search for them. I was pretty impressed by the finish.
I took my time with the build and everything went quite smoothly. All bolts, BB etc were torqued to spec.
Parts- TT-X68 size 56 paint "Special Red"
- Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset
- Ryet saddle
- XMCS wheels, paintless finish, 50 mm deep, 24 mm IW, Sapim CX-Ray spokes
- 28 mm tubetype tires with ridenow TPU tubes, 32mm mounted (will probably switch to 30 mm tubeless tires)
- Roval rapid computer mount
ProblemsBrake calipersAt the front, the caliper mounting surfaces are fine, rotor is nicely centered
At the rear, however, the two caliper mounting surfaces are not parallel at all. Because of the difference in angle, the caliper tends to shift slightly inward as the mounting bolts are tightened.
I added a 0.2 mm washer under one of the two mounting points to compensate for the angle. This improved the alignment, but the rotor is still not perfectly centered in the caliper. It works fine as it is, so I don't feel the need to do anything more about it for now.
As a few people have mentioned before, I can also confirm that the front fork isn't especially stiff. Even with the rotor perfectly aligned and centered in the caliper, I can get some rotor rub against the pads when sprinting.
SeatpostI had a more serious issue with the seatpost saddle clamp.
On the very first installation, while tightening it with a torque wrench, the thread in the rear M5 cradle washer completely stripped at around 4 Nm. This was well below the 6.1 Nm torque specified for the original Specialized part. I ended up buying the genuine Specialized saddle clamp hardware, plus a spare.
I'm quite surprised that I haven't seen anyone else mention this issue before. Considering that this is a safety-critical part holding the saddle in place, I'd strongly recommend replacing the supplied saddle clamp hardware with the genuine Specialized part.
The seatpost itself also slipped very slightly at first. At 6.2 Nm it was moving by maybe around 1 mm every 50 km. I added a bit of carbon assembly paste, torqued it again to 6.2 Nm, and since then it hasn't moved at all.
Future changes- Probably replace the current expander plug with the official Specialized one
- The top cap has a small paint defect, most likely caused by the bolt it was shipped with. I may sand it down and repaint it, or simply replace it
- Replace the computer mount bolt with a titanium one. Apparently, even the bolt supplied with the genuine Specialized mount can snap
- Depending on how they age, I may replace the cockpit bolts
- Switch to 30 mm tubeless tires
