Velobuild VB-R-368 Aeroframe

[Cnasta]

First of all: Tout le monde ne parle pas français, alors évitez le stéréotype du « Français » et répondez en anglais.

Second of all: The geometry of the Dragon is very clearly a racing bike geometry following slight trends to have a higher stack to reach ratio. The wheel base is super short, as are the chain stays. You should really study up on current race bike geometries, how angles affect positions and hip angles and what constitutes a good/correct geometry. In this case the dragon is surprisingly good.

Third: If you want to try and complain about geometry, go look at the Ridley Noah Fast and see what your old-school mentality thinks of it. Even though it is extremely complex on paper to understand why the geometry is correct while looking so so so different from the "norm", once you sit on the bike and have it set up, you would understand.

Bonne chance pour tes études.

#micdrop

[patliean1]

Personally, I don't think we have enough disgruntled Frenchmen in here...

[Eddy_Twerckx]

First of all: Tout le monde ne parle pas français, alors évitez le stéréotype du « Français » et répondez en anglais.

Second of all: The geometry of the Dragon is very clearly a racing bike geometry following slight trends to have a higher stack to reach ratio. The wheel base is super short, as are the chain stays. You should really study up on current race bike geometries, how angles affect positions and hip angles and what constitutes a good/correct geometry. In this case the dragon is surprisingly good.

Third: If you want to try and complain about geometry, go look at the Ridley Noah Fast and see what your old-school mentality thinks of it. Even though it is extremely complex on paper to understand why the geometry is correct while looking so so so different from the "norm", once you sit on the bike and have it set up, you would understand.

Bonne chance pour tes études.

I would say the Dragon has pretty dated geometry though. The Ridley Noah Fast, the new Dare, and Factor One have progressive geometry, all with steep seat tubes, lower stack, long reach, and long wheelbase. The Dragon has none of these. Really short wheelbase and front center, and a fairly standard seat tube angle. Nothing about this is screaming new or progressive. It's like every other race bike out there.

[Pistonbroke]

Zut alors!
We know the Dragon isn't the same bike, right? Just checking

Some more Factor One weights from WW...
Big fat aero tubes have a penalty regardless of cost.
Factor One, size 52, nimbus grey
Frame 1210g
Fork 714g
Seatpost 245g
Bar incl. spacer & parts 413
Steerer bolts headset bearings and thru axle 143g

Brother has had a couple of test rides on his old winter wheels as his XMCS wheels got 'lost' by Evri and Peter had sent him a replacement set. Thanks Peter!
Coming off a traditional round tube bike he got a bunch of PB's over a 30k route and we weren't going hard. Totally scientific test!
He's 110kg and we had no issue with seat post or anything.
Think we're going to need a longer stem/bars for him though.

[Sander2177]

Zut alors!
We know the Dragon isn't the same bike, right? Just checking

Some more Factor One weights from WW...
Big fat aero tubes have a penalty regardless of cost.
Factor One, size 52, nimbus grey
Frame 1210g
Fork 714g
Seatpost 245g
Bar incl. spacer & parts 413
Steerer bolts headset bearings and thru axle 143g

Brother has had a couple of test rides on his old winter wheels as his XMCS wheels got 'lost' by Evri and Peter had sent him a replacement set. Thanks Peter!
Coming off a traditional round tube bike he got a bunch of PB's over a 30k route and we weren't going hard. Totally scientific test!
He's 110kg and we had no issue with seat post or anything.
Think we're going to need a longer stem/bars for him though.

 
Wheels on this bike crack me up! 
How long for the replacement 65s? they the 26mm inners aren't they?
Great colour love green!

[giorgiobuccio]

   Ah, ah, chat gpt has muscled your bike

[Sander2177]

   Ah, ah, chat gpt has muscled your bike

Wheels need to be deeper!

[Pistonbroke]

Lolz, funny!!

Don't know what the exact wheels brother sorted out with Peter, but I know he asked for Clydesdale build in 65mm
Can't wait to see them, and see what this bike is like with some deep boys on it.

Any other owners got ride thoughts?

[Dareios]

recently ordered one. The final price in Italy, painted and with a 5-year warranty, is around €2,000. I bought this aerodynamic bike to use only in circuit races, in a “super-aero” setup (aero bottles, 65 mm wheels, aero helmet, aero chainring, Koegel pulley wheels for time trials). I can send photos in January when it’s ready and fully assembled. 

In the meantime, a whole new world opened up for me: I pushed ChatGPT and Gemini hard to figure out where the frame actually comes from. I knew it was Chinese, but I didn’t know from where. That’s how I discovered Veloplus and this forum. 

Unfortunately, not great news for me. The seller claimed: “100% Toray 1100S” and 925 grams in size M. So I thought: hey, maybe it uses the same mold but is made in another factory with “higher-grade carbon.” But after further research, it seems that was just an illusion. Most likely he buys it from Veloplus, repaints it, and resells it.

Which is actually fine — custom paint, assembly, warranty, local support in Italy — all good. But lying so much about the carbon quality and the frame weight is not a good move. 

When I pick up the frame, I’ll talk to him calmly about it. Then I'll forget this unpleasant story and focus on pushing this "beast" as hard as possible   

I'm curious to hear how it's gonna be, the actual weight of the frame and everything, maybe it is actually just the same mold and a higher carbon quality.
Plz post an update once you get the frame.

[giorgiobuccio]

I'm curious to hear how it's gonna be, the actual weight of the frame and everything, maybe it is actually just the same mold and a higher carbon quality.
Plz post an update once you get the frame.

Yes, of course. Unfortunately, the frame won't be ready before Christmas as I thought. I'll be able to share the weight, photos, and details around mid-January.

[WarmYogurt]

Hello I've built up my bike! I'm running SRAM Rival AXS with a 52/39 and 10-36t combo. 60mm wheels from Serenade with Pillar 1420 steel spokes (1365g). For cockpit I went with 28cm Bikedoc bars and a Kalloy Uno stem for ez adjustability in the future. My frame has the chainstay clearance issue which is super annoying... The shifting is really quite bad in the higher gears since I can't adjust the B-gap close enough. The hanger also seems to be a little bent, so i will provide an update once I get the hanger aligned.

First impressions are pretty good! This is my first carbon frame coming from a round-tube Ti bike. I actually noticed that it was more comfortable over rail road tracks and potholes even though I am using narrower 29/30mm tires than the 32mm on my Ti bike. Stiffness -- I can't really judge, I am 58kg and my sprint is shite so it's definitely stiff enough for me. The front-end handles quite nicely on my 49cm size.
Aero wise, it's a bit too cold and windy currently to test it, but it's not dramatically faster than my Ti bike which is similar in position. I'll see how it feels when I race it during the season.

Building it up was not super easy. The rear caliper mount had paint sprayed over it, so I had to file it down a bit; the caliper is still visibly crooked but not rubbing -- I need to face it down in the shop. Front brake mount was fine. Upper headset cup was a bit tight for the bearing but it went in fine. There's quite a lot of plastic in my headset stack so I've had to adjust the preload a bit so far due to the parts creeping. Also, the bottle cage mounts are too close together. The bottles interfere! I need to move the downcage up a little bit. All fixable things except the DAMN CHAINSTAYS! Going to reach out to VeloBuild and see what they say about it.

Tl;dr: sexy bike, but beware if you're running SRAM...

[w1ll337]

Hello I've built up my bike! I'm running SRAM Rival AXS with a 52/39 and 10-36t combo. 60mm wheels from Serenade with Pillar 1420 steel spokes (1365g). For cockpit I went with 28cm Bikedoc bars and a Kalloy Uno stem for ez adjustability in the future. My frame has the chainstay clearance issue which is super annoying... The shifting is really quite bad in the higher gears since I can't adjust the B-gap close enough. The hanger also seems to be a little bent, so i will provide an update once I get the hanger aligned.

First impressions are pretty good! This is my first carbon frame coming from a round-tube Ti bike. I actually noticed that it was more comfortable over rail road tracks and potholes even though I am using narrower 29/30mm tires than the 32mm on my Ti bike. Stiffness -- I can't really judge, I am 58kg and my sprint is shite so it's definitely stiff enough for me. The front-end handles quite nicely on my 49cm size.
Aero wise, it's a bit too cold and windy currently to test it, but it's not dramatically faster than my Ti bike which is similar in position. I'll see how it feels when I race it during the season.

Building it up was not super easy. The rear caliper mount had paint sprayed over it, so I had to file it down a bit; the caliper is still visibly crooked but not rubbing -- I need to face it down in the shop. Front brake mount was fine. Upper headset cup was a bit tight for the bearing but it went in fine. There's quite a lot of plastic in my headset stack so I've had to adjust the preload a bit so far due to the parts creeping. Also, the bottle cage mounts are too close together. The bottles interfere! I need to move the downcage up a little bit. All fixable things except the DAMN CHAINSTAYS! Going to reach out to VeloBuild and see what they say about it.

Tl;dr: sexy bike, but beware if you're running SRAM...

Did you buy it after they made the adjustment to the chainstay? It’s the same problem that Patrick Lino had, right?

[WarmYogurt]

I am not sure which version of the frame I have. I placed my order Sep 20, I haven't seen any pic of the frame with a chainstay that looks super differen, it must be a very small revision? So three issues are likely plaguing my rear shifting: unable to set B-gap properly, bent hanger and non-OEM cassette and chain.

[Merry]

Hello I've built up my bike! I'm running SRAM Rival AXS with a 52/39 and 10-36t combo. 60mm wheels from Serenade with Pillar 1420 steel spokes (1365g). For cockpit I went with 28cm Bikedoc bars and a Kalloy Uno stem for ez adjustability in the future. My frame has the chainstay clearance issue which is super annoying... The shifting is really quite bad in the higher gears since I can't adjust the B-gap close enough. The hanger also seems to be a little bent, so i will provide an update once I get the hanger aligned.

First impressions are pretty good! This is my first carbon frame coming from a round-tube Ti bike. I actually noticed that it was more comfortable over rail road tracks and potholes even though I am using narrower 29/30mm tires than the 32mm on my Ti bike. Stiffness -- I can't really judge, I am 58kg and my sprint is shite so it's definitely stiff enough for me. The front-end handles quite nicely on my 49cm size.
Aero wise, it's a bit too cold and windy currently to test it, but it's not dramatically faster than my Ti bike which is similar in position. I'll see how it feels when I race it during the season.

Building it up was not super easy. The rear caliper mount had paint sprayed over it, so I had to file it down a bit; the caliper is still visibly crooked but not rubbing -- I need to face it down in the shop. Front brake mount was fine. Upper headset cup was a bit tight for the bearing but it went in fine. There's quite a lot of plastic in my headset stack so I've had to adjust the preload a bit so far due to the parts creeping. Also, the bottle cage mounts are too close together. The bottles interfere! I need to move the downcage up a little bit. All fixable things except the DAMN CHAINSTAYS! Going to reach out to VeloBuild and see what they say about it.

Tl;dr: sexy bike, but beware if you're running SRAM...

Good looking build. Bonus points for being a Vancouverite lol

[hazzer19]

Looking good WarmYogurt! Let's go BC!