Velobuild VB-R-368 Aeroframe

[aeroquest]

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...

Do you happen to have a 3D model of your stern spacer? It looks very organic with a round stern.

[WarmYogurt]

I ordered it from aprotobike.com along with my computer mount. It's the -17 Kalloy Uno transition spacer. I needed to run a split spacer (5mm) underneath it so the hoses could clear the VB ACR top cap.

[treyxt]

Has anyone tried building this up as a TT bike?

[Finiesta]

Has anyone tried building this up as a TT bike?

There is one on the Velobuild review section.

[mtm]

Got the bike finished. I'll upgrade stuff during the next months to get it down in weight and maybe add a bit of bling, so it's ready for any possible spring races. If I go for complete upgrade package I should be able to shave a bit more than 1 kg and get close to 7.0 kg.

For the RD I'm thinking of trying some asymmetric pulley wheels to get them closer to the cassette and see if I can get ZTTO (or maybe Goldix) cassette to work - maybe the people having issues running SRAM could try that as well.

Current wheel set is Nextie 45mm with 29mm internal width and 40mm max width. Continental GP TR 32mm measures 35mm and tyre and the rim clears with about 2-3mm clearance at the chain stay so probably around the widest one can fit without big risk of either rim or tyre hitting the frame at the chain stays.

[Pistonbroke]

Nice builds folks!
Need some more ride reports
We feel it's a fast bike, but we're only a sample size of two

MTM Wove saddle too, very cool. Always been curious.
Warm Yoghurt... Love the stem adapter. Good work!

Brothers 65mm just turned up so will try and get some photos in the next day or two.
I'm still messing about with stems and bars, lol.

[mtm]

Forgot to mention I installed a 52x40x8mm 45°/45° lower headset bearing (so 8mm instead of stock 7mm thick) and sanded a bit of the paint of both top of fork and bottom of head tube. That seems to have solved the problem with interference between fork and head tube (might not even have needed the sanding). For people ordering a (thicker) paint at those spots it might be worth sourcing a 8mm thick bearing from the start. The top headset bearing could probably also have used a 8mm thick bearing, but clearance there is easier to solve with thin spacers (as I did).

Along with the asymmetric pulley wheels I was also thinking of getting a UDH direct mount hanger. Those two things should in theory both help with improving shifting.

The Wove saddle was originally on my bike, but I was struggling a bit with getting it forward enough on my own bike so GF got it on the new bike - no problem getting it forward on the 368 with its seat post. Got it through a contact for very favourable price originally. It's quite good shape- and padding-wise for an aggressive forward-tilted position, just annoying with the limited ability to get it forward on frame sets with more standard seat tube angle (and no forward offset seat post).

[Pistonbroke]

Latest iteration.
65mm XMCS wheels
300mm wide gravel riser bars with 150mm stem.
Moved seatpost bottle down to close gaps and keep weight as low as possible.

[toxin]

God, that centre of gravity seems like it would be a nightmare on steep descents.

[Pistonbroke]

God, that centre of gravity seems like it would be a nightmare on steep descents.

Feels fine to me, lolz.
Probably spent too long on 80's and 90's MTBs - it immunises you to most things.

[mtm]

Do you have link to those riser bars? Looks like they have a decent amount of rise?

[Pistonbroke]

Do you have link to those riser bars? Looks like they have a decent amount of rise?

Here you go. 35mm rise I think
https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ew2Zrsc

[Finiesta]

Another brand selling the Aerotrace as their bike. This time it is a spanish brand https://triomfbikes.com/products/triomf-roader. Same frame same weight but much more expensive. To be honest i dont like people trying that is selling stuff way overprice like western brands have always been doing.

[verttl]

I have noticed that in all finished builds, the saddle seems to float over the seat tube. I would order one right away, but I couldn't stand looking at a seatpost and saddle like that.
So I was wondering if it would be possible to come up with a mounting system where the saddle rails would sit lower and cover some of that gap between the seatpost and the saddle.

[tovu]

I have noticed that in all finished builds, the saddle seems to float over the seat tube. I would order one right away, but I couldn't stand looking at a seatpost and saddle like that.
So I was wondering if it would be possible to come up with a mounting system where the saddle rails would sit lower and cover some of that gap between the seatpost and the saddle.

Asked VB if they offered this seatpost, but this design didn’t make it to production I assume.
Thinking of sawing the top of the seatpost into shape. Am going to pay for that with my health?