Tantan X-68 build + now looking for tri bars to supplement

[Bik3rb0i]

Hello! Just wanted to share my short journey in cycling and my process for anybody that cares. I’ve also got a question, and want to know if there’s any reliable tri bar for the roval/Tantan equivalent headset. I want to get a bike fit eventually but haven’t found any product yet.

https://imgur.com/a/0CLrn89


Onto the fun stuff/reflections:
I’m quite new to cycling (couple of years) and initially bought a gravel bike to commute to work and to try out cycling. Fell in love with it and quickly got into optimising it to be more aero. Naturally just working out made me faster but slamming the steer tube and and getting a longer stem helped out a bit. I was having trouble troubleshooting my bike since I was a newbie and stumbled upon cheap but appearantly reliable carbon frames from China and decided to make a real road bike that could also double down as a bike for a future triathlon. My thought process was that building my own bike would make me more familiar with maintenance and would also be fun. I’ve built some pc’s before, so how hard could it be?

I finally finished this build after about half a year of watching different discounts and watching YouTube videos. Had a Google docs sheet with prices that I would check regularly. The groupset (105 Di2) I bought locally to ensure a proper warranty while most of the other parts are from Aliexpress, while the frame is from Tantan. Shipping from Tantan took a while, about 4-5 weeks from the order till I received the frame. The PES Magene 515 power meter was also bought local to ensure some warranty.

Now for the build and key moments:
- It was an absolute pain to thread the hydraulic hoses and since I had no experience I kept redoing them hoping a certain angle would keep my stem «neutral». Eventually gave up and soon realised it really doesn’t matter or impact steering when the bike is all set up.
- Struggled alot with brake pad rubbings and had to bleed the brakefluid as the brake pistons were so tight/engaged and gave no room for the rotors to spin.
- Elitewheels ENT 2.0 which are my first carbon wheels were a bit difficult to put in at first, but that was mostly due to the tight brakes not letting the rotors part slide in.
- I was very worried about the BB not fitting but that part went without any problems. I went for a Ceramic BB from Aliexpress.
- First had to use rubber bands for my Garmin. The front computer mount/screw hole was soft and when trying to screw in a computer mount it sort of went off to the side and after that it was almost impossible to mount anything to it. Eventually bruteforced in a screw but it was a few weeks after the picture.

The front derailleur was an absolute nightmare and I’m surprised I didn’t just give up there. While losening the screws to the backplate on the inside of the frame it suddenly came off and fell down. I had to use electrical tape, yarn and the magnet wiring tool to somehow drag it up along the inside of the frame, pull it tight so it lined up with the screws and put it in place again. This part took one full day. A nice well spent summer vacation day.

All in all cost me around 2700 from my currency converted to USD. I’m in Europe. Shipping probably adds another 100-150 USD in totals and had to pay 35 USD in some random tolls. I could show the list/share it if there’s any interest but it’s mostly Aliexpress links and approx prices which I just occasionally clicked through to see if they had discounts.

Weight was around 8.2 kgs if I recall correctly. I could probably have shaved a kilo or more off if I went for lighter parts but I’ve also lost 4 kilos just riding this thing and that was free. Pick your battles 

It was a fun experience and if it wasn’t so expensive I would love to do it again now that I know more about what I’m doing. So many things that seemed difficult at first just «clicked» eventually and I was toying with disassembling the whole thing and trying again but timing myself. Was worried I’d break something so didn’t dare though.

Anyways, I just wanted to ramble a bit and also get some input on tri bars, that’s all.

[rosteven]

Great story, thanks for sharing 

[Serge_K]

I think HB-TTR01 is an option, and see bottom right that they have different ski options.
It's from Falco, you can contact them.
I would expect it to be neither cheap nor expensive, but it wont cost you 100$. That stuff is incredibly niche.
FSA spacer tells me it's compatible, because you'd have spacers below that cockpit, and you already have the SL8-ish spacer on your bike. Something to be confirmed, however, my bikes have non proprietary parts and custom stuff gets tricky fast.

Also, 2 "thinking outside the box" thoughts:

1. Depending on your use case for tri bars, bars like that https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005012674338007.html could let you go into such an aero puppy paw position, that maybe you dont need full on tri bars.
2. if you're committed to tri bars, it's worth considering a 34/36cm wide alu bar w a round section & stem, skip the bar tape on the horizontal part for drag, and buy tri bars that you can mount on round bars, because that is very commoditized, which will be both cheap, and should allow you to find options with tons of adjustment. A road bike is not a TT bike, so i dont think you can anticipate what the right position will be on skis, which means that buying something with limited adjustability has a high risk of simply not fitting you. A round bar is less aero, but if it's narrow and that lets you go into a comfortable position in which you can push watts, that will always be faster than a prettier cockpit that fits you less well.