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Re: VeloBuild VB-R-268 frame I am almost finished with the assembly. Overall, I am very pleased with the frame. The workmanship is good as far as I can tell. I haven't ridden the bike yet, but overall it looks like the frame is stiff enough. At least it doesn't feel too wobbly in the shop. I will report back when I have ridden the bike.

Now I want to give a few more details. Tire clearance is no problem at all. The 30 Continental tires are 32mm wide on the rim, which fits perfectly.

The frame weighs almost exactly 1160 grams in size 58. The uncut fork weighs 424 grams. The cockpit weighs exactly 404 grams at 110x420 mm. The seatpost weighs 230 grams. Other accessories such as the headset topcap, headset, seatpost clamp and thru-axles add another 200 grams.

I built the frame with Ultegra Di2. The complete bike weighs 8.3 kg without the computer. That's not exceptionally light, but it's not terribly overweight either. The wheelset (Lightbycicle WR65 with Goldix 240SL) weighs 1550 grams.

The rear thru axle mount did not work for me. The thread was broken. The thru axle was also not mounted correctly. This means that after the paint job at the latest, it must have been noticed that the thru axle did not fit into the thread. Obviously nobody was interested in that. The frame was shipped anyway. This does not speak well for the quality control at Velobuild. I was promised a new thread for the thru axle. Unfortunately I have not received it yet.

The finish is purple chameleon matte. The quality of the paint is very poor. This is especially true for the durability. There is obviously no top coat. You only have to look at the paint once and there's already a flaw. I'm afraid it's not going to be very durable.

Then there's a minor problem with the top cap. It closes very flush when the handlebars are not tightened. But once you apply the correct torque, the top cap protrudes a bit to the side. This is mainly an aesthetic problem and doesn't look very good.

Now I have to make a few adjustments (like the saddle angle) before I can ride it outside. Also, the weather here in Germany is pretty bad at the moment. I also need new chainrings as the ones I have only work for 11-speed and the shifting performance is pretty bad.

Here are some pictures as a first impression. As soon as I'm outside and can take better pictures, I'll post them here.


February 09, 2024, 04:38:51 AM 		1
Re: VeloBuild VB-R-268 frame 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.

Weights of my setup as measured by myself:
  • XL frame (painted but without metal parts or axle): 1164g
  • Fork (painted, w/o axle): 410g
  • Handlebar: 396g
  • Seatpost: 236g
  • Front/rear axle: 29.4g/40.4g
  • Various metal parts, headset, spacers, seat clamp, ...: 392g
So my full riding setup comes down to 2588g. A bit more than I expected but I guess the paint job did add a bit.

I'm pretty happy with the paint job in general. Close up inspection does bring out a few issues. There are a few minor scratches, chips, and imperfections. Luckily, the latter kinda look like reflections so wouldn't really be noticeable under riding conditions. The chips are mostly at hidden spots. The lines don't always match perfectly but they hid those quite well, too. The brake mounts seemed to have been masked but got some overspray. The BB wasn't covered at all and is fully painted. Weirdly enough, some parts (like axle mounts) have only been painted with the base layer but not the effects. It won't be visible at some points but definitely at the axle mounts. The "drain hole" at the bottom isn't centered which is no technical issue but slightly bothers the perfectionist in me anyways.

I wasn't expecting a flawless paint job especially given the added complexity of mine. If you "require" a better pain job, get the frame unpainted and look locally (for a much higher price) as others have said before. However, under normal riding conditions I don't think any of these issues (apart from the "non effect" axle holes) will show at all. I think for 100 USD it is absolutely fine and will catch a few looks once I'm riding it.

The only thing that might actually bother me, is the text decals are quite a bit narrower than in my mock-up. In the mock-up I did space out the letters and stretch the whole text a little bit to get it fill the frame more. To be fair, I did not mention that in my email, so I am not blaming them for it. Just something for me to remember for future designs.

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.
June 07, 2024, 06:26:47 AM 		1