1st Build: TanTan/Seraph GR029 with Sensah SRX Pro 1x11

[dpitel]

Hey that looks great and the weight is quite impressive for a bike of this age.
The stickers on the wheels are a bit too flashy for my taste... but sometimes it is a pain to remove stickers if the manufacturer used a sub par glue.

What kind of wheels do you have on order?
I hope some Chinertown conform species...  ;-)

The Emonda SL frame also sounds interesting, what groupset do you plan to use?

Have a great weekend!

Ican carbon wheels, 38mm deep weighing in at 1370 +/-20 grams, came out to $565USD with tax and shipping on Amazon Prime. As far as I know they're high quality Chinese wheels. I was REALLY close to getting a TanTan/Seraph or AirWolf frame but two things got me set on the Trek 1) It was $520 shipped to my house in good condition and the frame weighs about as much as most of the Chinese frames (with the exception of the super light frames that weigh like 800 grams) and 2) I'm really impatient. All the frames I liked on eBay wouldn't get to my house until late March at the earliest and some said they wouldn't get here until May or even June... so fuck that lol, I can't wait that long- I'd loose my mind. The Emonda was the lightest production frame at the time so I'm honestly really psyched- according to FedEx, it should be getting here on Monday.

I have a mix of R7000/R6800 stuff on my Klein which for the time being I'll transfer to the Emonda. R7000 GS medium-cage rear derailleur, R7000 braze-on front derailleur, R6800 crankset with both 50/34 rings and 53/39 rings, Sensah 11-34 cassette I just got that weighs 228 grams(!!!!over 100 grams less than the Shimano 11-34 I had and only cost like $85USD!!!!), I haven't ridden outside yet but I put the cassette on last night to see how it shifted and though it *might* sound a bit more noisy, to loose that much weight on an 11-34 cassette, it's an acceptable trade-off IMO. I have Look Classic 3 pedals, not too light- something like 285~grams for the pair, and I have SRAM Apex brakes I'm taking off the Trek- the Klein uses long-reach brakes in the back so I'm using the Shimano long reach that came on it in the back and Ultegra 6600 on the front, so I'll probably use some old Ultegra 6500 brakes on the green bike (which are still fairly light- a little over 150 grams a piece).

What I'm planning to do is build up a Di2 groupo for the Emonda, I already got the shifters from Merlin for like $137USD (amazing fucking price and they are SO light- 313 grams for the set) for a set of 10/11 speed 6770 shifters- so I still have another $500-$700 to go in terms of buying derailleurs, wires, junction boxes, batteries, etc. However, since I can't afford the Di2 setup for some time and I'm not going to have this dope-ass frame just laying around for months, I'll just throw the R7000/R6800 groupo on there in the meantime.

Oh, so with that Sensah cassette, my Klein weighed in at 7.8kgs/17.2lbs last night- those Ican wheels are coming today and I have a set of Bontrager R3 tires (405~grams for the pair) so I'm *pretty* sure I'll have the Klein (which is alloy with carbon seat-stays and an EC90 fork) in the mid 16s and mid or hopefully low 7s. I ordered a lighter carbon fork for the green Trek last night which should be getting here on Tuesday, so with the fork and the lighter wheel/tire combo it might even be lighter than the Klein- which is a bit surprising because I'm running that huge 11-42 cassette , the Sensah long-cage derailleur is pretty heavy and the shifters aren't exactly light either. I guess no front derailleur and only one chainring balances it out a little bit. We'll see once the wheels and tires get here. I'd post pics of the Klein, but it looks really fucking goofy with the green wheels- I'll post another response with the wheels on the green Trek and the Klein when they come in and I mount the tires later today- will update the weights, as well.

Any tips/advice/suggestions for removing those green decals? Sometimes I like them, but they're definitely very green and they only work with one bike- and I also really like the look of bare deep-section carbon wheels. I've heard of the hairdryer method and also a heat-gun but I'm kinda scared of using a heat-gun on carbon wheels and maybe delaminating the carbon.

[ChrisB]

The 38mm Ican wheels sound like a good choice. I had good experiences with CSC and Elite wheels so far... all three sets perform well without any problems over several thousand KM.
I opted for Novatec 411 hubs which allow me to adapt to my 15mm diameter forks. One set I got with DT Swiss 350 hubs during sale at a good price.

Shimano R7000 is the budget king IMHO if you want to stay in the Shimano world, not for behind the Ultegra R8000.
I did not yet dive into Di2 and stayed with mechanical shifting. As mentioned before I got my first Chinese cassettes to try out so no experience yet.
They look good and are light but time will tell how good they really are. ;-)

To remove stickers you can try to heat them up with a hair dryer of hot air gun (maybe remove tires first) and then remove the remaining glue with glue stripper that you will find in your home improvement store.
Usually some elbow grease is required if the manufacturer used nasty glue...

Looking forward to see the progress of your project, have a great Sunday.

[dpitel]

The 38mm Ican wheels sound like a good choice. I had good experiences with CSC and Elite wheels so far... all three sets perform well without any problems over several thousand KM.
I opted for Novatec 411 hubs which allow me to adapt to my 15mm diameter forks. One set I got with DT Swiss 350 hubs during sale at a good price.

Shimano R7000 is the budget king IMHO if you want to stay in the Shimano world, not for behind the Ultegra R8000.
I did not yet dive into Di2 and stayed with mechanical shifting. As mentioned before I got my first Chinese cassettes to try out so no experience yet.
They look good and are light but time will tell how good they really are. ;-)

To remove stickers you can try to heat them up with a hair dryer of hot air gun (maybe remove tires first) and then remove the remaining glue with glue stripper that you will find in your home improvement store.
Usually some elbow grease is required if the manufacturer used nasty glue...

Looking forward to see the progress of your project, have a great Sunday.

Ugh, fucking wheels are late- hopefully they'll get here sometime in the next week. Yeah, I'm definitely a fan of the R7000. It's interesting, the weight difference between Ultegra and 105- I was fucking with the Klein last night and wanted to weigh my 6800 crank; as in the two sets of chainrings i have (50/34 and 53/39) and spider, well the 50 tooth ring is a 5800 and all the other ones are 6800- even with having three more teeth, the 53 tooth 6800 weighs about 20 grams less than the 50 tooth 5800! I was definitely surprised. I actually just bought a 50 tooth 6800 ring from someone on marketplace so I'm waiting to get that. I also just found a carbon seatpost I bought off Amazon that I didn't think I liked, but I figured out how to adjust it and mounted it on the Klein and now it weighs 7.7kgs/17.0lbs! I know I'm really nerding out on all this weight-weenie shit, and it's particularly ridiculous considering it's a mostly alloy bike from 16 years ago, but I'm honestly pretty psyched that once the wheels come in, I'll get it down to well under 17lbs, hoping for low 16s/low 7s!

Can't fucking wait for the wheels to come in, though, as long as I get the frame and the wheels in by the end of this week, I'll be happy. It's snowing like crazy again today, so no chance of outdoor riding for a few days at least and I fucking hate the trainer, though that might be b/c it's an old "dumb" trainer. Considering seeing if I can somehow set the trainer/one of my bikes up to make it "smart" so it could be a little bit interactive and I could have at least a tiny bit of motivation to not loose all the fitness I developed during summer and fall.

Will definitely post pics of the bikes with the new wheels. I'm actually thinking of selling the Klein once I get the Emonda if I can get one or two hundred dollars for it to fund my Di2 project, but the paint isn't in the best shape- we'll see.

Have a great rest of the weekend and stay warm over there!

[stef06700]

Hi, What are your feedbacks on this GR029 comfort frame, rigidity I hesitate between several frames I would like a fairly sporty and comfortable one anyway 

[ChrisB]

Hello Stef

Sorry to respond so late... the frame holds up really well.
We modified to full hydraulic GRX groupset a few months ago.
Additionally upgraded with carbon wheels and 38mm Panaracer tires.

While the Chinese Sensah group set offers good shifting and great gear range for the price, the cable activated disc breaks did not hold up. The brake pistons were not activating reliably. Either the left or the right pistons stoped to move on both the front and the rear brake.
If you want decent cable activated disc brakes to combine with the Sensah group set check the Juintech offerings F1 or GT.

After the modification to Shimano GRX and carbon wheels, my girlfriend commented "It rides and feels completely different"
So in short the GR029 is a great option for a reasonable price, even if not following the latest in design trends.