Velobuild VB-R-218

[earicm]

It looks perfect! 

Are they 50mm deep wheels or deeper?

yes they are 50mm deep great set of wheels.

[kongo]

Having ridden both my VB-177 and VB-168 for some time now, I share the same exact sentiments of GC Performance.

Sluggish but overall a good value for the price. You probably wont get dropped from a fast group ride or lose any competitions solely because of a VeloBuild frame, and I don't think anyone really expects the frame to truly compete with frames ridden by professionals, enthusiasts, and dentists alike.

pretty much my expectations but the fact the his tire pressure is so high. all in all not a bad review. @patliean1whens the next vid?

[Queen of Skulls]

Having ridden both my VB-177 and VB-168 for some time now, I share the same exact sentiments of GC Performance.

Sluggish but overall a good value for the price. You probably wont get dropped from a fast group ride or lose any competitions solely because of a VeloBuild frame, and I don't think anyone really expects the frame to truly compete with frames ridden by professionals, enthusiasts, and dentists alike.

Wait are you saying that the 218 feels sluggish to the 168 and 177 or they all feel stiff and sluggish?

[kongo]

Wait are you saying that the 218 feels sluggish to the 168 and 177 or they all feel stiff and sluggish?

i think he means all

[Queen of Skulls]

i think he means all

Ah probably. I am still on strong pain meds, recovering from surgery. I am not at my sharpest.  I mean they will all be awesome bikes to me. But if there significant difference difference between two. I am thinking about going for the 218 over the 168.  So I was like this is important info if there is a difference. If one feels better that the one I want to go with.

Edit: so thinking about it, We should be asking where are these land in comparability to other bikes.  If its not equal or close to a f12.... is it closer to an f10? k10? Prince? So on and so forth.  How much value are we actually getting.  but it preforms like a much lower end bike such as a $2500 bike. Is it worth saving 500 for the headaches and troubles.

I mean if it preforms between the f10 and f12 its totally worth it.

[Queen of Skulls]

Looks like we got a new video up about quality from the diabetic cyclist. Race is a little surprising, little... but face the disc mount is not. How ever they can face the bb mount to make sure they are parallel. Also I would check for rubbing on the inside.


 

[madmax]

I went with option 1. Mainly because I already have a collection of rim brake wheels and I had the Campy groupset already. Mechanical routing on this frame is doable. Honestly I thought it was going to be way worse. Also, this Frameset is really heavy and in its rim brake version despite being the largest size, it’s below 8kg including pedals and accessories. I can get it down to 7.6 with my lightest wheels.  And the terrain makes a difference IMO. My rides are predominantly flat so overheating my carbon rims is just not an issue. I have basically no rim wear and a set of pads lasts ages.

Hi, a few questions on your rim brake build

1. What wheels did you use ?

2. Which campy groupset did you go with ?

3. When ordering the frame for rim, what options did you select for bottom bracket & brake mounts ?

[madmax]

Having ridden both my VB-177 and VB-168 for some time now, I share the same exact sentiments of GC Performance.

Sluggish but overall a good value for the price. You probably wont get dropped from a fast group ride or lose any competitions solely because of a VeloBuild frame, and I don't think anyone really expects the frame to truly compete with frames ridden by professionals, enthusiasts, and dentists alike.

Can you define "sluggish" or add more context ?
I went from a dura-alloy 2005 Fuji to a 2021 Madone SL-7 eTap and that is my first and only carbon bike till date and it flies and I'm not even that strong of a cyclist.

I guess to me, any carbon frame would feel fast & I would expect any build on this frame to be less than my current 19.2lbs for the sl7

I'm surprised the earlier poster with the rim brake build/campy groupset clocked in @8kg/17.63lbs, which is light than my current bike

[Sebastian]

Hi, a few questions on your rim brake build

1. What wheels did you use ?

2. Which campy groupset did you go with ?

3. When ordering the frame for rim, what options did you select for bottom bracket & brake mounts ?

1. I got 60mm deep tubular wheels from Aliexpress which weigh a stupidly light 1300g. With those wheels I get the bike down to 7.65kg ready to ride. With my heavier clincher wheels it weighs 7.9kg.

2. The majority of the groupset is Campagnolo Centaur which IMO is very good value for money. Particularly because I like the down sweeping shifting paddles. Crankset is a very lightweight Campagnolo H11 (which is equivalent to Record). Brakes are Record because I needed direct mount and those were the only available brakes. They're not particularly lightweight @320g the pair.

3. I wasn't aware there was a choice. The frame is spec'd with a BSA threaded BB and mounting points for direct mount brakes. This - next to other things - was the reason I chose it.

[Sebastian]

GC performance review

Not much to see here, is there? He likes his Tarmac SL7 better than a 500 USD Velobuild-frame. Well, it better feel better than a VB-frame with that price tag. And I don't think anyone of us would expect this frame to compete with bikes with 5digit price tags.

About it being sluggish and less stiff. For what it's worth, this sounds pretty similar to the review that Cyclingtips did after one year of riding the actual Dogma F. They found it to feel harsh and criticized seat tube flex.
I don't think subjective ride impressions are worth much because everyone has a different frame of reference. To me, coming from a Ridley Helium frame, this frame definitely doesn't lack stiffness. And I always felt that most of the "snappiness" when sprinting or accelerating is coming from the wheels and how heavy they are, unless the frame is a complete noodle.

[Mikeyblue]

Hi Sebastian. Definitely agree regarding most of the ‘snappiness’ coming from the wheel set. Would be interesting to see his thoughts if he used the Rovals from the SL7!

[Queen of Skulls]

For 3x the price as those hypers. they better make it snappy.

[holmosapien]

I got the brake mounts faced last week, finished getting everything adjusted, and put 80km on the VB-R-218 over the weekend.

I'm not going to make any claims that I'm the most discerning rider, but I haven't found it to be sluggish or harsh. The final ready-to-ride weight[1] comes in at a whopping 9.945 kg, a full kg heavier than my Giant Defy and 1.5 kg more than my Canyon Ultimate in similar configurations, but it feels snappier than the Defy because of the steeper head angle, and is just as much fun as the Ultimate. If I hadn't seen the numbers on the scale, there's nothing about the ride that would make me think I'm riding a battleship.

My only complaint so far is that I decided not to wrap the cables with foam -- I've never had to on my other bikes, so I decided to forgo it with this build as well -- and that was a huge mistake. On the first ride the noise was distracting, but on the second ride I was more used to it. The internal cable routing was enough of a pain that I'm not going to take it apart to wrap the cables, but once the cables snap and I need to replace them, I will be putting in foam liners.

[1] Ready-to-ride includes pedals, saddle bag with repair kit, bottle cages, Wahoo, and lights, but not the water itself.

[Irideslowly]

How can you even use the word sluggish, without comparing it to a frame 5x the price???

What does sluggish mean?

If you want to compare this bike, please compare it to a similarly priced bike. You cannot pay 2000USD ,  and expect it to ride like a 15 000USD bike.

Nobody buys a Toyota corolla ( no offense) and expects it to drive like a Lamborghini.

[keno190]

Normally I'd agree with you but most people (including me) are curious how it fares against a frame costing 6k since...you know...it's inspired by a frame that's selling for 6k.