The bargain gravel bike!

irishrover99

Alek wrote: »

Ya still chasing gravel KOMs on 23mm slicks? ;}

Lucky to get out now Alek . I have a real job now that does not revolve around me cycling 😀

Deano12345

Another boring update!

The shifter arrived today, earlier than expected. R7000 series has a really nice shift action to it, pleasantly surprised!

Frame is expected by the end of the week so I'll get the ball rolling hopefully over the weekend.

Tyres are on the way, I went with the Jack Brown Green's. Will report back on how they perform.

Since its a white bike, with tan walls, I'm thinking of going with brown bar tape...thoughts/suggestions?

Deano12345

Good news, the frame has arrived to my addresspal, bad news is that there was some sort of issue with my card and they won’t process the new payment for 3 working days...booooo!

The tires did arrive though and I’ve mounted the front up, they have a lovely finish and almost mounted themselves, super easy! I did it by hand!

a148pro

Very interesting thread on that tyre - what is the thinking behind it? Will it not be problematic in any mud?

Deano12345

a148pro wrote: »

Very interesting thread on that tyre - what is the thinking behind it? Will it not be problematic in any mud?

Possibly, but I’m actually thinking more along the lines of having these wheels and tire as a comfy road setup,

I’ll get a second set of wheels and more off road oriented tires if I find I’m doing a lot of that type of riding. All disk brake bikes seem to be going Thru-Axle so another set of wheels is fairly cheap, I’ve seen sets for around 80-100 quid second hand!

Deano12345

The frame finally arrived. Mounted all the parts on the frame on my lunch, just have to run the cables this evening but it’ll be rolling by the end of the night hopefully.

Will sit down and do the maths on what it’s cost me so far too!

Alek

I love your lack of patience when it comes to assembling new bikes. I'm the same ;D

cletus

Deano12345

I really should have waiting till I actually did anything before posting, I just got too excited

Built it up after dinner and well, it rolls! Got it cabled up, just need one more brake cable inner and it’ll have all the parts.

A quick test spin down the road and around the green and I’m happy with it. Handling is fairly sharp, and the tires roll very nicely, it’s super comfy!

Next to be done on it is to install the rear brake cable, a different saddle (one on is just a placeholder) and fine tune the gears and brakes, and finally give it a good wash and detail before putting on the bar tape and calling it done! Planning on doing all that after work tomorrow, taking it on a spin to Howth on Saturday for its first proper outing.

The final build ended up being this:

Ridgeback Flight 03
Cannondale C2 bar & Stem
Generic brake and gear cables
SLR brake housing/Jagwire EL gear housing
5800/7000 Shifters
5800/7000 front/rear mech
SLK Crankset (53/39)
Bontrager Carbon Seatpost
Generic Cannondale saddle
11-34 Casette
Alexrims rims
Jack Brown Blue tires
Tektro Discs
Tektro Lyra calipers
Deda brown leather look bar tape

In the end, the only parts I ended up buying are these

Frame/fork/Seatpost/brakes -€100
Tires & Tubes - €50
Front left shifter -€68
Front and rear mech - €40
Bar Tape - €10

Not a bad invest to have another bike on the road instead of a collection of spare bits I probably wouldn’t use!

Deano12345

Alek wrote: »

I love your lack of patience when it comes to assembling new bikes. I'm the same ;D

Ha! I’m the same with anything I order online to be honest!

I’m very glad Amazon Prime is a thing!

a148pro

That's super, well done Deano

All we need now is Alek to nominate a nice gentle spin to initiate it. Say, maybe 220k with 80% off road and 3000m climbing. And rabid dogs and psycho covid nuns maurading along the route.

Alek

psycho covid nuns maurading along the route.

Yeah, let's put some evil into Weevil

80% gravel in this country? I'm afraid the best I can do is around 65% https://www.strava.com/routes/19634128

Deano12345

a148pro wrote: »

That's super, well done Deano

All we need now is Alek to nominate a nice gentle spin to initiate it. Say, maybe 220k with 80% off road and 3000m climbing. And rabid dogs and psycho covid nuns maurading along the route.

In the rain, with ice on road sections too

Deano12345

A quick update for anyone wondering if the bike has fallen apart yet

I’ve done around 200km on it in the last few weeks, and in all honesty, it’s pretty much been perfect!

The setback Seatpost definitely doesn’t suit me so I have an absolute bargain of a Zipp SL Speed seatpost (I know, OTT for a build like this, but it was cheap enough to justify!) also bought and fitted a Deda Zero stem since the Cannondale one was a touch too long.

As far as on road handling, it handles pretty well, not too twitchy or too lazy, geometry isn’t too aggressive so I’m finding it very comfortable. Yet to take it properly off road at all.

Only thing I’m not happy with is the brake performance, after a bit of spirited decending yesterday, there was a noticeable amount of brake fade. Decided to order up some cheap cable pull hydraulic Calipers off Amazon. They should be an improvement, and even if they’re only the same stopping power they use generic Shimano pads so easier to replace than the Lyra ones!

Will report back on how they do!

Deano12345

Brakes arrived!

Got them fitted up and two thumbs up. Not quite as good as my full hydro 8020's for feel, but they feel like they stop just as quick. A massive massive improvement in both feel and performance from the Lyra's. Highly recommend them for anyone with an entry level bike with mech cable brakes. Much less faff than a a full hydro system too!

Heading out on a nice flat Christmas Day spin tomorrow to get them properly bedded in!

Weepsie

Presuming you got juin tech or trp hy/rds

Deano12345

Weepsie wrote: »

Presuming you got juin tech or trp hy/rds

Even cheaper! XTech HB-100’s. Plenty of people actually using them on electric scooters of all things, so there was a few reviews/tests out there. Lots of people seemingly using them on ebikes too.

Won’t be doing any hills for around a week so I won’t be able to really hammer them until then, I’ll be interested to see if they suffer from much fade

whiz

Do any bike shops have good Christmas sales ?

Deano12345

whiz wrote: »

Do any bike shops have good Christmas sales ?

Depends on what you’re after! Generally best bargains are to be found when the new model year of bike comes in, which is normally June/July. There’s such a shortage at the moment I’d imagine even last years models being in demand!