Nashbar AL/Carbon frame Budget WW build.....

[syncmaster]

Hello All,

New to the forum here so I thought I'd introduce myself and my budget WW (to me at least) project I've been working on slowly for the past year.

This is my first proper road bike and I was on a tight budget at the start. It began with me finding an great deal on a donor bike with nice, new Ultegra 6700 components but with a cracked cheap Carbon frame. So I bought the bike and swapped in the broken carbon frame for this Nashbar Carbon/AL frame that at the time you could get from Nashbar for $150.... I saw good reviews on the site and figured it'd be a good temporary solution to use until I found a better frame. I even sold the cracked Carbon frame on ebay for about $80 so it brought down the cost of the initial build even more.

The initial bike built up with the donor parts ended up around 18.5lb... which is super heavy for this website's standards and I quickly caught the Weight Weenie bug and started upgrading.

A year later I'm at this point and here's what the bike looks like:



Full Current Build list:
Nashbar AL/Carbon integrated frame
Carbon Fork from Bikeisland.com
Specialized Toupe Expert Saddle
Omni Racer Zero set-back carbon seat post
KCNC C7 Brake calipers
Yokozuna Cables and housings
Stradalli carbon bottle cages
Ritchey Pro Bars
Ritchey Pro Stem
Fizik bar tape
FSA SLK Light Crankset and Megaexo BB
Ultegra 6700 Shifters/derailleurs
Ultegra Chain
Ultegra 11-28t Cassette
Speedplay Zero pedals
Farsports 50mm Carbon Tubulars
Continental Sprinter tubular tires

Total weight: 15.70 pounds or 7.1kg

I always intended to replace the frame with something nicer but so far it's been holding up very well over the past year. I think I'll probably get something new for next spring but the Nashbar frame should be fine through the winter.

I know it's not super lightweight compared to most of the builds on this site, but it's my first go and I was on a budget. I figure that if I were to upgrade to a 1,000g (or less) carbon frame in the future, it'll immediately drop the total weight into the low 14s which will be nice.

Thanks for reading!

[btompkins0112]

Huge fan of this build! This is what this site is about......making a bike as light as possible with the funds/materials you have available. Welcome.....this would be a great winter bike if you could save and spring for a complete, new bike as well. Looks very sharp as is.....the only thing I would do (and is purely aesthetic) is spring for a straight blade fork.

[syncmaster]

Thanks! It's been a blast to put together and ride.

[CarpetFibre]

Upvoted this on Reddit! Good job!

[syncmaster]

Thanks! Unfortunately I'm running into some issues with the wheels right now... but I'm hopefully getting everything sorted with the manufacturer.

[xjbaylor]

Great job on the bike, I love it. As others have said, it is good to see someone go WW on a budget.

If you don't mind me asking, what problems are you having with the wheels? I also have a pair of Farsport wheels (38mm clinchers), so naturally I am curious.

[syncmaster]

Thanks for the kind words!

Sure, the rear rim on my Farsports wheels had a small defect in the rim edge. I posted about it here on WW:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=107985

But as you'll read, FS has been absolutely fantastic with taking care of me and they have already sent me a replacement rim, as well as reimbursed me for the cost of rebuilding the wheel here in the States.

[welkman]

really like this build, classy

[prendrefeu]

Looks great!

What size frame did you pick up? I've been looking at those frames for another low budget build lately, it's good to see one built up.

[syncmaster]

Thanks guys!

prendrefeu: This one is the 50cm frame but in reality it's more like a 53cm. Their sizing is kind of weird so I'd take a good look at the sizing chart for this frame on the site.

[wolfesquire]

First off, AWESOME build.

Frame weight?
How much do the tubulars weigh?
How does it ride? What did you ride before this frame?

[syncmaster]

Thank you!

I never weighed the frame when I got it because at the time I had no scale. According to others, though, the Nashbar frame in size 48cm was just over 1,400g. So I'm guessing my size is slightly heavier than that.

The wheels weigh just a hair over 1,200g bare.

[Alexpy]

Beatiful Bike, because of this built i decide to buy the same frame from Amazon, i matched up with mavic cosmic carbone sl wheels (no a real wheight weenie) but now i have a mayor problem i am from Paraguay south America and i here i cant find the right headset for this frame so i hope you can help me and tell with is the especific headset i have to buy from Amazon
Great Bike and pelase help me

[HaroldC]

Great build for the budget!

Did you get to weight the Omni seatpost? I thought about getting one, but wonder how accurate the claims from eBay are. Also, how difficult is it to adjust?


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[thisisbenji]

Love the bike! Thought about getting one myself... but couldn't bring myself to it. It wouldn't have looked as good as yours.