Lynskey Sportive Disc, Hydraulics and Di2

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TrevisL
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:47 pm

by TrevisL

Yep I was looking for silver crankset but it wasn't easy at the time in 11spd. There was DuraAce which was never going to happen, Campag Athena and, the promise of 105.

I love the Athena looks but I just can't be bothered with their whole install and the custom tools needed to manage one.

Why Ultegra isn't available in silver is beyond me.

Shimano do have another low end one but I don't know if it takes the thin 6800 chain.

Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

Fair enough reasons!

I've found 105 cassettes and chain rings to wear out quickly when commuting. Well they do where I ride.

It's a pity about the Campy tool thing as I think an Athena chainset would suit your bike.

by Weenie


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Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

I'm going to order the bits for my new wheelset.

I have the front hub - the SP8 and have decoded on grey H Plus Son Archetypes with black Sapims.

I haven't decided on a rear hub yet - I'm interested in future-proofing so would like an 11s compatible rear hub. I can find only two options - the Shimano CX-75 and the Hope Pro 3 with replacement 11s cassette body,

I'd appreciate peoples thought on which one to go for.....

TrevisL
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:47 pm

by TrevisL

Have you looked at the White Industries CLD? It's a bit pricey but I love it, smooth and silent. Great quality.

Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

Nice left field suggestion! I hadn't looked at those and an initial search has yielded that they might be hard to come by in the UK. Preferably I'd like a really loud freehub as I like to use it to warn pedestrians that I'm approaching.

TrevisL
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:47 pm

by TrevisL

You could look at DT-Swiss, they do some 11-speed centrelock hubs. Eg. 350 DB, 240S DB, or the 180 ceramic DB. Never used any of them but my old DT-Swiss wheels went the distance without trouble.

Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

Hmmm, DT Swiss - indeed, I've got their internals on my Xentis TT wheel and have always been amazed at its continuing smoothness in the 'car park' test.

The 350 is tempting, really tempting although it doesn't look like it's 11s out of the box, meaning even more hassle later on. Even the most basic 350 hub is £170, the 240 rear hub is an even more expensive at £300 and the 180 ceramic is a just plain pornographic £774! How can they justify charging £774 for that and who buys them? My Powertap was over £170 less than that and that's crammed full of electronics and carefully calibrated 'stuff'.

Anyway, I'd really like centre-locks so am now beginning to think whether it'd be better to simply buy a c/lock XT 10s hub, then pull it out of the wheel and rob it for parts when the time comes to move to 11s. A complete XT rear hub is £34, which is a lot less than a replacement Hope or DT swiss freehub body. I can't believe that 11s XT hubs will be that much more than this when they are eventually released.

TrevisL
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:47 pm

by TrevisL

Pretty sure the new 350 DB is an actual 11spd centre lock and comes with a spacer for 10spd if desired. http://www.dtswiss.com/Components/Hubs-Road/350-db-en

As for the 180 ceramic, just think of the extra millisecond you will glean from those friction free bearings, surely worth quadruple the price to get home at 6:00pm instead of 6:01pm...

Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

Thanks for the link. I guess that when I looked I didn't see the '11 speed road' etched into the cassette body. However, it looks like that hub is 12mm bolt-thru and 142mm spacing and my Lynskey isn't that.

The MTB hub here: http://www.dtswiss.com/Components/Hubs-MTB/350-2 is 135mm/QR but only 9/10s.

Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

After a completely uneventful winter of commuting on my Sportive, I decided that with the lighter evenings and better weather, it was time to give the bike a clean ready for swapping over to my summer commuting bike.

After giving the frame and components a quick once over with the sponge, I wiped the black mess off the chainstay to reveal this 70mm long crack in the frame. Quite an unusual place for a crack, but a crack. The frame has always had a weird clunking noise that until now, I've been unable to pin point, thinking it was the headset.

Image

Fearing the worst, I got in touch with Don at Lynskey, who promptly and apologetically confirmed that the frame would be repaired 'better than new' back in the US. Thank god, and fair play to Lynskey, their support continues to impress.

What it does mean though is that I have the nauseating job of dismantling the bike with its various wiring harnesses and faf. It does give me the chance to give all the bits a proper clean, swap the brake hoses and pads and swap over that nasty insulation tape job that I otherwise would never have done. Hopefully the frame will have a nice holiday over the summer and be refreshed and ready in time to do battle with the elements again in the autumn.

User avatar
Miller
Posts: 2764
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:54 pm
Location: Reading, UK

by Miller

What a bummer! Still, we love doing stuff to bikes. Don't we?
This is why it is necessary to have several bikes.

Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

My Sportive frame has finally made it back from its trip to the USA. At first I thought that it was actually a replacement frame rather than a repair, until I found that the chainstay hadn’t been drilled for Di2. Obviously no frame would be built like this is one go. Annoyingly, this meant another trip back to the shop to be remedied.

In spite of this, the process has been pretty painless and took approximately 8 weeks from shipment to final receipt. Fortunately I didn’t need the bike over the summer so haven’t missed it and the repair is so good that you couldn’t actually tell it was a repair.

Image

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One bonus is that the frame has come back thoroughly cleaned and with a new set of decals. I’m looking forward to putting the bike back together over the weekend.

alanmclean
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:10 pm
Location: Inverclyde, Scotland

by alanmclean

Hi Deev, this is a very interesting thread, thanks. I have recently posted about looking for a Di2 dedicated/disc/winter frame.

I was hoping to find an alloy frame drilled for Di2 for <£500 but they don't exist! Only Lynskey and a couple of others produce frames, all in Ti or SS and they are all expensive! Before I consider spending a load of money I would be very grateful to know of any problems with the frame for your great winter set-up. Are there any missing or irritating features? Would you do the same again? Will the rebuild be identical?

Thanks
Alan

romalor
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 3:56 pm

by romalor

look on ebay some caad10 disc maybe

Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

I was hoping to find an alloy frame drilled for Di2 for <£500 but they don't exist! Only Lynskey and a couple of others produce frames, all in Ti or SS and they are all expensive! Before I consider spending a load of money I would be very grateful to know of any problems with the frame for your great winter set-up. Are there any missing or irritating features? Would you do the same again? Will the rebuild be identical?


I will be rebuilding my Lynskey exactly as it was before. With the ease of the Di2 and dynamo lights it just worked so well. The only thing to add for this winter is a pannier rack.

In the past two years since I built my bike, there has been a lot of incremental improvements to disc-brakes on the road and the braking is the only area I'd look to improve on mine.

If I were doing it again, knowing what I know now, I'd look out for:

1) Shimano full-hydraulic Di2 lever. It's neater and I suspect the lever feel is better. I use the Hope hybrid system, which is fine, but even Hope admit a full hydraulic is better.

2) Bolt through front axle. I would see this as a must to stiffen the front up over the QR setup. The front brake squeals very badly and having tried a few options, I've given up and am just living with it. I watched this excellent video the other night which would imply that it's not only me that has experienced this problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdWsSB9QGkY

3) Tapered headset. Braking from 35mph to 10mph (I do this several times on my commute) puts a lot of load on the fork to the point where you can see and feel it bending so any additional stiffness here would be beneficial. The new Sportive has a tapered headset I notice. It also opens up a whole world of fork options as straight 1.125in disc road forks are pretty rare.

For whatever reason, electronic shifting still hasn't really widely caught on, especially in the commuting world. This for me is where the Di2 system excels. However, due to the low uptake there still don't seem to be many internal Di2 disc road bikes with a focus on commuting. There's the Lynskey, which is expensive, Burls may be able to make you a Ti custom frame with discs and Di2 internal and there are literally hundreds on unbranded carbon options on eBay China.

The previous poster suggested the CAAD10 disc: http://www.cannondale.com/nam_en/2015/bikes/road/elite-road/caad10/caad10-sram-rival-disc

My brother in law has one and is very happy with it indeed and it certainly looks the business with its magnificent blue paintwork. It's a bargain at the moment too, £1350 in the late summer sales. I'm seriously contemplating getting one in the bike to work scheme, for no other reason than to have something lightweight to ride when it's raining in the summer. It's Di2 ready too. As far as I know the Cannondale Synapse is Di2 ready as well and this may be a better choice for commuting due to its less racy setup. One drawback with both of these is that neither seem to come with eyelets for a rack or mudguards. This may or may not bother you. It would bother me, I hate those strap on mudguards. One other thing, is that that beautiful paint will get damaged and scratched with all the salt and debris and rack rash at work. I've not seen the CAAD10 disc as a frameset only, so if you wanted Di2 it's not going to be straightforward.

Philosophically, I often think whether it was wise or sensible to buy a commuting bike frame that was over 10 times more expensive than my old Ribble. Probably not, but then again I've never ridden my Lynskey and not loved it. I pretty much hated every ride on my Ribble.

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

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