Road Newbie, First Build

[GaryOS]

As this is my first road bike build, I thought it would be useful to document it here. Hopefully people will be able to pick up on any silly mistakes I might make along the way too!

I am waiting on my Park scales to arrive so that I can confirm weights of the parts I have, then I can start the build. I think the rest of the build might be a little slow as I'm hoping to pick up some parts second hand. I don't want to commit more than the value of my car to a build, given I'm a less than regular roadie...





Opinions & (constructive) criticisms welcome.

[GaryOS]

Thank you for the kind words. I've used a KMC X9SL on my commuter and I was impressed. I'll certainly consider an X11SL for this build.

[btompkins0112]

Looks good thus far. Interested to see the progress!

[Mr.Gib]

Not even built and there's already a saddlebag on it. I guess the title says it all. Maybe try just a tube and CO2 cartridge in your jersey pocket. You've come to the right place for tough love. Please don't feel bad, your pals here at Weightweenies just don't want you to get out there looking like a Fred. And those lights are because you do a fair bit of riding at night, right?

Decent build though.

[GaryOS]

Sorry for disappointing you, Mr. Gib

I think the saddle bag will at least be getting smaller. I think I'll use the Uno rather than the Dual (pictured). I can fit a tube, 2 x CO2 cartridges,2 x tire levers, puncture kit, energy gel, emergency cash & tune skewer wrench in there. I think it's more neatly packaged than if everything was in a jersey pocket. If the bike below can get away with a saddle bag, I hope I can too!

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=117444&hilit=parlee&start=135

As for the lights, they'll strictly be for evening rides. They can easily be removed without leaving the brackets etc. in place. It's now an offence to ride under darkness without lights over here. Hopefully save me being run over too...

[ross]

The Uno is a much more subtle saddlebag but should still be removed for photos posted on here, most people are like

[GaryOS]

Message received!

[GaryOS]

My scales arrived. Some weights confirmed

[GaryOS]

Something worth mentioning. The aluminium stub on the top of my seat post is a couple of mm shorter than my Tune clamp. Do you think it will clamp up OK, as pictured?

[ross]

Should still clamp evenly but will accumulate dirt & moisture pretty bad

[Krull]

well-done documentation! looking forward to the finished build. the merlin-frameset is a great-looking basis, with the slim tubes and the nice paint-job.
i am although using tune bottle-cages with one of my bikes. just removed the small, fluted rubber, which is fixed with the lower screw. did not manage to get cages fixed with this part.
although nice the carbonice-parts!
an alternative to the mcfk-expander is the extralite ultrastar. working well and saving a few grams.
https://www.speedwareshop.de/Extralite-UltraStar-2

[GaryOS]

Thank you Krull, the hardware I've got isn't as nice as a lot of the topics on here so hopefully I can keep people interested by documenting it thoroughly.
I didn't encounter any problems installing the Tune cages, I'll take a close up picture to see if I've avoided the problem that you saw.
Thanks for the tip on the Extralite expander. I could always put the MCFK on my commuter & save a few grams with the Extralite on this build.

If the sun appears at some stage this weekend (unlikely...), I'll get a picture of the progress.

[GaryOS]

The sun broke out for a little while today so I took a few snaps of all the progress that I could make with the parts that I have.





The steerer will be cut once I get to grips with positioning. I'm relatively flexible so hopefully I'll be able to keep the stem low. The seat post will also be dropping by a couple of cm. It's currently fouling on some nasty internal resin & carbon in the frame so I can't get it as low as I need it. I think I'll buy a Dremel to clean up the internals of the seat tube. I would rather not have to cut the seat post.

I think that it will be at least a few weeks before I buy any more parts. I'm currently burning into my savings which I should be keeping for more sensible causes. Once I get a new job I'll treat myself to the rest of the parts.

Tips & criticisms welcome. I've never build a road bike so I will probably make some newbie mistakes (bar orientation etc.).

[GaryOS]

Long time no post...

I got a bit disheartened after getting shafted on a deal a while ago. Finally finished the bike. I haven't got the final weight yet as I'm using different skewers. I need to figure out how I'm going to fit the Tune Skylines as my dropouts are a touch too narrow.

Since the initial weight estimate I cut 30mm off the steerer, lost a 30 mm headset spacer, cut ~60 mm of the seatpost, and used less than the full wrap of handlebra tape. Hopefully that drops a little off the initial estimate of 6.6kg. Final weight should be 6.5kg ish.


https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipO ... u40kEjJqPA

And with my winter hack

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipM ... WQdR6AbWgy


https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipO ... DQKvAgAG_6

I've built up a reasonable level of fitness, by my awful standards, munching miles on the 9.5kg single speed whilst the Merlin was coming together. Done a 5km climb on 8% average gradient and a 140km ride with 1,700m of climbing. Going out on the Merlin last weekend felt so easy in comparison, absolutely love it. I'm really quite pleased with how it looks too. The frame strikes me as being quite classical (round profiles, flat top tube) I know it's got bulky tube junctions, but that doesn't put me off. The shallow rims, cotton walled tyres, rounded profile handlebars and leather bar tape all work well in my opinion. From a distance, it would be a hard bike to put an year on.

Lastly, my "flashy" new shoes...

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipP ... gWueJssCdS

Anyway, more importantly, what does everyone think?

Thanks

EDIT: Links added in case embedded images weren't working. Seemed OK for me in FireFox

[mrgray]

i'm not getting the photos in your latest post. plus as a major maker of deals on the internet i'm curious as to what happened? did someone welch? or was it a full scam?

pls post total photos plus those skewers! OMG. i did not know it was possible. i have some extralite aliens which are 28 g and i thought i was insane for using them. my lightweight skewers are 46 g or something. 18 g is amazing.