Raleigh Merit Comp Road Disc - now w/ pics - 3rd post.

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mdeth1313
Posts: 2066
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:38 am
Location: Dutchess County, NY

by mdeth1313

I was going back and forth about getting another bike. My NP Bura SL (approx 5.7 kg) is my main bike and I use it for commuting to work (which is really a training ride) and the past two years I've been riding it straight through the winter. I have a 2nd bike, but the frame is a little too big and I never was able to get it dialed in.
I looked at a few bikes and ultimately decided to get a disc brake road bike- had a nice trek boone lined up on craigslist only to have it sold to someone who was able to get to it sooner- I was a little nervous about going w/ a 1x setup when it would mostly be used on the road and for some dirt road exploring (not gravel, just hardpack).

I got a really, really good deal on a raleigh merit comp. I knew it would be heavy for my standards, but I have a ton of back up stuff laying around and w/ shimano 105 spec'd on the bike, I figured it could be interesting.

I'll post some pics tomorrow - it should be ready for riding in a couple more days, but I had to get these numbers out as a teaser-

dropped over 800 g using stuff I had.

This is the net loss for the following switches:

Post/saddle: 401g
Bars: 155g
Removing reflectors: 80g (haven't gotten around to pulling off the rear wheel for pie plate removal from the cassette).
Stem: 107g
Bar Tape/Plugs: 75g
Top Cap: 6g
Headset/fork spacers: 25g
Seatpost Collar: 8g

I will have to purchase a lighter set of disc compatible wheels, the stock wheels are probably over 2000g. Tires and tubes will need to be switched out as well. Now that I have the stem/bars, post and saddle sorted the fit is falling into place nicely.
Speedplay is the devil!

mannequinforce
Posts: 150
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:52 am

by mannequinforce

400 grams on post/saddle! That's a hell of a lot of extra fat.

by Weenie


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mdeth1313
Posts: 2066
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:38 am
Location: Dutchess County, NY

by mdeth1313

Lots of pics:

Incidentally, this is the first complete bike I've purchased since 1998 when I bought a trek oclv 5220. Every other bike has been purchased as a frameset and then components switched over, upgraded etc. Of course this thing is being completely ripped apart and being rebuilt, but that's half the fun. The frame is probably pretty heavy, but I'm ok with that it's nice and shiny, should be easy to clean up and I love the color.

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Their super padded bar tape and plugs to my friction tape.

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Bike Hard Carbon Bars (claimed weight 185g) - picked these up some time ago for 100 usd & never used them, like cheap chinese bars but actually meet testing standards. Their behemoth bars.

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Ok, not everyone has an extra mcfk post hanging around w/ a backup ax lightness endurance saddle, but I picked up backups for these years ago- the ax saddle is easily 7 years old (and needs to have new clearcloat applied) and the mckf post is about 4 years old, picked up a backup about 3 years ago from a fellow WW member. I figured it was a good excuse to break the backups out for the WW bike and move these over. I had to take pics of their saddle/post separately because they overloaded my scale.

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Reflectors and other garbage removed:

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Their seat collar, I didn't take a pic of the seat collar I'm using, I think it was on my 1st NP frame (when it was warrantied they sent a new frameset complete w/ hardware so this was laying around). Have to source a ti bolt and the one I'm using should drop to the 13g range.

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Point 1 spacers I've had sitting around for their (thick) alloy thingies. Not pictured is the replacement for their conical top- I used the NP top from my warrantied frameset.

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Stems. Had a 110 mm kalloy uno stem laying around, complete w/ ti bolts. Theirs is a little piggy, but has some kind of shock absorption system built in, which explains a bit of the weight (as it does for their seatpost).

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Their top cap replaced w/ a fiberlyte top cap I've had sitting around for years. I should source a proper alloy bolt for it.

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I'll have to wait a bit to get a wheelset I'll be happy with- I will probably opt for lighter thru axles as well, not sure about rotors. Over time, if I use the bike quite a bit I can always upgrade derailleurs, now I have to learn the whole hydraulic thingy- bleeding brakes etc.
Speedplay is the devil!

mdeth1313
Posts: 2066
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:38 am
Location: Dutchess County, NY

by mdeth1313

Nothing yet, I still need to tape the bars and set up the crudbuster fenders. I'll probably get that squared away over the weekend.
Speedplay is the devil!

mdeth1313
Posts: 2066
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:38 am
Location: Dutchess County, NY

by mdeth1313

First ride this morning- rode to work - woke up and everything was soaked from fog/mist. Switched my lights to this bike and off I went. I like it. It's heavier, but I wasn't much slower (no wind today) and it rides really nice, less twitchy, but that's to be expected w/ the extra weight.

As for the disc brakes, I used them twice - once going down a short steep hill before a sharp right and then to stop at the end of the ride, but not much discovery there. I like it a lot more than my previous backup bike that I never wanted to ride, so this works. It also looks absolutely fantastic!
Speedplay is the devil!

by Weenie


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Johnny Rad
Posts: 2025
Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:22 am
Location: Zion

by Johnny Rad

MCFK and AX_Lightness back-up gear?! Damn, that's a helluva impressive stash.

Not sure I have two nickels to rub together in my stash.

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