Lynskey Sportive Disc, Hydraulics and Di2

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

by Deev

As it's red hot outside, I'd thought I'd start a thread documenting my current winter commuter project / build.

After 6 years worth of winters on my trusty Ribble, I'm a bit bored of it and want something a bit better. After I checked my Strava account, I was slighty surprised to read that I do more miles on the Ribble than any of my, errr, 'better' bikes so I thought I might as well get something nice.

Here's the Ribble in the sun today, bless it:
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For its replacement, I want the following:

- Rides like my Van Nicholas
- 25mm rubber
- Low low maintenance
- Able to take a powermeter
- As light as possible (I want to train on this too)
- Disc brakes
- Durable finish to fend off damage in the rack at work inflicted by people's Halfords entry level 'bikes'.
- Ability to swap out wheels quickly (as in no hub gears etc.)

I went through all the various material options, quickly dropping the alloy as that wouldn't be a step forward, dropped carbon too although with all those cheap Chinerellos out there, it was tempting. That left steel and Ti. I was all set on a Cotic Road Rat, but there was no opportunity to fit internal cable on that without a repaint, so wasn't very future-proof. And the fork looks stoopid. After some Googling, I narrowed it down to the Lynskey Sportive and the Lynskey Cooper. The Sportive won out in the end as I liked the idea of a chain stay mounted brake calliper as it looks cleaner with the mudguard fitted. Also, I have a 27.2mm post spare, and the Cooper isn't a 27.2.

I made some inquiries about the frame at the various UK stockers and managed to get a deal. I paused a bit before pulling the trigger on it as I wanted Di2 provision. I contacted the factory, to find that this was another $500. Fortunately, the almost unbelievably helpful Don Erwin waived this charge. Thanks Don!!

So, at the moment, the frame and fork are in the welding queue and I'm amassing the bits.

Here's the spec at the moment:

Frame: Lynskey Sportive Disc (XL)
Fork: Lynskey Sport Disc
Headset: King NoThreadSet
Front and rear brake: Hope V-twin on SLX rotors
Front Mech: Ultegra Di2 6700
Rear Mech: Ultegra Di2 6700
STi units: Ultegra Di2 6700
Cranks: Ultegra 6600 (53/39) or Rotor3D with Power2max
Wheels: XT centrelocks (32h) on Mavic A317
Seatpost: Van Nicholas 27.2mm Ti
Pedals: Shimano SPDs
Saddle / Stem / bars / tape / tyres: TBA at the moment

I'm ordering all the bits, so I'll post pics and weights when it all shows up.

I've never seen a Ti Di2 bike with hydraulic discs so I'd welcome any thoughts / advice. :D

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btompkins0112
Posts: 2635
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2011 3:04 am
Location: Mississippi

by btompkins0112

How are you running hydraulic discs with 6700 levers??

by Weenie


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

by Deev

I've got a Hope V-twin cable to hydraulic converter system. Photos / mass details to follow...

User avatar
btompkins0112
Posts: 2635
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2011 3:04 am
Location: Mississippi

by btompkins0112

Ahhh......would be slicker/lighter with SRAM hydraulic or the new Shimano hydraulic, no?

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

by Deev

Yes, it would be a lot slicker, but I'm not going down that route just yet because:

1) The SRAM group whilst being hydraulic, is also mechanical and I won't have cable stops on the frame.
2) Shimano hydraulics aren't available yet in the UK, and even if they were, they'll be DA at first and therefore prohibitively expensive.
3) I got a deal on a Hope system.

Probably only 50g lighter than a full Ultegra hydraulic set up though.

Dammit
Posts: 437
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 8:16 pm

by Dammit

I'm doing something similar at the moment but with a 931 frame.

I ran a V-Twin on my winter bike all last year, lots of power but a bit numb- might have been how I had it set up of course.

Anyway I am using Ultegra Di2 levers with BR-CX75 calipers.

The frame is finished, just waiting for the fork to have the mudguard eyelets added then the whole thing can go to paint.

Very interested to see how yours turns out.

Rush
Posts: 362
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:10 am

by Rush

Deev wrote:2) Shimano hydraulics aren't available yet in the UK, and even if they were, they'll be DA at first and therefore prohibitively expensive.

I thought the first road hydraulic components were Ultegra?

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euan
Posts: 1571
Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 11:20 am

by euan

No, they are non group specific

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

by Deev

It turns out that Shimano are indeed making the Ultegra Di2 with hydraulic brakes, but the fact remains that they're not bringing them to the UK until November so they're a bit late. Pity.

I worked out that as the Ultegra hydraulic lever is 200g heavier than the cable one, the Hope hybrid setup is of almost exactly the same total weight at 835g including the Di2 levers compared to approx. 800g for the full Shimano hyd. setup. The Hope setup does look a bit messy though. Hopefully the use of Nokons should allow me to get it semi-neat.

My Di2 stuff has showed up - Had a play with it and I'm impressed so far!

Wheel-building next.....

usaok2
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:50 am

by usaok2

How is your build turning out? I am looking for ideas. I just ordered up a 2013 Lynskey Sportive Di2 disc frame. It showed up in the loft for a pretty significant discount as someone ordered a custom sportive disc with no cable routing, and they thought he meant Di2 routing... Anyways, I am in no rush so I will probably wait for the new Shimano 6870 stuff to come out in November with the Di2 and hydraulic brakes in the same package.

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

by Deev

Hi, I'm still awaiting delivery of the frame, running at about a month late but this Thursday is the day apparently. I've built the wheels, Mavic A317 on XT centre-locks via Sapim lasers. The all-black look looks really smooth with the SLX floating rotors. Already pondering a new set of wheels with a hub dynamo front and V plus son Archetypes in hard ano grey.

I'll post up some pics this week, hopefully!

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

by Deev

The frame has arrived!

Here's my build so far:
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Deev
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 7:54 pm

by Deev

I fitted the Di2 wiring harness, headset, rear mech and offered up the Hope bracket and stem tonight. Feeding through the Di2 harness was a seriously fiddly operation. I wouldn't want to have to do that again.

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

by Deev

I spent a good three hours shortening and generally tidying up the brake hoses last night.  I made the rear one a bit too short after the brass olive snagged, which is annoying but won’t make too much difference.  As I’d swapped the ends of both brake lines, they both needed bleeding.  The front one was easy, but the rear one was like one of those awkward challenges from the ‘Krypton Factor’.  As the bleed nipple is now on the side of the caliper, and the caliper is mounted on the chainstay, the only way to do it is to lean the bike over at 45 degrees so that the fluid doesn’t run out, take the reservoir cap and the caliper off, then pump the brake lever with one hand whilst holding the caliper and opening and closing the bleed nipple with a ring spanner with the other hand.  Tricky.  It does work though and both brakes are now bleed.  It’s unusual feeling to pull a road brake lever and have the feel of a hydraulic system, but not one that’ll take more than a minute to get used to out on the road.
 
I also tidied up the Di2 cables, whacked on the SPDs, wrapped the bar tape and now, finally, the Sportive is road-worthy.  So it’ll be out for a road test tomorrow I hope. The bike is hardly a weight weenie though, tipping the scales at 21.25lb.
 
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Next task is to fit the mudguards and lights.  Mudguards are easy, I have a set of SKS thermoplastics off my old commuter, but the lights are a bigger challenge.  I have a set of LED lights that have served me well, but because they’re light, their endurance is useless.  2 commutes on full power and without any warning, they go out and need recharging.  They’ll do for now, but I’d like a dynamo system.  My current thinking is to rebuild the front wheel with an SP PD-8 and use a Supernova E3 Pro 2 headlight and matching rear light as I could run the wire internally all the way up to and through the seatpost.  Usefully, the spoke lengths necessary for the XT and the SP hub are the same, so I won’t even need new spokes.  The lights come in grey or black cases (and a range of other colours) so I’ll have to decide which looks best.  I think maybe grey for the headlight, black for the tail light.  I’d value any experiences that people have regarding hub dynamos or Supernova lights, good or bad.

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

by Deev

I took the bike out for a ride today. I rolled off the drive and SNAP, the chain went. Not a problem really, it was a chain that I found in my parts bin so I was a bit suspicious of it anyway. I fitted a new one and off I went. The performance from the brakes going into the first roundabout was very poor, like a sub-Sora caliper with old pads in the rain.

The gears take some getting used to, the paddles are in a different place to the DA and Ultegra mechanical systems that I'm familiar with and I haven't fine-tuned my system yet, so will be looking forward to getting that set right and getting used to it.

Getting the Lynskey up to speed was a real pleasure. The geometry is quite relaxed so it doesn't feel like you need to get your nostrils touching the stem bolts for it to feel nice. With the -8deg stem I could ride on the drops easily. A couple of saddle adjustments made it even better. The Deda RHM02 bars are very comfortable. I've got some Deda Newtons on my other bikes, but the curve of these suit my hands much better. After dragging the brakes and doing a few stops the pads started to bed in so that when I arrived at the Severn Bridge where the power from them was so much that the beefy fork started to flex.

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Hammering it at speed with a tailwind, I arrived home thinking, 'I really like this bike'. It looks how I wanted it to look and it rides like I wanted it to ride. It's no race bike, but I think that it's a bike that'll be good to ride.

by Weenie


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Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

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