It’s Miller Time! Gotobike B36 with EPS and TRP Hy/Rd discs - now full hydro p3

[Miller]

Jever98: cheers.

Some words about the Hy-road / HY/Rd brakes.

I'm running a 160 rotor at the front, TRP's own centrelock rotor to be precise. The flatmount standard assumes an adaptor between fork and caliper which can be flipped to allow either 160 or 140 rotors. Which is fair enough but it's a kludgy solution and I can see why Campag have chosen to go for a 160 only front caliper with no need for an adapter.

The first time I used the brakes... well not as much happened as I would have liked! These brakes really do need to be run in over a few hours of riding. With that behind me the brakes are beginning to have proper bite. Good braking with full carbon rims, everyone's got to like that.



One thing though, there is poor access to the upper bolt on the fork adapter with the Hy-road caliper. I've modified a hex key by cutting some length off the short end to have a key with a very short end. This allows good access to the fastening bolt.



There's a 140mm rotor at the rear. The rear caliper is bolted in place from underneath the chainstay which is very convenient, maintenance-wise.



These Hy-road calipers have been modified by replacing the stock actuation arm with one from forum member Joejack951. This clamps the cable inside rather than outside the bolt and is intended for brake levers such as those from Campagnolo that pull slightly less cable than current Shimano. The replacement arms are very nicely machined and very reasonably priced.

[outnumbered]

I have seen this bike IRL and it is as nice as it looks in the photos. I'm still amazed that someone managed to spot the headset issue from the original pics. Some serious tech skills on here!

[lwk]

Hi @Millar. Have you done some more rides? Can you tell how the frame rides and handles? Thank you

[Miller]

Thanks for the nudge.

In 2013 I put together a disc brake road bike based on a CX frame. It has been an excellent machine for me, has introduced me to gravel events, but I well remember taking it out on a clubrun and one of the stronger riders glancing at it and asking: “Is it slow?”. As it happens, it wasn’t, but his question certainly expressed a concern about disc-braked bikes.

As much as I had a concept for this build beyond want-new-bike it was ‘fast road disc’. That and wanting to tick a few boxes like EPS shifting, hidden cables, thru axles, wider wheels, tubeless. Campag releasing their hydro groupsets was timely but the price was still too rich for me to go there although I look forward to seeing some H11 builds here.

Enough rambling, what does it ride like.

The main influence on ride feel is probably the tyres. These first gen Schwalbe Ones are weighty at 390g per but thecycleclinic.co.uk was selling them at a bargain £28. They give a very smooth and secure ride. I’ve settled on 60psi as being a good balance of comfort while avoiding the bounciness of lower pressure or harshness of higher pressure. On the bdop 26mm rims they inflate out to 29mm width.

My comparison bike is a 2012-era BMC SLR01. This Miller has slightly less snappy handling than the BMC, it’s more stable on rollers for example, but it’s absolutely as flickable as I need it to be. The brakes lead to a feeling of confidence while aboard, you know that light finger pressure will silently scrub off speed. On a brisk ride on damp roads a couple of weeks back, in a small group, we came to a surprisingly tightening bend. My friends both ran wide on exit but I was able to avoid crossing the white line and I did put that down to the braking. I love the combination of EPS and discs.

So, the tyres insulate me from the worst of the often crappy roads round here and being so robust would tempt me to mild off-road if I didn’t shudder at the thought of getting this thing muddy. And yes, the bike is fast. I feel it picks up speed very easily. On that same ride mentioned above I worried about being hindered but I soon felt quite the opposite, that if I was going to have to work, this was the bike to be aboard. It’s great out of the saddle, you press the pedals and go. I’m getting good averages and segments on Strava.

All usual disclaimers apply, I have not ridden every good bike out there, of course I’m going to big up the thing I’ve bought, but right now this Miller is my favourite bike to ride.

[lwk]

Thanks for the reply. Concerning the weight of the bike, how is it on climbs? This is one of the best looking chinese framesets, just a pity about the frame weight

[Miller]

It's great on climbs, especially when out of the saddle. This might not be the ultimate bike for Alpine climbs but you have to go down too; a spec like this is going to shine on descents.

I also found myself wishing the frame was lighter but it ticks a lot of boxes feature-wise and is nicely made and painted. My build list is not especially lightweight so it wouldn't be difficult to get a disc build into the 7.x kg range and would there really be anything to complain about then?

[lwk]

It's great on climbs, especially when out of the saddle. This might not be the ultimate bike for Alpine climbs but you have to go down too; a spec like this is going to shine on descents.

I also found myself wishing the frame was lighter but it ticks a lot of boxes feature-wise and is nicely made and painted. My build list is not especially lightweight so it wouldn't be difficult to get a disc build into the 7.x kg range and would there really be anything to complain about then?

once again, thank you for your reply. Strangely I find that on my chinese cx bike out of saddle efforts seems to make the frame more responsive. That bike weighs 8.9kg with gravel tyres. I am using veloce groupset with Trp spyre brakes, so would definitely like something lighter that I can use for road racing and riding. Hongfu has a disc frame (088) same as the new 008 frameset, but don't think 28mm tyres will fit and not 100% convinced on their seatpost binder

[joejack951]

Hongfu has a disc frame (088) same as the new 008 frameset, but don't think 28mm tyres will fit and not 100% convinced on their seatpost binder

The Hongfu FM079-F will fit 28mm tires and uses a regular seatpost clamp.

[lwk]

Hongfu has a disc frame (088) same as the new 008 frameset, but don't think 28mm tyres will fit and not 100% convinced on their seatpost binder

The Hongfu FM079-F will fit 28mm tires and uses a regular seatpost clamp.

Thank you. Have seen that frame. Also nice, but the fork/frame integration of millers bike is my favorite design feature

[DHT]

I just saw this thread... love the look of the frame. is it a road frame or a gravel, or CX frame? I want to put an ultegra R8020 hydraulic discs on mine... 160mm rotors... I don't see this model on their website anymore. How much did it cost? I prefer a pure road bike this time... I already own a beautiful Bianchi allroad (ALU) 105 hydraulic and it weighs about 11Kg... 8Kg would be nice LOL. I'm also getting a Yoeleo C50 wheels with DT Swiss 350's

[Miller]

Hi, just saw your reply. This is a road frame but the clearances are good, I have run Schwalbe G-One Speed 30mm tyres on it with plenty of clearance remaining. In March 2017 this was the price breakdown:
> total fee=frame(with fork and headset)+painting fee(blue painted)+seat post fee+shipping fee+banking fee=USD600+60+35+110+30=USD835.
I had a little customs charge to pay when it landed in UK, GBP30 or something like that.

As it happens I'm giving this bike an upgrade at the moment, converting it to full Campag hydro disk, and will post some new photos soon.

[Miller]

In 2017 I built this bike with TRP Hy/Dr cable-pull hybrid disks as the Campagnolo disk brakes were new and expensive. Fast forward to January this year and Merlin Cycles were/are doing a pair of H11 EPS ergos + calipers for £500 the pair. Not cheap but way less than they had been.

One roadblock: the Miller bike is built with Athena EPS components and Athena/Chorus EPS components use a different plug than the Record/SR level components. Campag have dropped the Athena/Chorus EPS lines and current EPS parts only use the Record/SR style of plug. Hmmm.

I found a Record v1 EPS interface unit on Ebay for just £5 (no-one wants v1 EPS), cut the violet and blue plugs off that, and soldered them to my Chorus interface unit in place of the existing violet and blue plugs. I was taking a punt here that the Record-level signalling is the same as Athena/Chorus signalling. It's reassuring that the four internal wires have the same colour coding.



Here is the bike with H11 ergos and hydro calipers installed. All the EPS functions work normally and without issue - relief!



Pedals are Powertap P1 single-sided. Not the prettiest or lightest but reliably broadcast a plausible power reading. Bike was 8kg on the nose with normal Keos but heavier with these.



7,500km logged on this bike. It remains my general purpose any-weather road bike.

The look of the bike is certainly improved with more discreet disk calipers. The levers look great too.

[outnumbered]

I guess I'm slightly surprised that campag hadn't obfuscated things more than just using the different plugs, but that seems like a very useful discovery.

[Miller]

Seemed to me that Campag, not being a huge company, tend to do a thing one way then stick with it. Still it was a relief to find that things worked properly.

I doubt that many people will bother getting their soldering irons out for this task though.

[mike]

does all the wavy, crinkly black carbon look correct to you aesthetically?