Soulrider Ti - Custom Titanium from Turkey (Budget Build)

[nachetetm]

Thanks for the nice comments. This is my first titanium bike and I really like the ride. Maybe in a year or two I would go for a second carbon bike but for now, everything feels great here.

I'm slowly dialing the position, now I have only 5mm spacer under the stem (was 15 on the first photo). I guess that will be the final version. New, Ponza saddle also fit me well for short rides. It is a heavy saddle and I guess I'll be changing it soon, but bike now weights 8020 grams. Gained a lot with saddle and lost some from the spacers and steerer tube. Specialized Roubaix Pro tires will be the first change, I need to decide between 28mm Vittoria Corsa, Rubino or even maybe 28mm Veloflex Corsa. 27mm Challenge Paris Roubaix...

Meanwhile, I realised I made a mistake on the first post. Headtube dimensions are 47-49mm, not 41-42 like I wrote before (47 all along and 49 on the top and bottom). I edited the post and wanted to update it here. I measured chainstays and seatstays too: 22mm and 16mm.

Congrats for a nice bike. Nothing will slow you more than an uncomfortable saddle, I would not care at all for a few grams in that aspect. The challenge PR tires are great but they are much bigger than advertised: 29 to 31c, depending on the inner width of the rim. Keep it in mind in case you have tight clearance. Veloflex however are much more true to size.

Enjoy the bike! I am really tempted now to get a frame from Soulrider...

[ToffieBoi]

Thanks for the nice comments. This is my first titanium bike and I really like the ride. Maybe in a year or two I would go for a second carbon bike but for now, everything feels great here.

I'm slowly dialing the position, now I have only 5mm spacer under the stem (was 15 on the first photo). I guess that will be the final version. New, Ponza saddle also fit me well for short rides. It is a heavy saddle and I guess I'll be changing it soon, but bike now weights 8020 grams. Gained a lot with saddle and lost some from the spacers and steerer tube. Specialized Roubaix Pro tires will be the first change, I need to decide between 28mm Vittoria Corsa, Rubino or even maybe 28mm Veloflex Corsa. 27mm Challenge Paris Roubaix...

Meanwhile, I realised I made a mistake on the first post. Headtube dimensions are 47-49mm, not 41-42 like I wrote before (47 all along and 49 on the top and bottom). I edited the post and wanted to update it here. I measured chainstays and seatstays too: 22mm and 16mm.

Congrats for a nice bike. Nothing will slow you more than an uncomfortable saddle, I would not care at all for a few grams in that aspect. The challenge PR tires are great but they are much bigger than advertised: 29 to 31c, depending on the inner width of the rim. Keep it in mind in case you have tight clearance. Veloflex however are much more true to size.

Enjoy the bike! I am really tempted now to get a frame from Soulrider...

Thanks

I have 17c rims, so most probably it will be around 29.5mm (That was the size on my previous 17C rims). I really like those tires. They are a little heavier but I had a lot of gravel climbs with them and almost never had a problem. I guess Rubino will give me similar kind of puncture resistance, but not similar level of ride quality.

About the clearance, I spesifically pointed out that I want 30mm wide tires to fit (measured 30mm).
There are no problems with the frame for sure:

Fork seems tighter but seems like it will work. I have now 25mm measured tires and have 6mm gap on both sides.

[nachetetm]

Thanks for the nice comments. This is my first titanium bike and I really like the ride. Maybe in a year or two I would go for a second carbon bike but for now, everything feels great here.

I'm slowly dialing the position, now I have only 5mm spacer under the stem (was 15 on the first photo). I guess that will be the final version. New, Ponza saddle also fit me well for short rides. It is a heavy saddle and I guess I'll be changing it soon, but bike now weights 8020 grams. Gained a lot with saddle and lost some from the spacers and steerer tube. Specialized Roubaix Pro tires will be the first change, I need to decide between 28mm Vittoria Corsa, Rubino or even maybe 28mm Veloflex Corsa. 27mm Challenge Paris Roubaix...

Meanwhile, I realised I made a mistake on the first post. Headtube dimensions are 47-49mm, not 41-42 like I wrote before (47 all along and 49 on the top and bottom). I edited the post and wanted to update it here. I measured chainstays and seatstays too: 22mm and 16mm.

Congrats for a nice bike. Nothing will slow you more than an uncomfortable saddle, I would not care at all for a few grams in that aspect. The challenge PR tires are great but they are much bigger than advertised: 29 to 31c, depending on the inner width of the rim. Keep it in mind in case you have tight clearance. Veloflex however are much more true to size.

Enjoy the bike! I am really tempted now to get a frame from Soulrider...

Thanks

I have 17c rims, so most probably it will be around 29.5mm (That was the size on my previous 17C rims). I really like those tires. They are a little heavier but I had a lot of gravel climbs with them and almost never had a problem. I guess Rubino will give me similar kind of puncture resistance, but not similar level of ride quality.

About the clearance, I spesifically pointed out that I want 30mm wide tires to fit (measured 30mm).
There are no problems with the frame for sure:
IMAG0406.jpg IMAG0408.jpg

Fork seems tighter but seems like it will work. I have now 25mm measured tires and have 6mm gap on both sides.
IMAG0410.jpg

Yes, on 17mm rims my PR tires measure around 29.8 well stretched. In my case the fork is the limiting part, and after changing to 19mm rims I felt the clearance was too tight so I downsized to Challenge Elite. PR tires are a perfect all year round tire, they can take gravel and rain while riding beautifully on a sunny, dry summer day.

[ToffieBoi]

It was windy in the last couple of days here. During taking a photo on the last ride, wind blew quite strong and made the bike fall. Impact broke the Wahoo holder (I guess it was over torqued anyways)

So in the end, budget I put aside to buy lighter fork expander and seatpost clamp, had to move to a new Wahoo holder.
But at least, I took advantage of a clean flightdeck on my last ride.

[jbaillie]

My BarFly was one of the casualties of my crit crash last year - those bad boys are always vulnerable. I was shocked at the price of replacing it with anything from Garmin/BarFly/KEdge. Ultimately I got a used SRAM one on eBay.

Nice riding shot though

[ToffieBoi]

My BarFly was one of the casualties of my crit crash last year - those bad boys are always vulnerable. I was shocked at the price of replacing it with anything from Garmin/BarFly/KEdge. Ultimately I got a used SRAM one on eBay.

Nice riding shot though

Thanks
I was planning to get the K-Edge and I could convince myself the the Sport version. But it turned out that Sport model is too short to be used with Wahoo Elemnt, so I ordered the original Wahoo mount back again. This is lighter and much cheaper.




Here is a picture with my tubulars, from last ride.
Seems like my position is fixed that way, with only a 5mm spacer under the stem. I'm waiting to get a lighter expander plug to cut the fork the last time. This expander has a lip, sitting on the steerer tube, adding around 4mm height. If I cut the tube this way, I'll have problems later when I change stems and expanders.

About the ride;
It's been more than 500km on the bike and I really enjoy it. Geometry was my decision so on steering inputs, each reaction of the bike is how I want it to be. Climbing is stiff, cornering is like on rails. Comfort-wise, I need to change to a carbon post some time. Changing saddle added a lot of comfort, road vibration is absorbed really well now but for bigger potholes, I like to have more flex on the seatpost. But overall, comfort is much better than my Giant Propel. It's beginning of the season, (I rode almost none during the previous 3 months) I'm having rides longer than 4 hours and once I'm back home, I don't feel like I wrestled with a pig all day long.

[ToffieBoi]

Few changes, and a new photo.

Finally last week, I bought new a new saddle: Fizik Arione R3 Versus Evo. Lost few grams here. At the same time, I changed my bar tape to Cinelli Gel Cork. I really like the feel of cork tapes and they are lighter than what I have.

Final upgrade was the tires. I bought 28mm Veloflex Corsa's. Few months ago, I also changed the expander plug to an ultralight one from eBay.

The result is 100 grams of weight loss. Bike weights 7900 grams now with my clinchers and 11-28 Ultegra cassette.



Few changes are on the way.
I want to change the seatpost to a carbon one. There is a great discount on Merlin Cycles for Superleggero RS and SuperZero seatposts. But I'm not sure which seatpost will be more comfortable.

I am still using the Shimano 105 chain, which comes wih around 30 grams of penalty.

[WinterRider]

:..

[ToffieBoi]

Decent Soulrider promotion. Welds not on par w Litespeed 98-00 era.

Cost for frame?

Thank you, I'm glad you like the topic and the photos
But no, there is no promotion going here. Like my previous Giant, or my Orbea, I purchased the frame and posting pictures because I just want to.

You can find the prices here.
Currently he asks for 1100 euros for a titanium frameset.
Here, you can see the details: https://soulrider.bike/en_GB/siparis/titanyum-fiyatlar/

I aggree that weldings are not the best. Also tubes are not the most fancy ones. All straight gauges, and straight tubes.
But once you see the price, for a custom geometry, I guess it is quite decent job.

[WinterRider]

:..

[blackcatwheels]

very nice project!
I'm in a very similar situation, moving from CH to PL and planning to order the TI frame from SoulRider.
In terms of geometry - what's your height? From the pictures and amount of seatpost it looks like the frame is on the sweet spot for you

thanks
Tomasz

[ToffieBoi]

very nice project!
I'm in a very similar situation, moving from CH to PL and planning to order the TI frame from SoulRider.
In terms of geometry - what's your height? From the pictures and amount of seatpost it looks like the frame is on the sweet spot for you

thanks
Tomasz

Sorry Tomasz, I was really late to answer. I stopped checking the forum for some time and the email notification for the topic didn't work for some reason.

It's been some time and I am not sure if you ordered your frame or not.
I am 182cm tall and I have 83cm inseam.

I was lucky in my previous job that I could test countless bikes so geometry and sizing was quite easy to decide. The problem with me was the aesthetics.
I wanted a horizontal TT, taller HT and seatpost visible properly.
Unfortunatelly all together weren't possible so this was the result. Tiny spacer under the stem and a little slope on TT.

[mrfish]

Excellent value bike, and nice Thread. For that price I’ve not seen anything comparable.

[octav]

How is the bike after 2 years? Really getting tempted on buying a TI/Steel frame from him Something like really similar to Stelbel but on a good value

[disq]

How is the bike after 2 years? Really getting tempted on buying a TI/Steel frame from him Something like really similar to Stelbel but on a good value

Not OP but I actually have 2 frames from him (a steel one with Columbus Cento tubing, and another - a Ti gravel) both are pretty good