Focus Izalco 2013 6.46kg

[Nicke]

Hi everyone,

It's time for a bike build (my first road bike)!

I picked up a Focus Izalco Team Replica 2013 (basically an Izalco Pro with the colors inverted) used, in size 56. The bike came with Force 2x10, but I'm going to strip the bike down on Sunday and see what kind of frame weight we're working with. I'm thinking of building it up with Red22, but the rest of the components are still a mystery.

Therefore I'm looking for suggestions on:

1. Wheels. 30-45mm, clincher, preferrably under 1400g. Pre-built or custom? I've looked at Extralite hubs and the mighty CX ray spokes, but have no idea what rims to get. Keep in mind I'm located in Finland, so any bought from outside the EU will pretty much double in price after taxes and customs...

2. Stem (and bars). The bike is now equipped with a 100mm stem which makes my position noticeably cramped up. I'm thinking I'm gonna need a 130-140mm stem. Any around the 100g mark for a reasonable price? I had found some light stems (Merida Team SL for example, but only comes in 120mm) Same with bars - probably 40cm C-C and around the 200g mark?

3. Seatpost. Darimo is the obvious one, but I don't really have the funds for that. Anything else around the 100g mark that won't completely drain the wallet? Again, anything from China (which would probably be the best bet) is unfortunately out of the question.

I'll post some better pictures with weights later once I get everything taken off. Warning: I am in no rush to get this bike built (I'll try to find some good deals etc), so don't expect any too frequent updates.

[Knightyboy27]

Stem wise, might as well start with a Kalloy UNO (can also upgrade to Ti bolts for the extra weight saving). Cheap but remarkebly light and still solid. Also cheap enough that you could order a few in different lengths to test out.

For seatpost, I have an Ultimate USE Evo which seems to be very good bang for the buck in terms of price to weight ratio.

[Nicke]

Thanks for the suggestions. Kalloy UNO is an obvious one, but I can't seem to find it anywhwere.

Anyways, took the bike apart and was unfortunately very disappointed...

Frame came in at a whopping 1196g (both rear and front hanger included) and fork at a slightly better 384g (still uncut).

The bike also came with some Chinese saddle, which surprised me at 100g - think I will keep this one.

Quite pissed about the heavy frame, but 6.8kg shouldn't be an issue at all. I wasn't going for anything crazy light anyways.

[reedplayer]

Quite pissed about the heavy frame, but 6.8kg shouldn't be an issue at all. I wasn't going for anything crazy light anyways.

yes, quite heavy, even for an older-generation Izalco. i think the white paint adds some weight.

But dont bother, nevertheless its a good- and, imho, nice looking frame,a friend of mine uses it since years, without any problems!

[robbosmans]

Kalloy Uno:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_msLDrQ7

[reedplayer]

btw, you although could go with wren parts.

https://wrensports.com/product-category ... nts/stems/

european distributor

https://fat-bike.com/2020/09/wren-bar-stem-review/

[Nicke]

Thanks for this, will definitely consider that stem.

For bars I was thinking Deda Superleggera (180g claimed in 40 c-c). Is there anything else I should be considering (preferrably ~200€ at most)? For stems aluminium will be the material price/weight wise, but I don't think even well made aluminium bars can come close to the weight of carbon?

[Arnomatic]

My bars are Prime Primavera ultralite from wiggle, they're 183g in 40cm. And seatpost is from Aliexpress, Elita One for just over 100g at around £30. Really good value!

[Nicke]

Thank you robbosmans and Arnomatic for the suggestions.

Considering this was a cheap stop at Aliexpress, I won't really mind the customs fees. I picked up the Kalloy Uno and the Elita One seatpost for a grand total of 59€ after cheaping out on the shipping. I will have to wait a month for these now but I don't mind it

[Nicke]

Decided to wet sand off the logos on the saddle. I think it looks better now and I saved a whopping 2g!

[Nicke]

So, got some parts through the mail so I'm finally able to give an update. Pics with weights + the build so far at the bottom of this post.

Seatpost clamp (13g): Leonardi Racing. Nothing special, works as it should.

Seatpost (134g): Elita One 20mm setback. Still 400mm uncut so the weight will go down. Actually had some issues trying to fit this. At first I could only get it about 2cm into the frame while reeeaallly pushing and twisting hard. Decided to measure the frame and post with a digital vernier (not the most accurate I know), and the frame came back a bit undersized while the seatpost came in a bit oversized - the worst combo possible. As a result I had to lightly sand both the frame and the seatpost, and works like a dream now.

Headset (40g): Cane Creek AER. I've had good experiences with Cane Creek headsets in the past, so decided to opt for them again. Nothing special about this headset - light and seems to work fine.

Expander, top cap, 10mm spacer (+3mm) (17g+?): Extralite Ultrastar and the AER top cap. 10mm generic spacer + a 3mm I had to fit at the end to get the preload right, was too lazy sand a few mm off the fork. The expander definitely seems flimsy, but we'll see how it works. Worst case I just go to a regular expander and take the weight penalty.

Stem (111g): 120mm -7 Kalloy Uno. Nothing special at all, looks good and should work fine.

By my calculations this comes out to 1988g, while the scale at work (diff one from the one in the pics) says it's 1,95kg. I've also ordered an exogram crankset, Sram Red brakes and some NSK low-friction BB-bearings. I'll be sure to post when those come in. Next step is trying to find wheels and the rest of the Red22 groupset. To keep the price down, I'm trying to find some deals used.

[Nicke]

Few more parts came in.

Crankset (362g): Sram Red Exogram. The only Red crankset I could find for a reasonable price was this older 130BCD one, so I'll have to go for 53/39 gearing to start off with until I can (possibly, if I feel like I need it) find a 110BCD one. This one was used and the preload adjuster is a bit mangled, so I'll have to get a new one - luckily only like 5€.

Brakes (236g): Sram Red without pads. These were also used but work perfectly. Had some old pads on them that I'm swapping out for ones that are coming with the wheelset.

Speaking of which, I think I'm going to go for Farsports ones, 38mm rim and Bitex hubs. Should be around 1480g. Quite heavy, but cheap. From looking at claimed weights and adding up the stuff I have I should land at 4950g without the wheels. If nothing comes out significantly overweight I should be looking at around 6.5kg for the whole thing.

[Nicke]

Apologize for neglecting you guys over here. Took a while to source all the parts and got lazy with weighing them separately. But the bike is finished and has been ridden ~100km.




According to the generic Park Tool scale it sits at 6.46kg.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk