Seka Exceed your Screen time Warning RDC

[maxim809]

I agonized hard about getting this frame, almost as hard as I agonized starting this build thread.

I'm 2 years, 9000 miles deep into ownership. Put differently, in 2022 I was 90 names deep on some 3~6 month waitlist for a shot at this frame.

But that's not why pulling the trigger was so hard. As a roadie with a loose nut in the noggin, I actually love inviting many forms of danger. Something about that nagging uncertainty when putting deposits down on a sketchy website no one knows nothing about.



No, for you see. The hesitation to commit, stems from the realization that I might have to traverse all 5 Stages of Ego Death if I wanted to build this frame. Like for instance...

Stage 2: Surrender
Where I have to surrender all my rim brake bikes. That's right, this could be my first disc frame. I think there's many things that jam people like me up when fumbling over this chasm:

There's safety in what you know, even though I know nothing. Especially nothing about this frame.
There's years of amassing a "QuivEr of WhEeLSeTs" which sounded like a good idea at the time but in reality I match depths to frame types and don't like swapping once set. If only I knew more about myself.
Then the popular 'Principle against Big Bike', a proposition that's somehow denser and weighs more than even my Ego.

Almost made it without talking about weight. Anyway.



Did I pass the complexity test? Let's simplify what I'm really getting at:

Stage 2 taught me that Modern Media Science Memes have omitted the 2nd set of formulas:

• There comes a time in every cyclist's journey to (n - everything).
• The post Ego Death number of tools is simply just (m + bleed kit).

Why no one's talking about these Lost Formulas, I don't know. I just know, that as long as I don't royally screw up Stage 1, maybe this whole thing would be deeply transformative and I'd actually have a cool build thread for once.

While trying to plan my survival so I can have my death, here are some threads from over two years ago.



So here comes the 2 year ownership hilarity with the Seka Exceed RDC.
More later once the screen time limit resets.

Hopefully before 2025.

[justinfoxphotos]

Amazing story. Amazing photos. Edge of my seat... SUBSCRIBED! Oh wait...

[wheelbuilder]

Nice. Eagerly anticipating!

[maxim809]

It's 2022. A no-name brand Seka just announced a super frameset with bars included for literally $2000 USD.

Western customers had to order through a sole distributor, Cycling100. On C100's now defunct website, a potential customer would select size, color, 1-piece bar size, and seat post offset. Waiting was expected, so deposits are placed to secure a spot. When the frame was ready, the balance would be paid in full through a second e-mail.



The Exceed is generating a lot of chatter and people are throwing deposits down. I'm on Seka's website every day, waffling. I'm asking my friends if they think this frame looks cool. Ya it's p cool. But then... we peek into the WW Seka thread.

Nobody's receiving anything.

And C100 is ghosting harder than that friend who keeps asking to ride with you the night before, but never shows up in the morning. Everyone's now concerned (about C100), and sharing tips on how best to get a response back. Funnily, Facebook had the best response rate. Their Insta is dead and if C100 actually responded to e-mail we wouldn't be having these discussions.

Everyone in the Seka thread is now either in fraternal misery, full schadenfreude, or both if you're that kind of cyclist.

I'm on the outside watching. All this danger of the unknown combined with daily waffling is making me want this more. Getting this frame is now a top priority. I want to join the community of prisoners in wait. Maybe this could be my new identity.

But first, I must prepare to plunge into the abyss. I flip to Chapter 1 of my Ego Death handbook.



Stage 1: Dissolution
Or put differently, the start of the end. I just need to disassociate with myself. This step must not be rushed, is never a straight forward process, and may sometimes even require guidance from a trained professional. There are 3 official suggestions.

Option 1. Meditation
This option requires an indoor turbo and a subscription to any of the training platforms that lets you do Ramp Tests as workouts, several dozen times in a row. Don't just mash to the motion of ERG mode. Truly disassociate until things feel disorienting, unfamiliar, and you perceive changes to both your thought process and your eFTP. (the 'e' in this case stands for ego).

Option 2. Hypnosis
Show up to the fastest local group ride in your continent. The one that actual pro's go to do their Z2, your Z5. When the ride gets hot, insert yourself behind one of the 'trained professionals' and stare into their metronomic calves until you fall into a guided trance. Or, fall over the guard rails into a ditch where gophers will nibble at you and your half ejected gels, which may also put you into a budget version of trance.

Option 3: Special Drink Mix
Have you noticed there's like 10 different Red Bull flavors now? Anyway, this method requires mixing a whole sachet of Beta Fuel mix with Red Bull: Juneberry.

Boil, cool, transfer to that 750mL bottle that you got in your swag bag at your last Fondo, and sip while browsing cycling stuff online as you do.

Hmm...

...



I figured Option 3 was best for me, because this bike wasn't going to arrive by itself while I was boosting my eFTP or cartwheeling into a ditch. There was much Internet Warrior research to be done, and no time to waste.

So I signed up for my nearest Gran Fondo, got my free swag bottle, boosted my real FTP by 1 while shedding some e, and avoided flying into a ditch while driving to pick up a Red Bull on the way home.

I arrive home safely. I put my special mix on boil.

In my last moments of sobriety and freedom, I pulled the trigger on the Seka to officially become another C100 Captive. Now, we wait. And wait we do, until there was hardly anything left to talk about. The only recourse that remains is to cope by crowdsourcing. And that's exactly what the community did: Sharing Waitlist Woes.

We gathered dates on when we Pre-Ordered, to final Delivery Date.



Folks from 19 countries responded. Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and USA. We even had a story of someone grabbing it direct from China.

On average, most saw 4 months from Deposit to Frame-in-Hand, with lucky folks waiting 2mo, and a couple waiting +6mo. Multiple cancellations, especially after C100 inevitably broke up with Seka and a bunch of folks were left dangling like a crouton.



And most folks who responded skewed slightly larger.

This is notable, because a YouTuber had speculated in the past that most denizens of WeightWeenies must surely be on the shorter side, because otherwise why would we care so much about weight? Not sure I follow, but I guess that's because I'm scattered and short. And I guess Seka owners are a different bunch.

A bunch that cares about Endurance, Style, and Value.
Fast Fashion with some Perseverance, baby.

ding ding ding

My mix is done. Be right back.

[maxim809]

I take a sip.

Can't wait for that sweet Stage 3 to kick in. Fractals, Patterns, Colors, the whole shebang.
Funny, because I'm clearly okay to wait 3 months.

Just enough time to plan.

It's evident that Seka is not a brand to buy as a first bike. It might be a good 2nd bike once you've discovered you love this hobby thru your 1st bike. But building Frame-Up requires self fitting knowledge, along with an idea of how the rest of the parts fit. Seka makes this easier by recommending a BB, and the rest like group, wheel, saddles is standard.

So the trick is the 1-piece bar. The goal is to isolate what stem length to get.

There exists many approaches, some being:

1. Fit to the Rider (target or replicate an ideal fit)
2. Fit to the Frame (target reducing spacers and extracting the characteristics of the geo)
3. Fit to the Bar Width (target a specific bar, then work backwards)
4. A hybrid of some or all the above


Any of these coarse approaches benefit from having a reference fit from an existing bike. Even better if one can trial & error on it.

This comes with experience, so I often wonder if a direct Online Frame-Up is better suited as a 3rd build or even later bike. The other options are to consult a Fitter, or drink juice and YOLO. It's working for me so far.

Anyhow, isolating the Frame Size needs to happen no matter what. First order is to see if I am between sizes.

But hey. This isn't just about me. Let's zoom out and look at all bike sizes, starting with 3 Iconic Endurance Bikes.



Each frame size has been plotted for each of the Iconic Endurance frames. A notable observation, is the Roubaix with 8 frame sizes compared to the Domane's 6, and Synapse's 5. Having more sizes allows Specialized to capture shorter and taller riders, while providing a different kind of granularity for riders in the middle.

As a reminder, I've been sitting on this data since 2022. So the following is circa 2022-2023. Bike geometry changes over time and we're going into 2025. Also, no mandatory spacers.

Onwards.



Now a few iconic Race frames.

It is not a surprise that Race frames are longer and lower than Endurance frames. This can sometimes impact "Fit to the Frame" if reducing spacers is a goal. If the Frame's geo is just right, or if the rider can get aggressive, then happy days.

Some specific observations

• The Canyon Aeroad goes off the chart to capture taller riders.
• A wide range with only 7 sizes means Canyon gives up some granularity. More people may potentially be between sizes, but the tradeoff to get more taller riders is likely deemed worth it. Go Germany.
• The Tarmac SL8 is quite aggressive across sizes, especially mid-range.
• Scott Foil's smaller range is looking REAL cool.
• Other iconic frames were left out to reduce clutter. Most were between the Trek Madone and Spesh.

Okay but one more icon.



The Pinarello Dogma F with 11 sizes. The Dogma range is so wide it literally eats everything. Notice the number of sizes in the midrange. The Dogma's advantage are its span and granularity, but it means Pinarello needs to design, make molds, and test each size.

And it used to be 13 sizes in the F8-F12 days. They've never had an aero vs climbing bike, just One Super All Rounder. The Original OBtRTA.

While we're here, let's arbitrarily use the Dogma as the middle-ground to split between Endurance vs Aero. And now...



The Seka Exceed versus its Alter Ego the Factor Ostro. Or is it the other way around? Or is it even?

I believe these two get compared a bit too often and now I'm committing the same crime. But I'm only just now getting buzzed from the juneberry juice, which is why all these graphs have suddenly manifested from the ethers. I need it to hit harder before we get there.

The point for now is that the Seka Exceed is an Aero-Endurance frame. It's not fully upright like a Domane or Roubaix, and you can't go Full Scott Foil either. The fit is relaxed and it's aero in styling.

It's also only 5 sizes. Cuts on production cost, but the tallest riders get cut.



Which brings us to the last point that's specific to me. I'm usually a Small/52cm, and the Exceed I need is definitely a Small.

I also want a Race Fit, so fitting to this frame will be interesting. The typical approach is to go Long and Low and get the narrowest bars possible. The Exceed is Short and High.

Hmmmm...

Man. All these colors and graphs... Everything's going dark.

Wait what?

[Maddie]

Such a great read!

[maxim809]

Not sure how long I've been floating mindlessly in...

Stage 3: The Breakthrough
This is supposedly where I get dethroned out of existence, and turned into an observer with no ability to do anything. It's also the stage where I'm supposed to experience something much more profound than what I can do while conscious. I don't exist, but something out there does.

Feels like it's been months of colorful charts whizzing past my mind's eye. I close my eyes that don't even exist, and think about what bars I need. The WeightWeenies Crowd Source Data from the future arrives before me. There's actually no construct of time here, but you get the idea.



Seems like most people ordering Smalls are getting 38x110. I think and think. I think I need 38x130 or 38x120. I want narrower but this is it. All these realities. You know what isn't a reality?

My frame.

No e-mail. No C100. All ghosts and it's real dark. I feel powerless yet comfortable. Then suddenly, as I'm scrollsurfing through the ethers, a bright ghastly website tears open through the dark walls.

It's CCACHE with a White Seka. One Small Frameset in stock.

The bars are 38cm/120mm which lets me fit to both the Frame and Rider. It's the right color and trim. CCACHE must have ordered this for resale, and out of all 15 combos they intuited one that works for me.

Wow Berry Mode is no joke.



The only thing is it comes with a 0mm offset post, and I want 15mm because it makes the bike look better while standing still. Even if this may limit seat forward slammability, which is something I've been doing for years. So I get CCACHE's philosophy and why they're trying to sell me on a 0mm. No need to sell, I've already bought into this life.

The seat tube angle is a balanced 74°. I won't go shallower, and have gone as steep as 75°. All in the name of slammability.

Anyway... I call out to CCACHE who's floating in the distance.

re-enactment with comical liberties

re-enactment

At this point, a long delay. Awaiting a response. No response. Time is moving weirdly so minutes feel like months. I know they read it. I can see it from here.

Hmm.

Either CCACHE doesn't want to go through the hassle of procuring a new seat post and would rather sell this entire combo-in-full to a less fussy customer. Or this is the universe's way of saying drop the ego, you Gigantic Galaxy Chad.

I read between the torn fabric of space-time.

Realizing it's both, I close the chat and confirm an order through their site. CCACHE responds immediately with a shipping confirmation.

Wow, lol.

It arrives in 1 week from the other side of the universe. Which is closer than C100's HQ which is orbiting in another dimension. I know, because I can see them Red-Shifting out of existence from here.

I cancel my C100 order and put in a new one for just a 15mm seat post.

[maxim809]

Speaking of spinning out of orbit, I need wheels and cranks.

Let's do the easy one first. I've been doing 165mm's for a few years and finally Shimano releases 160mm. Just need to always be doing 5mm shorter than what's gonna be meme'ing many years in advanced. Gotta stay ahead and all that, ya know?

Some day I hope OEM produces 155mm's. That's what a napkin told me I needed at my invitation-only cafe run by me, for me, back in 2020. And galaxy confirms approvingly.

I've confused myself on what year it is. Anyway.



Kay wheels.

Remember it's 2022 so the landscape of "'best wheels" is completely different from 2024 going into 2025. In the future that is today, there's a variety of wheel options both mature and new. We are enjoying a bit of a golden era for wheel choice right now.

But 2022 was a transition era where rims were either going through a weird experimental growth spurt, still frozen in time, or way too ahead of its time. Which is something I wish I could say about myself but I am out of memes. Transition era.

For instance, Enve just went full Hookless to follow in Zipp's footsteps.

Dan Bigham just broke the Hour Record on Princeton Track Discs with GP5k TT's that blew up to 27mm. But the road-specific Princeton Peak 4550 had 18.5 internal rim width. Not only was this very narrow, but mounting 25mm tires left a huge rear wheel well gap. Narrow internal means narrow WAM, means High PSI, means tubeless won't seal as great. And even if it does, you're riding low volume 25mm's with 50psi left. That's really different from riding high volume 28mm's with 50psi left.

$4000 Princeton wheels, frozen in time. And gaps are not aesthetic.

A lot of options were like this barely just 2 years ago.



But enough recollection.

I recall my wishlist was:


• 50mm depth
• 21~23mm internals
• Hooked
• GLOSS BLACK RIMS

And ideally an Eastern brand to match the frame.

Farsport's flagship rim were frozen in time (19mm internal).
Several Western brands passed all but the Gloss check.
I thought hard about Ascent Polaris. Checked the Singapore box, AND THEY WERE FROM THE FUTURE (like me right now, except Ascent is actually ahead of its time). But they were matte and only had 42 or 69 at the time.

It came down to LightBicycles Falcon Pro AR55's or Bontrager Aeolus 51.

Ugh, I really want an all Eastern build.

But my ego's been shedding away slowly without my knowing, and for the first time I broke my need to match parts.



Dude who's making these decisions here? I'm even trying winter tires for once.

How deep does this stage go.

I don't even recognize myself.

[bmrk]

amazing read

[Aeo]

[Tpduke112]

This is a wildly entertaining read. I'm invested as heck in this random build lol.

[wheelbuilder]

The writing ability and entertainment mixed with deep cycling and build knowledge is just out of this world.

[maxim809]

If I could actually feel, I feel I might have been deconstructed.

The ideas that once glued together the identify I invested so much energy into nurturing and defending, now feels shabby, irrelevant, and a bit embarrassing. How does one pick up the pieces when reduced to a puddly paint of contaminated goo.

Oh well, I guess I'll assemble this bike.



Gen1 bars: Gloss, has SEKA logo, flexes.
Gen2 bars: Matte, no logo, less flex.

The Gen1 bars have a clear coat, which gives it a piano black like finish. It's as good at picking up fingerprints as it is flexing. In the painting world, actual piano black is one of the most annoying paints to work with. Any contamination like a spec of dust will cause flaws, and the application process is very sensitive. High amounts of scrap.

It's also become a polarizing finish after other industries overused it. Here in our world, it's not something seen often on bars. It's why I wanted gloss wheels to match.



Great paint is something that's difficult to demonstrate online, but you know it instantly when you see it in real life. A few brands go as far as to make sure that it slightly changes color when viewed from different angles, distances, and lighting. That's Specialized and Pinarello's way of helping you feel like you got 3 bikes for the price of 5.

Up close, Seka's RDC White is a metallic powdery snow that turns pearly white from afar. That's at least 2 bikes.

Given there are many ways to make white paint look like PVC plastic, I am impressed that Seka does not oversell their paint.



And there is something about the Silver Chrome typography against that Powder White which grabs tons of attention when riders see this frame.

Anyway.

Slap the fan favorite Berk Saddle, and let's see how it comes together against that Textbook Garage Photo, shot on a wireless telephone.



Hmm.

I was expecting a remarkable transcendence to Stage 5.

I even snapped my NBD telephone pic, hot and fresh for immediate delivery to social media as the instructions asked. Hmm.

I'm suddenly faced with questions like why I haven't had a single Fractal moment, and why do I still feel like goo. In my confusion, I begin tracing back my steps on where I might have skipped a beat.

I boil some more Turbo Mix.

And fire up the Turbo to Meditate on reasons for my incompleteness.

[robbosmans]

[EtoDemerzel]

beauty build!
tbf to ccache, it didn't seem like you were asking anything. Rather, thinking out loud about what to do.
Seka really hit it out of the park with colors and graphics