Factor LS

[tepextate]

Does anybody know if running Ultegra / Dura Ace Di2 on a bike like this cause chainline issues? i.e., should it only be run with a gravel grupo?

You can run whatever you want. Because the chainstays are relatively longer than a full-on racing bike, your road gruppo may even shift a bit better.

Thanks, gwerziou and kode54. Appreciate the feedback.

gwerziou, would you mind elaborating on the second half of your response? Why would longer chainstays allow for road grupos to shift better than gravel grupos for this bike? I thought gravel bikes typically have longer chainstays, and gravel grupos are designed for this?

I know nothing, so it's a genuine question.

[gwerziou]

Does anybody know if running Ultegra / Dura Ace Di2 on a bike like this cause chainline issues? i.e., should it only be run with a gravel grupo?

You can run whatever you want. Because the chainstays are relatively longer than a full-on racing bike, your road gruppo may even shift a bit better.

Thanks, gwerziou and kode54. Appreciate the feedback.

gwerziou, would you mind elaborating on the second half of your response? Why would longer chainstays allow for road grupos to shift better than gravel grupos for this bike? I thought gravel bikes typically have longer chainstays, and gravel grupos are designed for this?

I know nothing, so it's a genuine question.

Hello there, I'm happy to elaborate - longer chainstays will allow any and all parts to shift better, not gravel or road in particular. I should have left the word 'road' out of the quoted sentence; sorry.

There is absolutely no frame that will only work with a gravel grupo. Don't get hung up on a part being officially labeled 'gravel' or not... In some cases you can use road or mountain bike parts or a mix thereof and get better results, depending on your build, budget, parts-compatibility and goals. Gravel grupos are a brand-new thing, and for the most part have lightly re-developed and combined parts and features from road, cross and mountain parts in order to offer off-road benefits to a mixed-terrain drop-bar drivetrain such as: a clutched derailleur, sub-compact and/or single ring crankset, wider-range cassette, and disc brakes.

Gravel bikes in a crude sense can be said to be derived from cyclocross bikes (and even randonneur bikes), which have longer chainstays than road bikes to fit bigger tires and have more clearance for mud. Gravel bikes have taken this further with (among other geometry changes) even larger tires, the frames employing creative chainstay designs and sometimes even longer chainstays as a result, a bit like touring bikes.

Shorter chainstays can give you snappy handling. I like them quite a bit, but with longer chainstays the chain angle change from gear to gear is less and shifting will be smoother. Copied and pasted from the Seven Cycles website: "Drivetrain manufacturers specify minimum chainstay lengths for proper shifting performance. Seven can make chainstays shorter than most of these minimums, but we don't recommend it because this decreases shifting performance, increases wear, and can cause significant problems with some parts kits."

[tepextate]

Does anybody know if running Ultegra / Dura Ace Di2 on a bike like this cause chainline issues? i.e., should it only be run with a gravel grupo?

You can run whatever you want. Because the chainstays are relatively longer than a full-on racing bike, your road gruppo may even shift a bit better.

Thanks, gwerziou and kode54. Appreciate the feedback.

gwerziou, would you mind elaborating on the second half of your response? Why would longer chainstays allow for road grupos to shift better than gravel grupos for this bike? I thought gravel bikes typically have longer chainstays, and gravel grupos are designed for this?

I know nothing, so it's a genuine question.

Hello there, I'm happy to elaborate - longer chainstays will allow any and all parts to shift better, not gravel or road in particular. I should have left the word 'road' out of the quoted sentence; sorry.

There is absolutely no frame that will only work with a gravel grupo. Don't get hung up on a part being officially labeled 'gravel' or not... In some cases you can use road or mountain bike parts or a mix thereof and get better results, depending on your build, budget, parts-compatibility and goals. Gravel grupos are a brand-new thing, and for the most part have lightly re-developed and combined parts and features from road, cross and mountain parts in order to offer off-road benefits to a mixed-terrain drop-bar drivetrain such as: a clutched derailleur, sub-compact and/or single ring crankset, wider-range cassette, and disc brakes.

Gravel bikes in a crude sense can be said to be derived from cyclocross bikes (and even randonneur bikes), which have longer chainstays than road bikes to fit bigger tires and have more clearance for mud. Gravel bikes have taken this further with (among other geometry changes) even larger tires, the frames employing creative chainstay designs and sometimes even longer chainstays as a result, a bit like touring bikes.

Shorter chainstays can give you snappy handling. I like them quite a bit, but with longer chainstays the chain angle change from gear to gear is less and shifting will be smoother. Copied and pasted from the Seven Cycles website: "Drivetrain manufacturers specify minimum chainstay lengths for proper shifting performance. Seven can make chainstays shorter than most of these minimums, but we don't recommend it because this decreases shifting performance, increases wear, and can cause significant problems with some parts kits."

Thank you so much for clarifying. That makes perfect sense! Learn something new every day.

[alexneumuller]

Finally managed the time to finish build. First test ride next weekend. Gave up on the idea of mudguards on this build, as I m also building up a Fairlight Strael 2.0 as my bad weather bike. The Factor LS is just going to for fast and fun riding Gravel Routes around Munich.

Just need to dial in final fit....and see if I like the Prologo saddle that I had spare. And will see for a Toolbox underneath the frame.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tepextate]

Finally managed the time to finish build. First test ride next weekend. Gave up on the idea of mudguards on this build, as I m also building up a Fairlight Strael 2.0 as my bad weather bike. The Factor LS is just going to for fast and fun riding Gravel Routes around Munich.

Just need to dial in final fit....and see if I like the Prologo saddle that I had spare. And will see for a Toolbox underneath the frame.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Damn, that looks fantastic. Wish I had picked one up with the 10% Black Friday sale..

[gwerziou]

Does the frameset come with headset spacers?

[kode54]

The frame comes with a low profile top bearing cover and a higher 25mm bearing cover. The spacers that comes with it are plain round ones. I had to order the special shaped ones that came with my VAM for a better fit to the stem and the shape of the bearing covers. I'm using the low profile one with the fitted 5mm spacer that fits the elongated bearing cover shape and the rear of the stem where it has a slight lip on it.

[gwerziou]

Would it work if I ordered the spacers that match the bearing cover but used an old fashioned/normal stem and bar (with a mechanical drivetrain)? I want to route the cables into the downtube port and not have them go through a bar/stem combo or anything like that.

[mcjonesy]

Holy shit, someone actually bought the SRM X-Power pedals.

How are you finding them?

[alexneumuller]

I m setting up bike now.....and riding it on Sunday.....will tell you then.

[guadzilla]

A quick review of my Factor, after having built it up and ridden it for a couple of months (mostly on the road) now:

While I bought the frame with certain expectations based on Factor's reputation as well as the race-oriented focus of the bike, the fact that it was so new meant that there were literally no reviews of the bike on the market. I have to admit, I was a little concerned about how this bike would ride.

One of the most critical attributes I look for in a bike is BB stiffness - a bike with some flex there may not actually be slower on the road (case in point - my old titanium Lynskey, which felt flexy but on which I have done some of my fastest rides ever), but I don't like how it rides. The Cervelo R5 was one of the stiffest bikes I have ridden in terms of efficiency - pushing down on the pedals felt like pushing off a wall: zero give. And it matched that with very good comfort as well, making for a ride that was plush without being boring.

Now, comparing a gravel bike to a Pro Tour level frameset is not a fair comparison - but hey, since I sold the R5 to get the LS, the Factor was going to undergo that comparison. I built up the bike in time to get in a short test ride and then head to the hills for a long weekend of riding. This trip was pretty much entirely either climbing (2300m on one day) or descending, with only a single 4km stretch that was flat - all of which gave me a good idea of the ride quality of the bike.

So let's get the big question out of the way: was the BB/drivetrain as stiff as the Cervelo? No, not really - it lacked that sense of implacable lack of give that greeted every pedal stroke on the R5. But that's a hard ask of any bike (even my Venge doesn't achieve that). By any other standard, it's certainly very stiff and responsive. On the climbs, when your legs are tired, BB flex feels as though the bike is sucking the energy away. That was not the case here. Put the power down, and the bike surges forward in a very satisfying manner - not once did I feel a sense of mushiness when pedaling.

We got rained on during an extended descent - cold hands, pouring rain and steep hairpin curves on dirty/broken made for a very bad combo. While I definitely was not going all out on the descents, I did choose to take some sharp lines when it was safe to do so, and the bike rewarded that with very confident and deliberate steering/handling. There was no hint of wobble, no feeling of oversteer/understeer - all I had to do was pick my line and the Factor LS followed. Very confidence-inspiring!

And on broken patches, even with road tires, the bike did a great job of attenuating the impact of that initial hit. No, it was not as cushy as my steel bike, but it was surprisingly comfortable - there were a few times when I was bracing myself for a pretty serious jolt coming to my arms, but the actual impact was a lot less than I expected.

In short, this is pretty much what you would expect from a bike that is designed for riding on rough roads: racy stiff but balanced with comfort: perfect for an all-rounder. And speaking of "designed for rough roads", the handling is surprisingly agile for a bike with a slacker head tube - the relatively short chainstays and wheelbase help, I imagine. As far as a trade-off between agility and stability goes, I never felt myself noticing one (or missing the other) more - the Factor LS very balanced in terms of how it handles.

In fact, balanced is the perfect way to describe the bike as a whole: it is a very good mix of stiff in the right areas and comfortable in others (the dreaded "laterally stiff / vertically compliant" phrase comes to mind), and also balances agility vs stability, as mentioned earlier. At no point during the ride did I ever find it lacking in any area - and that overall competence is what makes the Factor LS a very versatile bike

The only issue I have with the bike is that those rubber plugs for the mounting holes keep popping out when I load/unload the bike from the car. I have lost prett much every single one of them now. Factor was super-responsive to my emails, and is supposedly is re-tooling the plugs to make them more secure (that's what they told me, atleast). Till then, I am just using regular bolts there.

[kode54]

...The only issue I have with the bike is that those rubber plugs for the mounting holes keep popping out when I load/unload the bike from the car. I have lost prett much every single one of them now. Factor was super-responsive to my emails, and is supposedly is re-tooling the plugs to make them more secure (that's what they told me, atleast). Till then, I am just using regular bolts there.

I'm using Ti bolts in the fender mounts myself. I lost the rubber plugs the first day I rode the LS. The plugs stick out and hardly stays put. Cleaning the bike...they fall out. I've seen standard rubber plugs that actually press down and surrounds the area, preventing water from creeping in. Yeah, I was surprised that this passed QC.

added: BTW, nice review on your part.

[guadzilla]

I'm using Ti bolts in the fender mounts myself. I lost the rubber plugs the first day I rode the LS. The plugs stick out and hardly stays put. Cleaning the bike...they fall out. I've seen standard rubber plugs that actually press down and surrounds the area, preventing water from creeping in. Yeah, I was surprised that this passed QC.

added: BTW, nice review on your part.

Ha, good to see i am not alone there. And yeah, one fell out when i was washing it too - good to see i am not alone here.

Here she is...






The size 56 frame weighed 1086gm and the uncut fork clocked in at 457gm.

The built was pretty much pulled off my 2019 R5 and consists of:
- Ultegra Di2 groupset
- Power2Max NGEco Power meter
- Praxis carbon cranks with Praxis 50/34 cassette
- Kalloy Uno 130mm stem (to be replaced by Zipp Sprint SL carbon stem once I get the custom Garmin mount for it
- 3T SuperErgo bars (thanks to WW for the recommendation)
- Some Aliexpress carbon saddle that cost me under $20 and is comfy enough for 5 hour rides

Wheels are either Roval CL50s with 26mm RapidAirs run tubeless, or Lightbicycle AR36 with S-Works Turbo 26c tires. Both these tires are left over from the R5 and once i wear them out, the plan is to have 28mm tires on the CL50s and 32-35mm tires on the AR36.

[Erwin]

Nice builds here. I am thinking about the Factor LS. Has somebody the option to try a 650B road plus wheelset?

EDIT: Just read that on bikerumor: It does however stick to 700c wheels only, and does not have generous wide clearance for those hoping to switch to smaller diameter, higher-volume 650b wheels for rougher riding.

[StellarPatellar]

I've got 40mm tires on mine, 43mm will definitely fit by the look of it, perhaps a bit more in some cases.