Well, I just got notification (signed up for email notifications on USPS) that my frame arrived at the local post office - woo! Probably won't deliver today given that it hit the post office so late in the day, but tomorrow anyway

Figured I'd go ahead and start a build thread, add some pics tomorrow.

As a vague goal I initially targeted UCI limits (6.8kg/15lb with *everything* bolted on as per uci regs) - of course without sacrificing performance, and getting price reasonably low for that level of weight/performance. Came pretty close, but as parts came in and were weighed, I'm pretty definitely going to be overweight. No biggie though

Here's the parts list, weight, and cost as it stands - all weights listed are confirmed except the bar tape, which I can't confirm since any weight I take would include backing and excess. Housings are overestimates as well; I took estimated guess at length but probably overshot.

cost weight part
26 126 FSA OS99 Stem (ebay from Taiwan)
75 181 Sell Italia SLR Flow (black)
125 195 Zeus Zeta Bars
0 230 Cables, housings, ferrules, etc. (rival groupset) NOTE:used blue housings I had already instead of included rival
0 193 rear derailleur (rival)
0 89 front derailleur (rival)
0 299 cassette (rival)
0 245 chain (rival)
0 320 shifters (rival) NOTE: Used blue hudz for shifters - same weight as stock
0 149 rear caliper (rival)
0 144 front caliper (rival)
589 0 (total groupset price other than crankset/bb)
0 715 rival crankset
140 109 sram gxp bottom bracket
405 1497 BWW Blackset Race 10 Blue Edition wheelset (aero config)
40 45 Aerozine Ti skewers (blue)
5 30 bww wheel tape
46 424 duro stinger tires (blue)
18 158 michelin lightweight tubes
115 221 Speedplay Lightaction cromoly (sadly, no blue in stock when I ordered)
39 48 computer/sensors incl cadence (actual weight 78g, but 48 with comp unplugged as per UCI)
40 207 Felt carbon seatpost
30 21 KCNC Ti seat clamp
26 60 lizardskins metallic dark blue tape (ESTIMATED weight)

That brings the weight to 5.7kg without frame, fork, headset, or cages, all of which is in my hongfu order. However, based on other measurements we can assume a frame weight of 895 and a fork of probably 350 cut. Just guessing 120g for headset & any spacers needed, and guessing 35 each for bottle cages. Those should all be pretty darned close in aggregate. If the guesses are correct, that puts the total at 7.14kg (340grams / ~3/4lb over target). Not bad still.

Just as a thought exercise I tried to figure what the easiest way to lose that weight would be - not planning on doing it, but I enjoy the engineering challenge

--Using veloplugs would probably be about 10g for both wheels - surprised the heck out of me, but I've got them in hand, and they're crazy light. I just got annoyed dealing with them and went tape instead. (-20g)
--continental race 28 tubes would knock off another 55g total (-75g)
--I won't be using the full 300mm of my seatpost; if I'm 50mm above the line, cutting 50mm off the bottom would probably shave 25g (-100g)
--Switching to BB30 force crankset would save quite a bit. Would just need to order the frame differently, bb30 cups instead of gxp for about the same price, then just get the force bb30 crankset which I was finding for about $100 higher than rival. At 824 vs 625 (weights with bb), that's 179g difference (-279g)
-- still need about 60g... reaching the point where there's really no low-hanging fruit though... Still, could've gotten <100g over budget for about $120 more spent.




Anyway, I'll take the time this evening to prep parts, and should be able to have the build well under way tomorrow night, so long as there are no problems with the frame

Hope to see your photos soon !!

Go USPS! Santa came early

by the time I got it all put together it was pretty late, so I'll get some natural light pics tomorrow. Few notes:
-Decals were a darker blue than I expected...
-15.7lbs, pretty much dead on with prediction (don't have a scale that can weigh the whole bike with any more than .1lb precision)
-The frame itself weighed 902g - about 7g heavier than nico's. 2 possibilities - 1), the bsa bb's weigh a little more, or 2) they just vary. probably a little of both.
-fork weighed 370 uncut, 355 after cutting.
-headset was 124g, 44g of which was the cap.








Oh - and yes, yes I do suck at photography (though being a cell phone camera doesn't help much either)

That's one awesome looking bike! Nicely done. What finish is that? UD with gloss clear? Looking forward to a ride report.

Congrats Defiance! Hows the ride quality?

hi defiancecp, whats the size of your frame ?thx

Good luck, still struggling with painting my FM066SL. Did post my component list on my build thread working with a slightly bigger budget

Want to lose weight cheaply, some ideas on this weight weenie thread Help Please!!! I need to lose 108 grams as cheap as possible

It's a 56cm. I don't actually plan to push to 6.8kg, I just enjoy the puzzle The thread was full of quite a few good ideas - I had already done a bunch of them (like the ti skewers), but swapping the top cap for something lighter and switch to Ti spindles for the pedals would probably push it the rest of the way down... and if not, I know the brake calipers are an option to finish it off.

Anyway, no ride ideas yet -- I will most definitely put it through a good ride this evening though

Hope i can get mine (58) soon. As i know not too much people will order 58 , so i think it need more time to wait.

defiancecp- I like how an unexpected color outcome serendipitously enhances one's plan. Your frame's (deeper) blue writing actually floats the entire structure, as opposed to the general flat decal look. This "vibration" makes your bike that more interesting -for me, and the blue parts' accompaniment very genuine. Awesome.

I look forward to everybody's show of their incoming 66sl bikes, and I hope they in average are top notch in construction.

I have built up quite a few Asian carbon frames in my shop, but I personally own two. One is going to my brother who needs transport, so I have been lurking here and trying to decide on another nice on-the-side build. I was ready to jump on the 66, but w the delays -tho typical (and a few mistakes on the first shows), I decided to wait. Lucky has tried to get me to jump on a 66, and a couple of the new 27.5s (I generally custom paint a few frames a year, and can now sell outright).

Good luck y'all, bring them on!

Just got back from a 25-mile first ride - general impression, awesome. Full disclosure- these results are fully inflated by circumstance -- First, I've actually never ridden a carbon frame before. Prior frame was heavy aluminum, loaner I used after that was stolen was aluminum, and the beater I put together in the meantime was steel. Second, in May of 2011 I weighed 260lbs, with a bmi over 35. I've been steadily working that off for over a year now, using my wii fit to keep track. Recently I've been running about 188-ish (bmi just barely over 25, very low end of overweight). Today after my ride is the first time the wii has ever told me I was not overweight(183.7/24.9)!!! WOOO FRACKING HOO! (now I know I'm down some water right now, so it's cheating a little, but still, it felt *DAMN* good).

So can't help but feel pretty great right now. (I had to wonder if Jane managed to track me down and hack my wii so I'd give better results! )

But honestly, I was feeling that way already!

There are ~4-5 stop lights on my ride, and I set off just a bit after 5pm, so I got a few spots of 'in-traffic' accelleration. Man, just no comparison to anything I've ridden before. I was off like a shot! The roads aren't in the best of shape, so I got a feel for the dampening, and the dampening was comparable to the steel frame, but it did it while still feeling much more responsive. And I was able to sustain significantly higher speed on the hills than I normally do (2 nice climbs on the ride, and 4-5 short-but-steep little inclines that normally kill my pace- nothing hard, but I'm a noob). Overall average speed over this run went up nearly a full MPH in comparison to previous (compared to the aluminum; never tried this exact route on the steel).

I've still got some minor tweaks to do (things like light fd chain rub in certain gears, etc), but all configuration work.

Oh, here's something to consider - nothing huge, but good to know in advance. Every frame I've ever owned has some form of derailleur/brake cable adjustments built in, but since these are internal, it doesn't. No biggie for brakes or rear deraileur since they all have built-in adjusters, but you'll need to come up with some way to externally adjust the FD (I actually just trial-and-errored it into the right spot since I didn't realize it in advance, so I didn't get an adjuster beforehand).

Oh, here's another quick one that I found just a little concerning... The FD cable comes up from the underside through a single hole in the frame below the BB. The hole has a hollow nipple-shaped protrusion that the cable goes through. It comes out looking really clean! Only problem I see is that in my case it's not perfectly angled toward by FD (and since FDs will vary, some will be dead on, others won't). Result is that the cable will have tension against the side of that 'nipple'... I worry that over time it will cut through it some. I think a perfect solution would be to drill it out and insert an aluminum insert that could be replaceable if needed. But it's probably me being overly cautious/critical - and even if it did cut through the 'nipple', the only problem I can think of is that I'd need to adjust the derailleur to make up for it.


Anyway, so that's my brain dump. I'm ravenous. Time to make myself overweight again... But not for long, dammit- normal BMI, I have laid hands upon you and soon you will be mine PERMANENTLY. MUAHAHAHAHAH!

Wow, I am so happy to see this post. I am so happy for your weight loss too! Great job. Posts like yours make the long sleepless hours working on VB more bearable.

Post more photos!

You just need a pair of inline cable adjustors like these:

www.aebike.com/Jagwire-Mini-Inline-Adjus...k-Silver_p_4141.html

www.aebike.com/Jagwire-Rubber-Coated-Min...er-Black_p_5240.html

I actually used one of these : www.aebike.com/Jagwire-Rocket-II-Adjusters-Black_p_4144.html - very similar, but instead of being inline it's in the frame stop, which I think looks better. Mostly though, it's what the lbs had in stock

One more addendum... Ok, I freaking HATE hudz. All the reviews I've read on them are good, but these things were slipping around all over the place on me. I had to stop ~4 times yesterday to slide them back into place. And yes, the 'nubs' were lined up with the holes, but they still slid right out. I switched back to stock today, and they seem to be much better at staying in place.

defiancecp wrote: Thats curious. While I have no experience with SRAM shifters or any affiliation with Hudz, we do have Hudz replacements on 6 bikes. Of 4 bikes with Hudz, 2 are road and 2 are cyclocross and other than being somewhat of a pain to install on Dura Ace 7900 shifters, once on I have not had any issues with Hudz slipping.

Huh. Maybe they just don't fit well with the doubletap shifters. Either way, just got back from another ride, this time with stock, no slippage at all, whatsoever.

The stock ones feel a little 'stiffer' than the huds - admittedly, until they slipped out, that meant the hudz were more comfortable, but maybe that's why they wouldn't stay. Tradeoff isn't worth it to me. Of course, ymmv, maybe I just got a defective pair.

Quick additional note - did a downhill section that hit 44.5mph today. Felt completely solid

It's too late since I got a FM066 coming in hopefully a few weeks, but could someone tell me if the Front braze on Derailleur hanger is riveted or bolted?

Thanks!

@853stolen

The FD hanger is riveted to the frame on my FM066SL

nickobec wrote:
Thanks Nick, though I wish they were bolted.
One more question, would you know the size of the BSA BB shell? I'm considering using my ISIS crank I already have and want to order the correct size BB before the frame arrives.


Thanks again,
Le

853stolen wrote:
No idea, my BB is BB30, same as Defiance's I would assume if it is BSA, 68mm the road standard (73mm is MTB)