My recipe for a vaguely insane bicycle

I'm a graduate student now, so I won't be building this one till at least this winter, but I think I've got a tiger by the tail in the Nashbar catalog.

It'll cost around $1250, and weigh in just under 15 lbs. What does the GRM Massive think? Is being "too light to be UCI legal" worth giving up a derailleur?

Frame: Nashbar 52mm aluminum-carbon integrated, $199.99, 1100 g (est)

Headset: Cane Creek 1 1/8" Integrated, $47.99, 71 g

Fork: Nashbar Full Carbon Road Fork, $139.99, 350g

Wheels: Vuelta Zerolite Track Wheelset, $99.99, 2151g Includes: Front hub, rear flip-flop hub and sprockets, QRs

Front Tire: Michelin Pro Race 3, 700x23, $34.99, 200g

Rear Tire: Michelin Pro Race 3, 700x23, $34.99, 200g

Front Tube: Michelin Ultra Lite, $9.99, 75 g

Rear Tube: Michelin Ultra Lite, $9.99, 75 g

Rim Strips: Rox Ultralite Rim Strip, $13.00*, 3g

Crankset: Vuelta Pista Track Bike Crankset, 68x108, $54.00, 600g (est)

Bottom Bracket: Action-Tec Attack KYK 68x107, $155*, 134g

Chain: BBB Singleline, $19.99, 291g

Pedals: Speedplay Zero Stainless, $189.99, 206g

Front Brake: Nashbar Jail Brake w/pads, $34.99, 173g

Front Brake Cable: Aztec Brake Cable and Housing Set, $15.99, 60g for front

Brake Levers: Cane Creek SCR-5, $39.99, 269g. **

Stem: Nashbar Deluxe 26 mm, $14.99, 155g

Handlebar: Nashbar Trackbar, $24.99, 275g

Tape: Nashbar Handlebar Tape, $5.99, 20g

Seatpost: Nashbar Carbon Fiber Seatpost, $39.99, 229g

Saddle: The cheap CODA saddle everyone throws away fits me perfectly, $0.00, 240g

Cost: $1186.83 Weight: 15.1 lbs

*Non-Nashbar. The bottom bracket might seem a bit excessive but I tend to utterly demolish bottom bracket bearings and an expensive American bottom bracket might get replaced free.

** Note: The right side brake lever controls the front brake as Soichiro Honda intended. The left one is a dummy with a Harbor Freight spring in it to keep it from pinching my fingers.

The speedways in Stainless are not needed just get the standard set.

Find a better used frame with fork and then through the rest into upgrading the wheelset even further. Wheels = speed.

If your going to race try your best to keep it at legal weight. Remember some of us with 60cm+ frames have trouble hitting it even with tons of carbon.

In reply to wearymicrobe:

The ordinary Speedplays are the way to go - $129 rather than $185 and only 9g heavier. I guess I didn't choose them because they weren't in stock.

The wheels/hubs are definitely the next place to look for weight savings - I just haven't found any flip-flop-hub wheels that weigh much less than these $99 ones for less than $900.

Do you have any suggestions for wheels/hubs?

Used one's, bike stuff depreciates at such a huge rate that for you budget you can buy a complete monster of a bike off for 30% new cost.

This is going back but I paid something like 700$ for my tri softride which was a factory race built bike new cost almost 5K at the time put another 7-8K miles on it before it was to worn down to rebuild.

For new stuff I am actually pretty fond of the performance bike center brand scattante.

chaparral wrote: Is being "too light to be UCI legal" worth giving up a derailleur?

No.

Building a super-lightweight bike ill-suited to riding up and down hills doesn't make much sense to me.

Come to think of it even riding on the flats, pulling away from a stop in a gear tall enough to cruise at ~20mph is a giant pain...

I can see the fun in a single-speed for some stuff, but a high performance road bike isn't it for me.

I used the word 'me' a lot in describing why I have issues with your plan. Obviously, you are not me, and it may be a perfectly awesome bike for you. I won't be offended

You're right about used wheels being cheaper!

I'll certainly find the right ones used.

Back when I took up cycling seriously for a summer I wanted Spinergy Rev-Xs, and now they're cheap.

chaparral wrote: Back when I took up cycling seriously for a summer I wanted Spinergy Rev-Xs, and now they're cheap.

they're not very aero, and not very stiff

chaparral wrote: You're right about used wheels being cheaper! I'll certainly find the right ones used. Back when I took up cycling seriously for a summer I wanted Spinergy Rev-Xs, and now they're cheap.

DO NOT BUY REV-X's.

I wish I could type in 8 foot high flaming letters sometimes. They are not legal in any form of racing except for some very very specific tri races. They have a tenancy to let go in races and have cause some horrible crashes.

What would you recommend, fifty?

It'll either be a "conventional" rear wheel built up with a flip-flop hub, or a "good" road wheel with a single sprocket and spacers on the freewheel, or a track rear wheel.

If you really want a carbon wheel the HED-3's hold up extremely well and paired with a full disk in the rear are quick.

Honestly if you want to race or ride fast. Try on a CAAD 9/10 and add some wheels after the fact. Great bike.

Also the krysilium line from mavic is a decent set and they make a higher spoke count setup for people like me who can break frames. IE 200+ lb bears

wearymicrobe wrote:

chaparral wrote: You're right about used wheels being cheaper! I'll certainly find the right ones used. Back when I took up cycling seriously for a summer I wanted Spinergy Rev-Xs, and now they're cheap.

DO NOT BUY REV-X's. I wish I could type in 8 foot high flaming letters sometimes. They are not legal in any form of racing except for some very very specific tri races. They have a tenancy to let go in races and have cause some horrible crashes.

I've just spent a couple minutes reading up on catastrophic failures with the Rev-X wheels - I can see why they're cheap secondhand!

wearymicrobe wrote: If you really want a carbon wheel the HED-3's hold up extremely well and paired with a full disk in the rear are quick. Honestly if you want to race or ride fast. Try on a CAAD 9/10 and add some wheels after the fact. Great bike. Also the krysilium line from mavic is a decent set and they make a higher spoke count setup for people like me who can break frames. IE 200+ lb bears

I'm a 160 lb Ultimate Frisbee player who'll be just hacking around riding fast. I'm good for a lot of dead bottom brackets but not that hard on anything else.

chaparral wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: If you really want a carbon wheel the HED-3's hold up extremely well and paired with a full disk in the rear are quick. Honestly if you want to race or ride fast. Try on a CAAD 9/10 and add some wheels after the fact. Great bike. Also the krysilium line from mavic is a decent set and they make a higher spoke count setup for people like me who can break frames. IE 200+ lb bears

I'm a 160 lb Ultimate Frisbee player who'll be just hacking around riding fast. I'm good for a lot of dead bottom brackets but not that hard on anything else.

160lb's is good, 150lb better on the lighter wheel-sets built for aero and speed. You can ride just about anything but the most esoteric climbing wheelsets.

Me I still ride 32 count front and back and I get heavy deflection in my frame when I am out of the saddle.I only have 2Kish miles on my current frame but I doubt it will see another 8K or so before its trashed.

cane creek sells stoker brake levers if you want to shave a few grams on the left side of the bar.

stoker levers

The plan has changed a bit.

I bought a used Trek 5500 bare frame on eBay for $220.

I'm going to see what sort of components I can get on eBay as a complete gruppo. If I get "8-9" speed compatible wheels, it looks like 9-speed Ultegra or Dura-Ace is cheap now...

I had the Performance Bike version of had frame a few years back. It was a noodle under power,which is not what you want on a single. I was atv250 lbs at the time though, and generate a LOT of torque.

I once spent 1800 building a super light ss MTB. Two years later I sold it for 600 with about 25 rides on it. It was fun about twice. YMMV

I have a Trek 5500 built up with 9-speed Dura-Ace. Nice bike, but no way it it is under 17lbs ready to ride. Those "add up the pieces" weights have a way of not really working out in the real world.

One thing about the OCLV-era Treks, the headtube is really low, so you will end up using quite a bit of spacers or an angled stem (yuck) unless you are Cirque du Soleil flexible.

Trek 5500 you say? I built this one up last year (but since tore it down and built a cx bike with some of the parts)

My only advice would be to get EVERYTHING on ebay. My goal was to be under 14lbs for $1400. I managed to hit the goal including carbon rims! That bike could climb like no other.

2002maniac wrote: My only advice would be to get EVERYTHING on ebay. My goal was to be under 14lbs for $1400. I managed to hit the goal including carbon rims! That bike could climb like no other.

Did your prices include shipping for all those individual purchases? That's where the wheels always fall off for me when I think of doing something similar.

Pretty damn awesome result though. My '07 Kredo Kuota (Large - 58ish cm) w/Dura-Ace weighs ~15.5 with zipp 404 tubulars on it. I bought the Zipps on ebay and still have $5500 in the bike.

2002 maniac - I need a recipie like that for a 29er mountain bike. That is awesome.

Yeah... there's no way I could build a bike for under $1400 off Ebay. I just don't have the patience for that. Buying bike parts off Ebay has been mixed for me over the years, for every $100 I save, I seem to lose $200 buying something that turned out to be junk or not what I wanted. It doesn't help I'm rather picky about what components I'll use. Hell, half of the frames I've bought are more than $1400...

In reply to mfennell:

Those prices include shipping.

In reply to ProDarwin:

I have built up a 20lb 29er hardtail that I use for XC racing on a similar budget. I did not document it as well though.