Eesu 650b gravelbike (and other bikes...)

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  • Warning: lots of words with no pics yet

    I started out working in a garage pimpin' out cars. Didn't know what I wanted to do and this job came my way. I worked on cars for eight years and realised that my back and general health would not be happy doing this till old age. So I started going to school again in the evenings and found a new job working in a bookstore. I really love what I do but after not working with my hands for nine years my palms started to itch, I really need to do something on the side that involves creating stuff. Been playing with bikecad for years so I thought why not have a go. Looked around on the interweb for a course but could only find them abroad. No problem, I'll make it a vacation. Cue me pikking up a magazine when working in the evening and reading a piece about doing a course in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. Still 130km away but I have relatives near there.

    Visited Martin Bekking (Bekking Frameworks) last week to check out his place and discuss the frame I wanted to build. He thinks it shouldn't be problem building it in six days so on July 18 we start building.

    Bike will be a 650b road bike, clearance for 42-45 wide tyres but with a 'fast' road bike geo. Bit like a Slate but with a normal fork.

    The most important bit; (sorry, no pictures yet) The list:
    -Frame: Columbus Zona, 73* sta, 73* hta, 75mm bb drop, 415mm chainstays, reach 385, stack 600, level or max 2* sloping top-tube
    -Fork: Ritchey Carbon Cross disc fork
    -Groupset: Shimano 105 hydro disc 1x11
    -Wheels: Purple Hope Pro4 on Stan's Crest (ordered, needed for checking while building)
    -Tyres: Gravel King 27.5x1.75
    -Finishing kit: Ritchey

    Paintjob will probably be charcoal metalic to dark grey metalic fade with purple lettering (same colour as hubs) with the rest of the parts all black.

    And the name? Eesu or Ēsu is ace in phonetic Japanese, my last name is just one A.
    Sounds better than Aso (Italian) witch means anti social in Dutch...

  • And a pic of the bike that inspired me to build and inspired the idea for the subtle fade paintjob.


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  • Already following. Hope to see this build quickly

  • Awesome. This is pretty much bang on what I've started piecing together (minus custom frame). Followed

    Check out compass tyres for fat yet supple and fast tyres in 650. And join this thread

  • First update: wheels are in. Purple is lush/lairy. Rest of the bike will be quite restraint so I'm sure it will work. Best of all; finaly some pics!
    Put the wheels on the scales of course, no tape, qr or cassete.

    @Chak I thought about Compass but they are pricy for the black tyres. Maybe next set when I'm done giving my wallet cpr...


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  • Sounds good, but I don't think those tyres will fit the ritchey fork. There is a ritchey clone fork floating around on ebay that has huge clearances and a 410 a-c - search for picasia - A slightly longer than normal a-c (assuming normal cross length is 400a-c) can be designed into a custom frame.

  • This was my 650B 'fast bike' before it was stolen

  • I saw those gravel kings in 1.5 - you might find those a bit faster - 1.75 is a bit fat for the road.

    I put marathon supremes on the above bike - but it was stolen the next day fume so couldn't comment on their ride qualities (1.6 size)

  • That's bang on the wheelset I want to build. Not sure I trust Stan's data. What's internal width on the rims?

  • Ordering the fork in a fortnight, tyres have been ordered yesterday so I'll find out if it fits or not soon enough. Saw a picture of the fork with a measured 700x38 with loads of room that's why I'm trying it. If not, custom steel fork it is.
    Whole reason for going 650b is wiiiiiiiiide tyres, I'm 6'1 so don't need it for frame restrictions or toe overlap 😬

  • I don't have calipers at the moment so I'll eyeball them with a ruler.
    21mm give or take an eyelash.

  • Tyres are in (f#ckin hell Chainreaction are slow), tubeless kit ordered. Both tyres come in way below claimed weight at 352g and 349g respectively. Lets hope they are not wrongly labelled 38s... Will (try to) mount the tires this weekend and get some measurement from them.


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  • That's flipping nothing! is 38 he biggest you can get?

  • Those are 42c I think

  • 38 and 42 are availible, I picked the 42s because you know, biiiiiiig* tires. According to the Panaracer website the 38s should come in at 310g.

    *Might not be so biiiiiiig...

  • So, Stans Notubes kit came in yesterday thanks to mantel.nl and I spend a big portion of the evening watching how to videos and reading on mountain bike forums because I never mounted tubeless before. Had to work today but after dinner with my wife in the back room watching video lectures I went to work in the living room. Some Discovery show about streetracing on in the background and I was set. Cleaned the wheels, taped them up, fitted the valves. Grabbed a tyre and struggled with the extremly tight bead for at least a minute or two. No levers, no sore thumbs, no swearing. Did I do something wrong? Grabbed my trackpump from the hallway and started pumping quite fast. Ping, pop, tyre seated. This is not supposed to be easy. Pumped the tyre up to 4 bar to seat the tyre and the tape and admired my handy work.

    So far the good news. The bad(ish): tyre measures 40mm, so not so biiiiig. Let's see how big they get when I put some miles on them. This might take a while because while the wheel tyre combo fits fine between the fork legs of my GT Grade, the rear looks realy tight. Will fit the rear tomorow and find out just how tight. If it fits I'll put some miles (well km's) on them before building, if not they stay nice and clean for a couple of months.

    Enjoying a nice whiskey sour* on the couch now. Pictures!

    *My own recipe: 1 part mandarin orange/ lime juice freshly squized off course, 1 part bourbon, no sugar/ sugarsyrup, ice. Shaken not stirred.
    **I know the valve and label don't line up, tyre will come of to ad latex. And yes, it does bug me right now...


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  • @Chak what frame are you using for your project?

  • Wrestled with the rear tyre for two hours before ringing lbs to see if they had an air compressor... Nice to live in a cycle forward country where at least two bike stores near me are open on a Sunday. Charged me nothing but have to show the bike when finnished.


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  • I have no idea yet. I work in a bike shop, so I've tried a whole bunch of bikes for fit. Not a great amount come with the clearance required. Closest so far (carbon) has been a Jamis Renegade and the Genesis Datum. Alloy is a whole other story.
    Also Might have to lower my fattness standards some. 45mm+ might be pushing it a little too far.

  • Fork and headset have arived from Germany today. Tried the front wheel to see if it would fit. About 10mm each side, could fit a bigger tyre 🤔. Not right now though. Headset is just a Ritchey Pro Logic one, thought about Hope or King but in the end budget decided (€30,00/£500.00 for Pro Logic) and the fork has a 45* crown race integrated. Weight is with uncut steerer and without the suplied bung.


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  • Day one flew by. Lots of hand mitering and a couple of practice welds. Seat tube and down tube are ready for welding, top tube will be mitered tomorow. Totally knackered.


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  • Day two: yesterday I mitered most of the tubes for the front triangle, only the top tube remained. This one was fairly easy to do and after an hour it was done. After I drilled the holes for the bottle bosses and the ones for venting it was time to tack the seat tube. Next step checking the alignment on the alignment table. Aaaaand lunch. Kettle is not for tea but for removing flux...


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  • After lunch I tacked the rest of the front triangle and prepared for the most nerve wrecking part of two days; brazing the front triangle. It got plenty hot behind the welding mask (it was 30 degrees outside as wel)! After the brazing and ice cream we removed the flux from the frame and started on filing one of the fillets as there was no time left for the seatstays. Rear triangle is waiting for tomorow. More pictures!


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  • Awesome work. Welding looks super neat.

  • Days three and four: seatstays and chainstays are next, due to clearance wories and me changing ideas about the seatstays I didn't get as much done as I liked. It didn't help it was 34 degrees centigrade. As of today I'm back on schedule instead of ahead of. Tomorow the seatstays will be brazed and the bits and bobs for the cable runs. Even though it's a lot of work and it's a bit warm I'm really enjoying myself. Way better than a regular holiday. Cheers!


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Eesu 650b gravelbike (and other bikes...)

Posted by Avatar for Libraio @Libraio

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