Carbon Alfine 650B Gravel/Road Thing

The frame arrived. I’m currently dying with man flu or something similar so I don’t expect much to change on this over the weekend. In the meantime, I have however bought some Panaracer Gravel King tyres. I went for 1.5’s because the fork won’t accept wider than that.

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Get better, build bike!

Well I managed to get some stuff done on this today.

I fitted the tyres, which are 1.75 instead of 1.5’s. Seems I mistakenly ordered the wrong size. But, they fit so they can stay.

I assembled the front end and I’m happy with the clearances, and I think it looks good.

I got the frame rubbed down in prep for paint but I need to wait until more primer arrives before I can start.

I’ve now also ordered a Mach rim for the Alfine and a Microshift BS-No8 bar end shifter.

It’s coming together and hopefully it’ll all be done in the next couple of weeks.

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I managed to get a makeshift spray booth in the garage. Complete with a heater..... :-) That mean I started painting the frame. I’ve got the base coats applied. Today I’ll get the grey fired on and let it cure for a couple days.

I also went to town on my handlebars. I really wanted to use the sparkling silver base and candy purple paint but I couldn’t quite figure out how to fit it on to the frame without it being too cluttered with colours..... So I decided to paint the handlebars!

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oof, nice

I’ve not got the decals applied to the frame. Time to let them cure for a day or two then I’ll apply a few coats of lacquer over the top.

I also got a RBAD decal applied just to oppose current forum trends! ;-)

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good effort! dazzle camo!

Jazzy as

So this is as she stands just now. Still need to cable up the back brake, bar tape nds bar, get proper SS chainring bolts, fit and chain and install the rear mudguard!

I’m really happy with how it looks so far! Think I’ll colour match the seatpost with the bars. Thoughts?

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Got it pretty much finished today! I just need a longer bolt for the base section of the mudguard. Plus I’ve decided to colour match the seatpost.

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Very nice! Colour matched seatpost would look sweet, you reckon there'd be any fit issues with the paint added?

Nice bike. But I'd get some sort of spacer for where the rear mudguard attaches to the BB shell. The whole bike will look much neater if the mudguard follows the line of the tyre.

Ive just read your post properly. Ignore me. Love the paint.

Lovely.

I'm guessing there's no way to attach a rack on the frame?

This is awesome! Can I ask the impolite question of how much you reckon it's cost all in? I've often thought about going the China crabon route...

There’s always a way ;-)

Plus, there are mudguard mounts so if you get creative you could attach a rack. Although, I don’t think it would be capable of carrying a heavy load though due to the small mounts.

To be honest I’m not entirely sure. I had a lot of the parts but I’d guess I’ve spent in the region of £500 on the rest of the stuff I needed.

Do you know I’ve still not even ridden this other than round the block a few times to sort the setup?! Although I have been dying lately with some form of virus/illness. The perks of having children at nursery!

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Right, interested on building something similar for commuting but don't want to go back to backpack or messenger bags now.