Time for some carbon

After dozens of steel bikes, I decided it was time for something else. I always liked the lugged carbon look frames from the early 2000s and did a little research on them. During the process, I read a few comparisons between Look and Time bikes and I read quite a few raving reviews about the Time VXRS. Being a little more exclusive than the look frames, I was intrigued and started looking for one. I found one at a reasonable price and am now waiting for it to be shipped from france to Germany. It comes with a chorus 10 speed and a rotor compact crankset. I already found a bargaineous campa chorus 11 speed groupset with a record derailleur to replace the 10speed components. Not quite sure whether I‘ll keep the rotor cranks or swap them for the chorus carbon cranks. Build plans are fairly straight forward: swap the 10 speed chorus for 11 speed, put on selle italia slr, swap tyres for veloflex or challenge gumwall ones and find some matching time pedals. Overall aim is to get a close to or even sub 7kg for under 1000€. Some pics of other VXRSs for inspiration:

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Niiiice

Very nice. Deep section wheels?

I wasn’t that happy with Veloflex Masters tbh, Challenge or Vittoria for gunwall.

My dad has one and loves it. Was built as a weightweenie build in 2005 with Record 10, Stork cranks, Lightweights, M5 brakes etc but has now evolved into a bitsa bike which gets ridden regularly still.

Enjoy!

very nice! do you have carbon wheels?

(I might be keen for any unwanted 10speed chorus going spare)

love the last pik :)

oh so rad. this is one of my favourite bikes ever

it's 5.41kgs!

Thanks for the advice, I have a spare challenge elite in 25c so it probably makes sense to just buy a second one. The bike will come with fulcrum racing 1 wheels and I‘ll keep them for now. Maybe it‘ll get some carbon wheels later on.

That‘s good to hear :) quite a few people say that the bike is more enjoyable as a functional road bike than a weight weenie but the weight of the module makes it really tempting to go full weightweenie. Luckily that‘s not an option for my budget :)

As mentioned above, no carbon wheels for now. A colleague of mine expressed some interest in the chorus bits but he wasn‘t sure yet so I‘ll keep you updated. The parts seem to be in good condition :)

I‘ve seen that one, very nice but also very expensive built :) i‘m excited to see what it‘ll weigh with a sonewhat low-budget build :) My rough and uneducated guess is between 7.5 and 6.9ish.

Love your title .
Saw this time machine belonging to Paolo Bettini at the Ghisallo Museum above lake Coma

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The bike arrived yesterday in one piece. However, I wasn‘t that happy about the condition it arrived in. The seller said that he glued in the rivet for the bottle cage but he didn‘t specify that it was done with a bunch of filler in a rather hideous way. The groupset isn‘t in great condition either so I guess, it won‘t be of interest for you @mattyc . Since I‘ll replace the groupset anyway, it‘ll only impact the resale value and not the performance so I‘m not too bothered. The paint looks a little tyred but I tried some paint polish on the headtube and the result looks rather shiny and promising. I‘ll polish the rest of the frame later today or tomorrow. Another disappointment was the fact that the original ISP top part was exchanged for a cheap kalloy seatpost but I wanted to replace the OG one for a zero setback post anyway so it‘s not that big a deal. The original time stem is 120mm and too long for me so I replaced it with a 100mm ITM Alu one I had at hand. The pro carbon bars are also too wide at 44cm but I don‘t like the ergo shape so I replaced them with a pair of cheap alu compact drops for now. So far I disassembled everything and gave it a good clean. There‘s no corrosion in the BB shell which is quite a relief since that was an issue on some VXRS frames. Unfortunately I forgot to take some before photos but here are a few pics of the current state.

Hideous rivet 'repair':

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Replacement zero setback mini seatpost and alcantara SLR saddle:

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Polished test area on the head tube:

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Weight as pictured: 4,6kg

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Looking good (when you don't zoom in!). Is it from Ebay? That repair should have been described accurately IMHO.

Totally agree, it‘s from leboncoin and I wrote the seller a message expressing my disappointment with the description. Let‘s see what happens but I do want to keep the bike.

subbed. i passed one of those on regents park the other day and wondered why i ever sold my 595.

You've got to be local with Lbc, it's a bit risky otherwise. Years ago my Dad picked up an Alan in 56 for me, found on Lbc. Turned out to be a 52, they actually have the size stamped on the the BB shell... It was very cheap so I managed to resell it but I learned my lesson.

Do you work at SVB if you don't mind me asking?

I bought bikes and parts on there before and so far my experiences have been rather positive. Anyway, I knew about the risks and I don‘t regret the purchase as such but he should have definitely disclosed the damage. I‘m currently still working at SVB, next week is my last week there. It was fun but it was always intended as a temporary thing and I‘m looking forward to my new job at the university.

I managed to bring the paint back to life. Weight without the chain, bartape and outer cables is 6.69kg. The chain is 250g so I think the bartape and outer cables will push it slightly beyond 7kg.

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Pedals? Chop the steerer tube! Looking very good.