Ti Sled (and track machine)

In wake of my every day lopro being thieved by local crackies it's insurance build time.
As a 1 bike each household I was itching for another 700c track machine anyway. Now I am permitted!
This time I want to build something a bit modern, something a bit hip-hop, something kind of silly but something I can still take to local velodrome.

Waltly Ti, Intergrated HS, pista leggera and a delicious matching Moots stem? We are go.

With this I'm gonna load up on all the slave parts I've wanted but never had a frame for: Flite Ti, Slam that stem cap, 44rn, solid spider cranks, Raketa hubs, wide bars, all black everything.. and (of course) Soma mini rack and Wald for backpack free commuting.

Need to do something about that nasty blue stem clamp though haha.

Pop the blue cap in a bit of Sodium Hydroxide (drain cleaner) and it should take the anodize off.

Sick frame btw.

What a nice frame ! I’d stay with the blue stem cap and match it with a nice DA 7600 BLUE chainring !

How much did the frame cost to get made? Where is production, Russia or China I guess?

Looking to sell my 27.2 USE titanium seatpost soon if you are interested. Looking forward to the build

Definately no matchy matchy anodising for me. Not sure how much the frame cost man I bought it second hand (unused) but ~Usd900 seems to be the mark for these. Made in China yeah.
@BigH 31.6 blasted finished only haha. (Nice posts those USE tho!)

Just picked up the frame from the mechanics. Faced, threaded and fitted BB, headset races squared (they were way off) and steerer chopped.

Ended up stripping the stem clamp and hitting it with some rattle can satin black enamel.
If it doesn't hold up I can always order a replacement from Moots direct but looks great for now.

A few small changes to plans as I've picked parts from local classifieds instead of the 'bay because the exchange rate sucks but very happy with my finds.
The FSA cranks have the (rare?) machined alu solid spider which is rad but also a bit heavy, planning to drill out some the unneccesarsy bulk around bolts.

Now just waiting on my Raketa hubs preorder to arrive and to purchase a chainring.
I was hoping that a new 44rn release would be out by now so I guess a F5 Lattice ring it is instead I reckon. Cheaper anyway :)

I haven't done the maths but this gonna be light.

Rad.

Looking forward to seeing this completed.

Nice furniture

And bike

Very very nice, don't sell yourself short with the Factory5 though this needs an AARN! Didn't he just re-stock the webshop or maybe that was just the narrow wide rings?

ahh, haha. You are right, I should chase my dreams.
Still only bigbois in stock on the webshop.
I'll look deeper...

Nice frame! Surely a Rotor Track crack would be better on this?

^ not a massive fan of Rotors personally... plus $$$ too much for me.

Still waiting on the hubs to arrive. :( I'm hoping this week...

Meanwhile.. did some customisation on the cranks. Mostly for aesthetic but shaved a bunch of weight too.
Built a little jig and with a guide in the middle to carefully run a router against and finished up the straight edges with a jigsaw.

Gonna try out this product from the gun shop called Aluminum Black to clean up the scratches on the spider and blacken out those logos while I'm at it!

Great work! The crank/chainring combo looks really good.
Glad you went for the AARN.

Far out, this build has been a rollercoaster.

The good:
Initial ride impressions were amazing. It's true what they say about titanium... smooth.
Size is spot on for me too. Seller says he spec'd Look L96 geometry so I was expecting long and low with a slack headtube but both seat and head angles come in at around ~75 and top tube is quite short. Almost to a T exactly how I would order it myself. Takes 28s comfortably too!

The bad:
As I was truing the wheels I noticed the allen bolts on the rear hub were not square.
This made it very difficult to set the wheel straight. I had to really torque - over torque - the bolts to get the wheel to hold in the dropouts. There are nasty sounds as the washer squashed to accommodate. The wheel still moves about and I had no confidence to ride hard.
I emailed to inform my axle threads were faulty causing grip issues and they admitted they were actually aware of the fault but didn't see it to be a problem...?
I would guess with all the previous delays the didn't want to disappoint customers further with more delays. IMO shipping a faulty product was an even more damaging move.
To their credit, they have been excellent with communication and posted a replacement axle once it was manufactured. 1.5 months later it has arrived as well as some improved knurled washers.
Good lads but fuuuu...
It's such a shame as the hubs are extremely well engineered and the build quality is otherwise outstanding. The axle manufacturing is outsourced and not even a fault of their own so I do feel for them.
I also feel sorry for me. I ordered the hubs in July 2019... hehe :(

That's not all!
I also noticed vibrations somewhere in the drive at high cadence. Closer inspection, the entire crank spider has a slight wobble to it. Some kind of machining or fitment error with the 2 piece construction. Plus even with the aluminium spider it still had the signature FSA play. There is no way I'm going to settle for imperfection with such a nice build.

ANYWAY.
No more fucking around. I have a delicious package coming from Sugino Engineering Co. this week and we gonna do it right this time.

Axle fault:

Replacement axle:

!!!!

edit: double post?

KEEEEEN

Shame about the FSA, it looked so distinctive. Assuming there’s a 75DD in that box???

^ yeah man, very unfortunate. It was a pretty great look.

Have to say, it's been hard to get my hands on decent black cranks.
I was hesitant about getting Omniums due to potential for clearance issues but by chance I found Sugino had listed their remaining DD1 stock at a discount. Still not cheap, mind, but peace of mind. Don't reckon I will complain much about this setup.

Hopefully have some time this weekend to do the axle swap and put it all together.

Axle was an easy install and very happy with the replacement washers.

Sapim brass double square with D-Lites to Hydras.

That is a sexy looking set of wheels!

Hmm that chainring fitted the fsa cranks much better. Id prefer Suginos with a chainring with radiuses towards the star arms. Looks smoother imho

Now plx post pic of entire build thxxxx :-)

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^ well I guess the aarn is a Zen with holes???

Couple of quick pics, hopefully get some glamour shots soon before I break something.
7.2kg as pictured and an absolute dream to ride.

Nice, I still don't get really wide bars though!

Looks dreamy to ride.