Serotta Tri-Colorado 650c

I know you do! I sent you a pm asking if you had any spare!

Aah yes, now I remember. Since your message things got a bit out of hand. In search of the ultimate 650c wheelset of have started buying everything I came across. So now have too little bikes for the amount of wheel. By quite a margin. Yet somehow you managed to score the ultimate wheelset IMHO.

@SWijland I'm sure you'll find more frames for them! You may be able to throw some light on my wheel issue for me.....

As I mentioned these took me forever to find and didn't come cheap. So imagine my horror when they turned up and I realise they don't sit centre in my frame. You can see from the brake hole that they sit slightly to the non-drive side, but at the seat stays it is much more visible.

I have a few millimetres of clearance between the non-drive side tyre and chain stay (and this is running 23c tyres). On the drive side the gap is perhaps double.

I can't work this out. The frame I am almost certain is fine (done the string trick). The wheel runs perfectly true too. It just doesn't sit centre. I don't have calipers to measure it properly but it with a ruler it looks like the wheel has simply been built wider on one side..

The frame spacing is 126mm, and the wheel spacing / hub (excuse incorrect terminology), is set at 130mm. Ideally I'd be able to reduce the space on the drive side, but there are no spacers to remove.

There is what looks to be a thin spacer behind where the cassette sits, but this is actually glued right against the wheel so I guess I should not try to remove that?!?

The seller said these came off a kestrel like yours... any ideas at all?

There's scope to remove space on the NDS, but doing this pushes the wheel right against the chain stay. It's the DS space I need to reduce.

I'm a bit gutted as if I ever wanted to sell these I'd have to be straight up about it. Guy in my LBS said don't worry about it too much, but I'd like to know the answer.

I could prob send the wheels back, the seller was a nice guy, but he's in Germany - finding another set will be long painful etc etc...

Sorry for long boring post, if anyone can shed any light tho would be much appreciated.

It is starting to look like a bike though. Cranks are on and switched out the headset for a new Dura Ace one which randomly CRC had on clearance recently...

(Ignore non-level levers - cockpit is temporary, will come onto that).

I wouldn't try and remove that as it's part of the hub of the wheel, I have the same on mine. Based on our previous conversation I thought that the wheel was so off centered, it was causing rubbing on one of the stays. I just checked where mine sits and it's even more off that yours from what I see on the picture, so I wouldn't worry about that to be honest...

Build is looking snazzy already btw!

Edit: with pictures

3 Attachments

Weird they are not centered. I have the exact same rear wheel right now. The spacer you are referring to is not something I would remove. I will check how mine looks in a frame. Did you check if they are centered in another frame? By the way, judging by the looks of the carbon weave and the sticker near the valve hole, I think these might be Specialized tri spoke wheels and not Hed, but I could be wrong.

It looks great!

After a quick search I found this old thread talking about uncentered HED3:

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/HED3_Wobble_How_much__Too_Much_-_Help_Please_P735137/

Apparently the hubs are shimmed.

Just realized this, but it seems highly unlikely that your frame spacing is 126. That is spacing for freewheel type bikes. I am pretty sure this is much newer than that. Are you sure your frame rear end isn't bent?

Hmmm, okay, thanks for this. I don't have the wheel wobble as mentioned in that thread, mine run perfectly true thankfully, but i do have the off centre-ing they refer to - and funny you have the same too... Weird. Mine doesn't look bad from the rear, it's just the gap at the chain stays where it's very obvious. I'm just going to not worry about it.... (At first I removed that nut on the NDS side to get a width closer to 126mm like the frame, and at that point the wheel completely jams).

Hey, thanks, glad you like it. Didn't bother checking it in another frame - I don't have another 650c frame and sticking it in a normal frame I just assumed would be too difficult to spot any misalignment by eye...

You're totally right about the specialized / HED thing. It says Specialized on the hub. I didn't give this a second thought - didn't have the knowledge to question this, just assumed HED used specialized hubs or the companies were somehow affiliated at some point. So it appears i have specialized tri-spokes with HED decals.

....

1 Attachment

Zipp carbon clincher alert

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224213384531

Don't. I saw those....

I'm telling myself the HEDs are better anyway. The zipps could look too modern. Right?!

@SWijland - this HED has same weave pattern and valve sticker, so I think they aren't specialized after all. https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/355757/#comment15607984

Also just saw your comment regarding rear being bent; it doesn't seem to be when doing the string trick, but I'll build it first then get it checked out. It's a jam getting the wheel in, and I thought 126 would have been the most likely.

Need to update on this - will do so later.

I've been slack on this, had a busy couple of weeks of work and I've got bike fatigue at the moment, but i'll share my stem / bar combo woes:

These were my options:

I wanted to go with the pro chrome, but they're both apparently 25.8 diameter, and I frustratingly scratched my bars trying to get them on and didn't manage it. Tried the coin trick, hand gel alcohol as lube etc but no way was it going on without serious scratching - if at all. Got stuck towards the centre where the diameter of the bar increases.

3ttt status stems were next choice but I couldn't even get round the bend of the bars. Impossible.

So I took the salsa off my concorde, and that was the only one that fit, but the reach with that stem and bar combo was ridiculous.

Wasn't going with that, so resigned myself to ditching my brand new bars which I've scratched, and going with my trusty deda piegas (again off my concorde) with the pro chrome. (Weirdly much easier to get the pro chrome on these even though bar diameter should be the same).

All fine, bars not as cool, but whatever.

Decision was made, until this came up on ebay and I thought I'd chance an offer. The guy accepted and it turned up yesterday....

It's a bit ridiculous, and there's enough going on with this bike already, but the bars fit and it's funky, so it's staying.

TL;DR - bars and stem indecision resolved. Just needs cabling up and I'm done.

Quite like the pro chrome combo but the ergostem is amazing, really curious to see how it'll turn out!

Pro Chrome looks smart but the rest is wild anyway so fuck it, ergo stem!

That's the spirit!

I’m not sure this is period correct, but I think it’d be a good look.

1 Attachment

that would mean sending this one back, which I've already used a couple of times.

Salsa and Pro look great! Not sure about the Look stem. Does look great with straight handlebars though.

Will take some better pics of this, my phone can't handle the colour, makes it look like I've ramped the saturation up but I haven't at all and it doesn't correct.

Anyway, done with a little help from my mechanic mate. Really happy with it, need to get out on it properly.

(calipers not groupset correct, I know, but they're staying. Tyres on upside down too...).

Splendid! The ergostem looks spot on, the drop must be pretty steep

This is all sorts of rad!