Doing Hard TIME

Wow, you're doing it justice so far!

Great selection of parts so far.

Yes! This is on track to be a first class build.

Excited to see which stem and bars you’ve bought…

I sat down last weekend and decided to build a wheel. First time round I got it perfectly true and then realised it was completely out of dish. Then sorted the dish out and realised I'd wound the spokes up far too tight. Third time was thankfully a charm, and I now have a rebuilt rear wheel.

Checking the front I found the spokes were wound up way higher than they should be (perhaps explains why the rear hub had failed) and despite lots of penetrating oil I couldn't loosen them, so I've now torn that wheel down and will rebuild around a new hub.

Right. It's been a while. Things have been afoot, by which I mean I have of course built the whole bike. There were a few sticking points:

1: The BB. The one that came with the crank was ITA threaded and Zipp BBs in BSA are like hen's teeth. C-Bear do one that's the right width, which I found on eBay, but the bearings in it had seen better days. A few minutes with a bearing press however and I had those ones out, the Zipp ones in their place, and a crank that would spin for days.

2: The front derailleur cable fouled the cage, meaning I had to part with another fiver for a tiny wee washer to change the angle it attaches at. Good old campag.

3: I took the wheels in to get a grown up to look at them and they laughed at how hilariously loose the spokes were. Turns out you have to take tension on a CX-Ray on the flat part of the spoke, not across it. That's all dealt with now and lesson learned.

So, without further ado, and to see just how to heart I took the 'everything red' comment, here we are:

The full bike:

Cockpit & Saddle

Rear Gear Cluster

Crank

That zipp crankset is lush, nice work on the wheels too.

Awesome cranks!
The tape and hoods are terrible though, proper anti (no offence)

Yeah a slimmer all black cockpit would finish it off

I knew the hoods would be love or hate! I do still have the black ones, I'm umming and ahhing about which I prefer. I'm delighted with the cranks though, it's amazing what you can find 8 pages in to Google when you should be working...

Very nice!!

Fabulous bike! Although I'm on the black cockpit team, perhaps even with a classic shallow drop
https://dedaelementi.com/zero100-shallow-handlebar

And those teeth on the zipp chainrings, are they designed to look like they've been worn out?

You know how you said about all the red stuff? Yeah it all needs to go. It's not a subtle frame, it doesn't need to be any more shouty.

I wax my chains so I think most of that is the wax flaking off on the couple of spins I took round my road the other day, however it does look like the anodising has already rubbed off on the outer ring just from that. Some reviews suggest the rings let down the rest of the chainset so in time I might get some Fibre-Lyte ones made up (it's a non-standard 110bcd patter so getting replacements is tricky), but I've run out of budget for now...

My post above about which stem and bars you’d go with was a failed attempt to stir some outrage at suggesting you should swap that epic stem out. But actually if you aren’t going to slam it I think that Time stem is weird. Zipp speed stems are the same, look great slammed but otherwise awkward. +1 for black everything on this frame too.

But it’s a beaut bike and those cranks are 👌. Hope you’re enjoying it.

I think he means the shark teeth.

Ahh my general inability to sense tone over the internet missed that!

I do need to get out in it properly and work out the geometry, I think it might need a shorter stem anyway (current one is 135mm), but I don’t think I’m going to be able to slam it with my general early middle-age lack of flexibility…

Ah right, yeah I guess it must be as they were definitely unused. I haven’t noticed any particular issues with shifting (other than getting used to using mechanical again) on the brief test ride, but I’ll keep an eye once I get out on it properly.

Loving the frameset wheels and the crankset which I have never seen before, great find(s)!

(I also think loud framesets need uni components but yeeee its your build so.. ;-))

Glad to read there is still hope! Black stem and bar tape with the red hoods would look quite fun/good I think. I actually like the red cables on this.

I professionally photoshopped it for you <3

1 Attachment

Keeping the hoods red though

Yes

Tijs has a challenger

If I ever need to take on a Photoshop expert I'm giving you a call... ;p

I gave it a light ride on the turbo last night to bed in the wax and check the geometry and it's definitely too long. I've bought a black Time stem that's 1cm shorter from eBay, now just need convincing on the tape...