motobecane69

IT's THE SHIZNIT!

i'll get called a shill for this but once again Bikes Direct delivers BIG TIME. I can't explain the feel of the ride, I know that it's a new bike and of course i'm going to FORCE myself to love it but it really just feels amazing. My old bike was a 60cm motobecane grand sprint but i built that from the frame up with a variety of parts. This was bought stock from Bikes direct after getting a renters insurance payout for my commuter bike that got jacked a couple of weeks ago.

Any clydes here riding ksyrium elites? it was in my original plan to sell these wheels as soon as I got the bike but man, they look so nice on the bike. EVen the guys at my lbs were all complimenting on how nice of a bike it was and specifically how nice the wheels are! I've heard the ksyriums are stout but I just cant picture myself on 18spoke front 20 spoke rear that isn't a deep profile rim

Mr. Beanz

Nice bike !


No experience with the wheels though. I say wear 'em out !

RichardGlover

IMO, sell the wheels on e-Bay and have some built up that you'll feel more comfortable with.

Say, for example, Velocity Deep-Vs with DB14 spokes and Shimano 105 hubs, all in silver to complement that awesome looking bike.... You might even have a bit of money left over.

motobecane69

See that's the rub, I already have a set of 32 spoke handbuilt velocity fusions that weigh in at 1575 grams, just 25 more grams than these. Beanz, I already have 2 cash offers of $450 for the wheels so wearing them out probably isn't prudent. Oh yeah, I also have a set of 20/24 50mm carbon tubulars coming, I think I have to sell these wheels but hats off to bikes direct, this bike with sram force all around and these wheels for 1900. A lot of their shimano drivetrain they offer 3rd party cranks and brakes. They are still good deals.but not quite like this.

motobecane69

BTW, bike weighed in at 17.1 lbs no pedals no computer, 62 cm frame. Beanz I know your not a.carbon guy but you are a climber, if your in the market for a bike you should consider this.

bautieri

Very nice bike I don't think anyone will call you a shill for giving your honest opinion here. It's not what you're riding, all that is important is that you are riding.

Loose the dork disc after a hundred miles or so. I usually don't care either way, but that one is obnoxious.

goldfinch

Moto, that is one hooligan bike!

Mr. Beanz

Well heck, I'd sell them a faster than I could blink my eyes.

I still have two good functional roadies. Not that I am not a carbon guy, I just wouldn't invest any more in bikes than I already have unless I was down one. Gina's bike was actually supposed to be my third roadie. But when I started shopping, I realized I didn't need it. Poof, Gina got the carbon.

But heck yeah, I would consider it if I were in the market.

Mr. Beanz

Now that you mention it

...and that looks like one huge low cog.

motobecane69

i literally built this bike, rode it for a half lap in central park then took it to my lbs to do the final tuning of derailleurs and to get some carbon assembly paste for the seat post. I left the dork disc on there purposely because if I plan to sell them I really want prospective buyers to see the wheels are truly brand new. I do agree, that is the MOST obnoxious dork disc i've ever seen! Bike really rides nice so far. And it's funny, my first inclination is to say that it is faster than my other bike but without a doubt I was riding WAY harder out of excitement and wanting to see what it can do. it does roll smooth and while I hate it when people use the term "vertical compliance" I understand what people mean by it when i ride on this 18/20 spoke wheelset but that only adds to the paranoia that the wheels are gonna bust on me. I consider myself a baseball, basketball and football player well before i consider myself a cyclist so the notion of a ride being harsh is to me something that wusses would complain about.

My previous road bike fit me pretty good but it was definately a little bit on the small side. I feel a lot more confident sprinting on this bike, I don't feel like I"m going to go flying over the bars when I get out of the saddle. The Force Brakes are a very noticeable improvemtn over my old low end calipers with microshift brifters. very nice having this much stopping power.

Beanz, it has an 11-28 cassette with a 50/34 up front. i recently made the switch on my 9speed from an 11=32 to a 12-25 and loved it. I do have a hillyish ride coming up next week so having the extra gear is actually nice, I'd probably rather have a 12-28 than an 11-28 though but that is pretty minor.

dahut

How about that - an obnoxious dork disc.

Seve

Nice bike ...

Enjoy

chefisaac

what is the function of a dork disc?

paisan

keeps the chain from falling between the spokes and cassette and potentially tearing up your wheel, derailler and derailler hangar.

Mr. Beanz

Many people have their own thoughts on the dork disc but I myself keep it on for some time till I know the bike is set up and running properly.

If the rear derailleur is set up properly, it shouldn't dive into the rear spokes but as some have found out the hard way, their mechanics aren't always top notch and nothing written in stone that says your derailleur can't be faulty. Or even the prawls in the rear hub.

I had a friend with a brand new Madone, month or two old, prawls were bad. If he stopped the pedals, the chain locked up and took a dive off the cogs.

Another poster (some may remember a Kareem) had an issue with a brand new bike. Chain popped off the rear cogs, locked up the derailleur resulting in a thrashed carbon fiber frame. The manufacturer denied the warranty on his one week old bike.

He soon after got a new Specialized bike. We rode together once or twice. But then vanished after constant cruelty on the forums.

In short, I kept the dork disc on Gina's bike for about 6 months since it's a full carbon frame and the most expensive of all our bikes.

Buck_O

Unless you are over 300lbs, i wouldnt worry about the wheels. The Ksyriums use steel bladed spokes, which are quite strong, and will hold alot of weight just fine. The most important thing to remember with them, and this is true of ANY light weight bike component regardless of rider weight...is that you MUST KEEP THEM REGULARLY MAINTAINED! I cant stress that enough. If your wheel is out of true even a 1/16th of an inch, take it in to have it trued. If you notice its got a little bit of a hop to it, take it in to have it trued. If you think you hit a bump a bit to hard, and you are concerned that it may have ping'd the wheel, take it in to have it trued. You get the idea. A light weight part will have alot of different stresses put on it, and it must be maintained accordingly. Its no different then if you owned a Ferrari, or anything Italian really, lol. You must keep it maintained to run at its optimal performance level. Getting your wheels inspected and trued at a good LBS shouldnt cost more then $10. And thats pretty cheap for a ton of piece of mind.
On thing i would make sure of, is that you have a GOOD wheel builder at your LBS, and make sure he is the only one that trues your wheels, so the tensioning, and workmanship stays consistent. And as long as you treat the wheels properly, and dont let them go untrue, and then ride them untrue, and continually get them trued and tensioned, they will, as they break in, becoming a much stronger, better riding wheel.

I think the VAST majority of blather that gets spewed on here about having these 20 pound, 3 cross lace, super gorilla deep V rim, unobtanium spoked, uber clyde wheels, and heaven forbid you do a radial lacing *gasp*, comes from peoples lack of ability, or willingness to inspect and maintain their wheels properly. Or simply not having a good wheel builder at their disposal to keep them in top condition. Im 275 pounds and ride a pair of Ksyriums for my "race" wheels with no problems at all. But i have them trued/checked after every 500 miles, or sooner if i feel they are a bit out of true/round, because i inspect them before and after every ride (along with my bikes total mechanics). Now that they are well broken in, the inspections usually result in little to no adjustment, and are purely for piece of mind. So dont believe the hype, thats my 2¢.

paisan

I agree a properly adjusted RD shouldn't need the disc. I personally don't run the discs but I build all of my bikes from the frame up so I'm not depending on the skill level of the LBS mechanics to keep my derailler from going into my spokes. Unfortunately the skill level of mechanics at the LBS vary wildly and if I didn't work on my own bike or know how to tell a properly adjusted derailler I would most likely leave it on.

CJ C

nice bike!!!

question, how do you like sram compared to your previous microshift? is that much of a diff in shifting and shift speed? i see you like the brakes better, do you think its because of better pads or the braking system as a whole?
I am thinking of in spring, getting the AL motobecane with apex over the giant defy 2 with tiagra (both are about the same price). right now i am rocking stem shifters so anything will be an improvement.

ill.clyde

Nice ride Moto!

luv_to_cycle

Way cool looking. And I think those wheels look really awesome. Now get out and ride that beast!

himespau 

Sweet looking bike.

About to build my first wheelset and seriously considering putting a dork disk on there (as I'll be slapping a new rear derailleur on there too). That is if dork disks are available to buy cheaply (do other people actually buy them?).

Mr. Beanz

Peace of mind, top condition, and proper maintenance by a good wheel builder but having to true the wheel every 500 miles ?

I ride the 20 lb Deep V's. First and only minor truing came at 13,000 miles. Now that is peace of mind. Stressing about rim weight as a Clyde, the only thing that slows me down on the climbs is Ben and Jerry's, not the wheels.

RichardGlover

Yeah, some cyclists don't want to have to have their wheels checked every month, or in the middle of a 1200k.

Pamestique 

Not that this was the problem or anything... but had a friend, weighed around 240 -250; constantly breaking spokes on his Ksyrium wheels (he was a a "masher" and rode hard). I explained to him there is an weight limit although you have to look very closely at information available. He dismissed me. Riding behind him one time I hear "PING!!!!" saw something fly pass my face and then hear him yell "STOPPING!", he had broke another spoke. I told him he was lucky that blade did not hit me cause it was travelling back so fast it would have done massive damage to my face or worse, put out an eye! He finally got the message and bought new wheels (plus it was literally the 8 time he had to fix his wheels).

I think Buck makes a good point... no reason you can't ride those wheels but just be diligent in checking the wheels to make sure they are in good shape.

But beautiful bike... enjoy!

motobecane69

Buck O, if i didn't already have a lightweight set of wheels, I would keep these as a "RACE" set. the fact is that they are light and aero spoked but I don't think the rim profile makes them particularly aero. If I kept these, I'd be using them as daily riding wheels and that is what I'm not totally sold on. It's not just my weight, I'm a fit 240lbs so I'm putting a lot of torque on those bad boys too.

CJ C, I love SRAM. I love Microshift too, but for different reasons. If you are on a budget and you need a solid functioning bike for short money, Microshift is awesome! At $100 for a set of brifters, you just really can't go wrong. They are way better than 2300/sora which are the same price, maybe even a bit more. I also have ridden on ultegra and most recently the latest and greatest 105. The knock on SRAM is supposed to be that it is loud and clunky. I suppose it is a little bit, but I like that little bit of clunk. it really sounds like you have dropped it into gear and can just go! The double tap takes all of 5 minutes to get used to for the rear shifter. I'm still getting it all sorted out on the front, just trying to figure out the trim feature tho i seem to be able to hit all 10 cogs without having to trim anything at all.

As I said, the brakes are WAY better but i was running cheapo calipers on my old bike. So I'll attribute it to that. If your looking at getting an APEX bike from BD in the spring, I'd suggest trying to save a little more and make the jump to rival. The aksium wheels are WAY better than the Vueltas that BD puts on those APex bikes and everyone says rival is a step up from Apex but pretty equal to Force and that the Rival FD is actually better than the Force FD.