sadisticnoob

In September, I bought a Raleigh Mini Velo 8 from my LBS in Singapore, I thought it looked nice and would be a rather affordable commuting rig.

Stock version


upon purchasing it, I made some upgrades to the bike as I preferred a road bike-like position. end of the day , it stepped out of the LBS looking like this


After riding it for several months, bringing it with me along road bike group rides, I detested the fact that the stock wheel was crap, not only was the wheel untrue, but the bearings was lousy, I was also constantly on the last 4 cogs of my cassette, always out spinning it when the going gets going and wanted a more mordern feel to the bike. went back to the LBS and after a week or so of tinkering with it came back with this



Full build list


The full build has a rough estimated weight of 9.3-9.4kg (measured using weighing machine + body weight)

Opted for the 61t gehardt chainring as i felt i could use a bigger chainring, mated to a SRAM S300 courier crankset. Didnt get to weight these as the LBS had to destroy the old 48T chainring and bolts to get the new chainring on






Wheels are the litpro S42 406 wheelset. which is basically a 42mm rim height 406 rim. Didn't get the weight as it was delivered to the LBS and by the time i remembered about it, tires and wheels are mounted Tires are some Kenda 20x 1.0 tires. Braking are handled by a pair of SRAM single digit 7 Brakes, the promax that came with the bikes are lighter, but the single digit 7 are easier to maintain and wheel removal is easy.

sadisticnoob

Handlebar are some Time egrodrive handlebars which i grabbed cheaply off a sale. it came with a channel to run the cables smoothly










Shifting duty is done with a mix of tiagra, ultegra and 105 stuff.








was rather surprised by shifters still work as I stored it for about a year from my old race bike and rust and grime was everywhere.


saddle is the fizik antares which i use on all my bikes.

Abu Mahendra

Very nice and admirable job.

Questions
1. What shop in Singapore sells that 61T ring? How much and does it come in silver? What's the bcd?
2. How did you get v-brakes to play nice with road brake levers? They have different pull, don't they?

A suggestion: a 451 wheelset, caliper brakes and Panaracer Minits Lite 7/8.

ttakata73

Looks good. It's always nice to see a different minivelo since they are so under appreciated.

blakcloud

The bike looks great. How has it been working as your commuter?

pinholecam

Nice!
The Raleigh MV8 frame is really nice for upgrading.
I think you may have got the last few since they now have a new design for the mini velo series.


Interesting option for that 61T, did you get it locally?

sadisticnoob

1. ordered online from bike 24, comes only in black, its a 130 bcd. im not gonna pass the link here, but a search on the site for gebhardt will get you the chainring

2. it doesnt work as well but it still it brakes okay had no issues with it

havent had the chance to do so since I cant find a shower at work, but my test ride from bike shop to home feels okay, like a road bike
I like the older curved downtube version but only way to get it new is to get it second hand. it doesnt make sense to me.

what i like about the frame is the long top tube proportionally to the wheels, its quite stable and not twitchy

pinholecam

I actually have this bike too and its good to see someone else post about it.

Mine's built to be cheap though since its a commute and I do just lock it outside while I go about other matters.

Raleigh MV8 by jenkwang, on Flickr

Stock shifter and deraileur.
60T chainring


His bike should ride great.
Stiff frame that feels like a road bike geometry.
Rather long wheel base makes the bike stable.

The pull ratio will be different, but it is certainly not a problem imo (YMMV)
The 20" wheels don't need as much to decelerate compared to 700c, so the brakes are no problems at all.

tds101 

Luv it!!!

chickenleather

I managed to find one of the few remaining brand new sets of the mv8 online and got one for myself, only because of this thread! I was initially torn between the 2016 mini 7 and 8 - glad I found the older mv8 as this turned out to be the best option for me. The 2 bikes here look great and really inspired to start upgrading mine soon.

sadisticnoob

Thats lucky! I am not too sure if Raleigh is still manufacturing this model for next year. I got mine at a rather good price though.
I lock mine with a u lock.

I thought about adding racks but decided against it as I am fine with travelling around with a bag strapped to my back.

Oldtimer61

Hi, newbie here seeking help. I hv this mv8 and wondering if it can accommodate 451 wheelset. Also, I tried to change the stock crankset to litepro with 53t chainring but I think the chainline went off and regardless which length BB i use, the chain keeps slipping off either the smallest or biggest cog. It works fine with the stock 52t chainring and litepro crankset. Hence issue lies with the chainring. Any ideas anyone? Thanks

pinholecam

I don't have 451 wheels, so I can't confirm its usage on the Mv8, but there does not seem to be anything on the bike that would prevent it.
No physical parts that block a larger wheel, V-brakes can be adjusted for the larger diameter..
But perhaps you can try this in a store?


For you chain skip problem, have you adjusted the RD/chain to cater for the additional teeth?
I have 6 bikes that run 1x systems and they don't have a problem once adjusted properly for chain length/Rd

Oldtimer61

Actually the chain doesn't skip, it slips off or derailed. I hv a long cage derailleur and chain is good for the 53t. It works perfectly with the same crankarms + low end 52t chainring. But once I swop chainring to 53t litepro, it'll derail off either the biggest or smaller cog, depending on which length BB i use. Seems like this litepro chainring is the culprit as I borrowed a friend's 53t chainring and no issues. Thanks for your help.

Abu Mahendra

Sounds like a chainline issue, too far to one side. I have a Litepro crankset that came with its own BB and spacer. Try playing with that.

sadisticnoob

it would most probably be the chainline ,

my 61T has stopped chain slippage after I change the deraileur due to the broken adjusting cable tensioning screw

Rick Imby

As you change the chainline you need to adjust the rear derailleur limit screws. Any shop can do it for you in about 3 minutes. If it is dropping off the high gear, you need to screw in the High gear adjustment screw a 1/2 turn at a time until it is perfectly lined up.

Rick Imby

The V-brakes will not adjust from a 406 wheel to a 451 wheel. You will have to go to caliper brakes which will usually mount to the fender hole that is centered above the wheel.

The Road levers when hooked to V-brakes have extreme stopping power. road levers have 2:1 leverage vs v-brake levers which have 1:1 leverage.

Since the cables only move half as far, your wheels need to be really straight or the brakes will not come far enough off the rims. The mini-v brakes for bmx race bikes have a bit less leverage.

I am sure a good grip on the brake levers will send you off the front. Be careful.

Really nice looking setup. Enjoy..

tds101 

You need a Chain Guide. It prevents the chain from slipping off,...

Oldtimer61

Thanks, I'll try that

Oldtimer61

Thank you! I'll try that. How can I forget something so basic?

Oldtimer61

Might as well check the tensioner too. Thanks!

fietsbob

Ah, Gram scale Cycling..

pinholecam

Upgrade!
451 Wheels


Raleigh MV9 sp Redone with 451 wheels by jenkwang, on Flickr

My thrashing of the bike rain or shine as the commute+poor weather bike wore down the cheap China wheels and FSA BB bearings.
I've never had issues with rusted BB on any of my bikes before, so no more FSA for me.

Since I like this bike so much and picked up more ideas on what I want on a mini velo, I decided to upgrade it.

The cheapo brake hoods (from Taobao) had the rubberized parts fall apart within months of use, so I opted for nicer Tektro RL520 levers.
These are catered for V-brake pull ratios.

Crank and BB was taken out and replaced with a Ultegra R6700 and BB.
I left the small chainring on the bike in case I wanted to 'hand shift'.
My use locally has never needed the smaller chainring, so I decided not to stack on more costs with a FD (for now)

Resprayed some spots that had the paint chipped off.

Finally, the biggest change was to a nice pair of Tyrell AM9 451 wheels.
Yes, the stock bike is 406, so this was the area that needed some dice rolling and work to get it working.
I'd go to the details in another post.

pinholecam

Raleigh MV9 sp by jenkwang, on Flickr


Here are the details of what had to be done to mount the Tyrell AM9 wheels onto the bike.

Clearance wise, there is no obstruction for the 451 wheels to the frame/fork.

OLD
The OLD of the wheel is 130mm, but the Raleigh has a 135mm OLD.
So a spacer was needed to increase this.


Brake to Wheel Rim
Since the wheels are now a larger diameter, the brake pads can't reach the rim of the new wheels.
There is the option of longer V-brakes, but these are rather specialized and more expensive (w/o the option to try before I buy).
So I opted for brake extensions.

I wanted something that looked good, so my first purchase was these ones from LitePro.
Raleigh MV9 sp by jenkwang, on Flickr

These fit on the mounts of frame/fork and look like a less "make do" implementation.
However, only the rear ones could be used as the steel fork for the stock bike had welded mounting posts.

So I had to buy another type of brake extensions, which to me looked more "make do".

Raleigh MV9 sp by jenkwang, on Flickr

Again, these are from Litepro.
They seem to work fine and probably would be the safer bet for most bikes doing a 406>451 conversion.