Fentuz

Hi all,

After 2 months of waiting, the crankset finally came back from 4iii in Canada and I converted my mini velo into a hill climb version.




The frame is still Dahon Smooth hound 2008 with Dahon Smooth hound 2011 fork
I mounted "old" gravel bike parts, namely: Stem, handlebars and seat post.

The transmission is a big mix of what I had in the garage: Shimano Sora 9s brifters and Sora 9s "small cage" derailleur coupled to a Shimano XT 11-34 cassette because it is lighter than the Sora equivalent (235g vs. 450g).
A Praxis carbon crankset with Sram force1 50T chainring. It is also fitted with a 4iii power meter

Front brakes are mini V brakes and the rear has a Dia comp dual pivot caliper.

Kinetix pro front wheel and Frog team sky rear wheel with kojak 35-406 tyres



yes, I will reset the front tyre to align branding marking and valve together to be "GCN approved".

The bike currently weighs 8.3kg with the "big" cassette, "big" chainring, Frog wheel, Kojak rigids and butyl tubes.
In the Hill Climb version, it will have a "small" cassette and "small" chainring (-135g), Kinetix pro rear wheel (-330g), panaracer minilite (-190g), Revoloop Race ultra tube (-120g), spider saddle (-150g), pedal ES600 (-250g)

the whole Hill climb racer should be ~7.2/7.4Kg

It should be noted that a classic hill climb bike with a weight between 7 and 8kg costs more than £3000 minimum (700C wheels and carbon frame)
The goal of the project is to see if I can build a "competitive" bike for the cost of a "budget" bike; As wheel weight is a major factor, going with 20" sport wheels could be an advantage.

joey buzzard

Lovely looking minivelo build.
The wheels do look a bit fragile to me though.
As someone who weighs between 75kg and 85kg depending on my diet and level of activity, and as someone who adores climbing, I've come to appreciate wheels built from good quality light components, but I don't skimp on spokes. I used to order low spoke count wheels from China, but found that invariably I ended up breaking spokes. Now I won't go below 28h front or rear. Maybe if I weighed only 50kg or less it'd be different, but since using wheels with slightly higher spoke counts I find my bike is more reliable. There's a slight weight penalty and aerodynamically perhaps as well, but my bike is already light and it's nice riding it up mountain roads hundred of timea over and over without hearing that aweful pinging sound followed by mush-wobble in the wheel.

Fentuz

The kinetix comp pro wheel is a genuine Dahon wheel as fitted on Speed TT, Mu SL, Mu EX, Hammer head and after the Dahon/Tern debacle, Tern got ownership of the trademark Kinetix and fitted these on Verge X18T.
Talking to the local dahon/tern dealer, he said that these wheel are fine (I rode dry gravel trail without problems). He said the only issue with them is when people fit 30c+ tyres (typically Kojak) and pump them up to 100psi... then the rime split but with Durano, they are fine. with kojak (35c), they shouldn't be pump up much higher than 60psi (manfacturer says 55 to 95). I run 60 front 65 rear.


On the tyre subject, I spoke with somebody interested in velomobile races and the German have performed some tests showing that the continental contact urban 32-406 is much faster than the kojak 35-406 due to lower rolling resistance. This is confirmed on Rolling Resistance.
Although the conti is 75g heavier, the weight penalty (~0.01W/tyre) is a good compromise compare to the 6w/tyre saving coming from the lower RR.
So, the bike will gain a little bit of weight and the rider is going on a diet

Ron Damon

I rode that 16-spoke front wheel for four years over broken cement and rocky dirt paths with Durano's when i was heavier and toured with it too. The thing didn't ever even go out of true. You should be fine.

pinholecam

Nice!


I really regret not buying a Dahon Dash P8 when they could be had for about S$500-600 with a more basic groupset.

Ron Damon

I regret selling this sweetness...

Fentuz

So, I m a bit a loss; I was going to get a kinetix pro with american classic hub but the stock has run out

I looked into Tern and they seem to struggle with stock too... So I am not sure where I could find a ~500g rear wheel. any idea?

thanks

joey buzzard

Build the wheel yourself.

Purchase the hub you want. Select a lightweight rim in the size you need with the appropriate number of holes and either lace it yourself or take it to a bike mechanic who' can build wheels and pay them to do it. You'll likely end up with a better wheel in the end anyways than buying off the peg.

joey buzzard

I'm fairly confident that I'd destroy that delicate looking front wheel pictured above in a matter of weeks if not days or hours. But yeah, ofc the front wheel doesn't need to be as strong as the rear, and the first spokes to break are usually the drive side rear. The dilemma is really finding that sweet spot between lightweight and reliable.
To me that front wheel just doesn't look reliable. It looks cool though.

Fentuz

that’s what i did… there are american classic hubs, spokes, 14 hole rims available but there aren t any 16hole available anymore.
talking to the dealer, getting stock from tern is still difficult (back order for the last 12months)…

i might be better buying a mu sl, swap the wheels and then sell the mu sl kinetix wheels rather than kinetix pro…

Fentuz

Last weekend, something "unusual" happened in the Cotswolds; it snowed so I went out on the Gravel bike...




As it melted a little, I went out on slicks today:






perfect condition for Cyclocross training!

tds101 

I normally don't quote pics, but this looks like it was amazingly enjoyable!!!