Building a Triathlon/Time Trial bike

[amasidlover]

I've posted on another thread about doing my first triathlon in 2 and a half weeks (!) and I'm afraid N+1 has struck...

I can't afford to go out and splash a grand on a carbon bike; in fact I can't really afford the £200 - £300 it would cost to get a half decent second hand tt/road bike in one go, and my commuter is seriously heavy and has a dynamo hub; so I've gone and won a TT/Triathlon frame on ebay for under a hundred quid! Will post pics if/when it turns up (not 100% confident as it was on once and went out of my budget but was then relisted, not sure why).

I have a few bits lying around and I'm planning to build it slow with ebay bargains... Ideally I don't want to spend more than £250 in total and I'd like to spread it over a couple of months. I'm going to aim to put mostly 9 speed 105 on it as that keeps it compatible with the commuter for parts.

Will post on here with progress and hopefully to get some advice too.

Frame: aluminium with aero cross section tubes from a decent manufacturer with carbon forks.

Bars: Going with TT base bars + tt aero bars - have found a few on ebay with brake levers and shifters still attached; which would really help the budget!

Stem: need to check frame if it turns up and size of clamp on bars...

Shifters: Looks like DA/Ultegra bar end 9 speed - not sure if anything else makes sense.

Brake Levers: again bar end style, looking at a fair few tektro ones on ebay.

Seat post: Need to measure the frame when it arrives...

Saddle: Have a bontrager one here spare that is adequately comfy; would really like a selle italia SLR (or one of the orginal ti-flites; had one years ago, but the bike it was on got stolen).

Derailleurs: Looking at 9 speed 105 or above, seem to be a few cheap ones on ebay.

Chainset: I have a Sora triple spare, but its a triple; not sure whether to use it or not.

BB: I have a hollowtech BB spare.

Front Wheel: I have a spare, hand-built 105/Open Pro here

Rear Wheel: I'm not going to ride the commuter and TT bike at the same time so I could use the Open Pro/105 (and cassette) that is on the commuter.

Cassette: 9 speed - but don't need it if I use the rear wheel from the commuter.

Brakes: I have one front road cantilever... Struggling to find a rear on its own, may have to buy a pair.

Tires: I use bontrager race lite hard cases for commuting, might stick with these for the TT bike; alternatively, Michelin Lithion 2s or Michelin Pro Race 3s might be worth a shot.

My biggest areas of doubt are 1) whether its worth replacing the Sora triple chainset and 2) the wheels...

There are so many threads on here about wheel upgrades on road bikes, but the most recent one suggests that 105/Open Pro hand built is a decent upgrade option in itself! But then I see lots of TT bikes with deep section rims, low spoke counts etc and wonder if that's a good idea - I've built one wheel already so would be up for building a wheel if necessary.

Anyway, hopefully someone will find this interesting as it develops (assuming the frame turns up!!) and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[amasidlover]

Thanks for the thoughts; I had a look for the dia compe shifters, very few seem to be coming up on ebay (unless I'm searching on the wrong term...) New they're £40, which is not that much better than the £55 I'd be paying for Ultegra (indexed) - I wonder if they've gone up.

I think I'll be using my current 105/Open Pro wheels to start with - and then see how the finances go!

 

[palinurus]

Good project. Most of the advantage of a TT bike comes from tribars/ position. Wheels make a difference but you pay a fair bit for the additional advantage. I doubt groupset is important at all, except perhaps marginally in a hilly event (weight)

I use some standard handbuilts on my TT bike, CXP33s on Ultegra hubs I think- just what was available.

You can upgrade or change bits as you go along, depending on what seems to be working and what isn't.

 

[amasidlover]

Quick update...

Cheap cantilever brake on its way. £20 on a CF aero seat post...

Watching a lot of stuff on ebay at the moment; can't believe some of the prices things are going for - I'm not really willing to pay much more than 50% of the new price for something that is second hand (even in very good condition), but I'm seeing some stuff going at more than new prices!

I saw some Zipp 404's go for £150 - out of my budget, but I think someone may have got a bargain there!

Tribars seem to be quite a mixed bag, if you buy everything separately (base bars, aero brake levers, tri bars and bar end shifters) then the minimum seems to be £70, but it does seem when they come all together they can go for as low as £40; I'm hoping to make some decent savings there with patience.

Wheels are interesting; there seems to be somewhat of a law of diminishing returns on them - Planet X model B's seem to be a particular highlight in terms of price/performance, but they seem to be currently unavailable. I have looked at building my own, but finding hubs compatible with aero spokes seems very difficult and then there's the question as to whether aero spokes are even worthwhile... My current wheel shortlist is:

Pro-lite luciano, Planet X model B, Shimano RS20, ITM Aero 2.4, Fulcrum 7 or build my own from Planet X hubs and Halo Aero Rage hubs.

 

[amasidlover]

As promised, photo now its arrived!

Its a GT Aero Edge, cost me £82 inc. P&P - Seems pretty much as described apart from the headset which was horribly notchy when it arrived; I've loosened it off now I've got it home and it's now a bit rough but without any play so I'll see whether its worth replacing.

Have also bought a set of Cinelli Aero Angel bars with DA 9 speed shifters, Shimano Exage aero levers and cables - this means I don't need a stem either (as the frame came with a 1" quill to aheadset adaptor). So although it cost me £100 inc. postage it is under the budget I had for all of those items (even if I end up replacing the cables).

I think I'm going to be using my OpenPro/105 wheels for the moment though as I've now spent pretty much all May's budget (the other bits were in April's budget...) Its looking like its going to come in at between £250 and £300 without wheels.

 

[amasidlover]

So; some updates...

The headset has been serviced as we couldn't get the adaptor out in a non-destructive way!

Ordered new Sora derailleurs from Ribble at a cost of about £12 each; I couldn't believe how much 105 derailleurs were going for on ebay!

The derailleurs, brake and seat post have arrived and so the fun starts...

So, the good: The derailleurs and rear brake have gone on without issue (haven't adjusted them yet though).

The bad: My legs are too short! The aero section of the seatpost is too long I need one that either has an aero section half the length or no aero section - so that's going back on ebay... I'd forgotten that I'd thrown out the hollowtech BB I had as the threads were stripped; so I should have ordered one of those from Ribble at the same time as the derailleurs.

The ugly... The bolt/nut combination on the front brake I have is too short to go through the hole in the fork - its longer than the new brake I've bought though; so do brakes come with different length threaded posts, can I get an extra long 'nut' (I say nut its a threaded tube with a hex head) or do I need a special (and for that I mean expensive) new brake?

Help!!

 

[amasidlover]

Aha! Long brake nuts... how much!!

 

[amasidlover]

Hmmm.... And how do I know whether I need an English or Italian BB - I'm assuming English, but not really sure. Plus what is the difference between the 4500 and 4600 Shimano BB - I have a sora triple chainset to go in if that makes a difference.

 

[Scilly Suffolk]

Have a look at Sheldon's page on brakes (just over halfway down "Mounting Caliper Brakes").

Wikipedia on bottom brackets will tell you what you need to know (just over halfway down "Sizes"); unless it's an Italian frame it will almost certainly be an English one.

Couldn't tell you what the difference is: this is a Shimano free house!

 

[amasidlover]

Well, new bottom bracket, seat post and brake nut arrived as well as the aero bars. I've taken some more photos (apologies for the quality...)

I've also managed to sell some stuff on ebay so have a little budget (£100) for wheels; or if I wait til next month maybe closer to £200...

This gives the following options that I've found so far:
Planet X model B – unav. 1770g £150
Shimano rs30 1930g £140
itm aero 2.4 1880g £96
Fulcrum 7 1850g £130
Kinetic one a-1 1990g £150
kinetic one k1 1890g £200
Mavic Aksium 1800g £170
Fulcrum 5 1770g £190
Halo Aero Rage/PX hubs/DT Aerospeed 1500g £208 - would build these myself (not convinced the weight can be right!)
Halo Aero Rage wheelset 1770g £180
Rear OpenPro/105 (36 spoke) + Front OpenSport/105 (32 spoke) 2000g? Already have these on the commuter.
Ksyrium equipe 1690g £240

From what I've read the OpenPro is a good wheel at the price point (although 32 spoke would have been better), not sure about the open sport... I can then build a new rear wheel for the commuter (would cost about £100 for a X-RDC/Chrina Rigida). The real question is whether spending 150-200 on any of the wheels above would actually give me noticeably better wheels than the OpenPro/Sport combo I could get by spending £100 on a new wheel for the commuter.

Wheely quite stuck there...

Another question is whether to try and get it built up and get a couple of decent test rides in before Sunday and then race on it on Sunday, or just wait for the next Tri in July... I know what my heart says, but my head says I won't be able to get enough time on it to make sure its set-up right..

 

[amasidlover]

OK - Browsing the Planet X site again (as you do...) and it looks like the AL30s are the replacement for the Model Bs. They weigh in at 1620g and cost £150 - so look like a real contender (don't know how I missed them before). However, there don't seem to be any reviews of them yet...

 

[Beaker39]

Haver you tried keep an eye on the Timetrialling Forum, there's always stuff coming up for sale including wheels?

http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php?s=f24e54b6f35da9a6219866f99f42cdb1&showforum=115

 

[amasidlover]

Thanks for that, I've been keeping an eye on the For Sale forum here, but hadn't thought of looking on others.

Unfortunately things have taken a somewhat unexpected turn - I came home an hour early from work (had meant to be a half day but I couldn't get in early enough to manage that) to try and get it built up and in the process of trying the rear wheel from the commuter in it discovered a broken spoken and that its badly out of true. So I now have no rear wheel for either bike unless I can magic up the correct length spoke and time to fit it...

My other option is to buy a new rear wheel, however having pretty much settled on the planet-x AL30s there is no way I can get those by Saturday.

I guess my choices are...
Drag my 3 year old round bike shops tomorrow trying to find the right length spoke and then try and replace and true it with his help.

Buy/Borrow/Steal a cheap rear wheel (700c shimano 9speed compatible) and then bin/ebay it.

Buy an expensive wheel set that I'm not that keen on from a local shop.

Make my son sit for 4 hours in the car while we drive to Rotherham where planet X are (or see if I can persuade planet X to do Saturday delivery).

Pull out of the triathlon.

Do it on the mountain bike.


Anyway, another a photo...

 

[amasidlover]

I asked around a bit and found Rick Green cycles in Handforth who sorted the rear wheel out for me today!!

So I've built up the rest and it looks pretty good; I managed to break the seat clamp so hopefully I can pick one of those up tomorrow... I've been out and done a couple of km on it, it feels fast, but not totally sure I've got the position right. The aero position is going to take a little getting used to, it feels like the first time I rode a road bike after having been on MTBs for years - will try and get out for a couple of rides tomorrow; but may have a dilemma if its not starting to feel comfortable by the end of tomorrow as I don't really want to still be getting used to it during the triathlon itself.

Anyway, another picture...

 

[amasidlover]

Well, I rode it in the triathlon and averaged 19 mph over a 23k course; very happy with that, previously I'd been doing 15-16 mph over similar terrain. So I spent £260 to gain 3mph, not a bad return...

However, I still don't know what to do about wheels, I'm going to try and list the things I know to clarify my thoughts a bit:

• Swapping the rear between TT and commuter is a pain as it means swapping the chain as well and a very tight fit that can only be done by removing the skewer and refitting once in place on the commuter.
• The cheapest cassette rear wheel I can find is from Decathlon at £35 - which is quite a lot for something that I only want to use for a month or two.
• I wouldn't mind building a new rear wheel for my commuter based on an SA X-RDC hub, will come in at £120 and then frees up the open pro/105 wheel for the TT bike, but it is quite a worn open pro and is therefore only going to be a temporary measure.
• If I were to spend £200 on wheels I'd want to gain 1-2 mph.
• If I were to spend £400+ on wheels I'd want to gain 3-4 mph.
• Ebay/second hand is an option, but people are asking (and getting) for 60-70% of new price and that's quite a lot when you are buying something that wears out and won't be under warranty.
• Once I get into the £400 territory we start to have the option of very deep section wheels - obviously the optimal depth is determined by the weather and how many hills there are, meaning I potentially am looking at multiple sets of wheels!

OK, so that's what I know about my own requirements... Conclusions I've so far come to on wheels:

• At the £100 - £200 mark Open Pro hand builts, Kinetic One K-1s, Fulcrum 5s, Planet-X AL30s and Mavic Aksiums all have loyal followings, but I can find very few people who have ever switched between them (people tend to have upgraded fairly cheap wheels to these and then really liked them).
• At the £400ish mark Mavic Ksyriums and Planet-X Carbon 50s seem to be the leaders.

What I'd love to do is try a set of each of the wheels and see how they compare, I don't think this is possible though...