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Lugged Stainless meets custom Di2 - Kelly Bedofrd

3K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  CHARLES M 
#1 ·
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#2 ·
I. Love. Metal. Bikes. And I cannot lie.

/me is not a fan of the seat mast though.
 
#4 ·
Being lugged, it certainly is one of the better/best looking seat-mast bikes out there. And damn, what a load of great craftsmanship in one bike everywhere.

I need to write down what rims those are. Next time I have money to build some hoops, I want those. :)
 
#6 ·
Read the article earlier today, amazing bike. Very innovative with the 2 button shift system; as mentioned in the article it the system isn't for the race group but would really help the recreation group using gears.
 
#7 ·
honestly I ride that bike pretty hard... I like it better than standard while riding it in race-like situations.

Some folks will just really want the big dump of a front mech despite the fact that holding down one of the buttons an put you clear through 12 changes just inside 2 seconds...

I wish these brains were easy to make or the new Shimano system were easy to hack, as I think I would rather ride this in any situation. It would be pretty tough to agree with me though without being able to try it, and that's just not practical for anyone to do or me to expect...
 
#8 ·
It is damn cool that he had it done in reprogramming the brain... But under DMCA in the USA, it probably is not legal if Shimano wanted to stop it.
 
#13 ·
First of all I have no doubt that the worksmanship is top notched.
What type of steel is this?

If it were me, there's a few things that I would personally do differently.

- not go with the seat mast design. Look clumsy on a steel. Besides a carbon seatpost would have done a better job absorbing vibration.

- not go with BB30. The BB30 works best on a frame that is carbon with really oversized downtube (much much bigger than a typical oversized steel tube). But with a steel downtube (even oversized), using BB30 makes not much sense to me since you can't take advantage of the bigger diameter of the bottom bracket shell of BB30. An English BB would have been fine, and more fool proof.

- not go with the traditional steel fork. A carbon fork would provide better vibration damping. The BB30 and seat mast are both "modern" features which make the frame look modern, but the traditional steel fork make the bike look clumsy (kinda like a lady putting on her elegant dinner dress, only to wear flats with it. Look outta place to my eyes.

But of course all these are just a reflection of my persoanl taste.

BTW, I really like that Serotta in your blog.

In my eyes, I think the Cinelli XCR Rapha is a perfect example of "old meets new".
 
#15 ·
In fairness, finding a racing BB and crankset these days with performance in mind... That is not BB30 is practically impossible. At least with relatively off the shelf parts.
 
#17 ·
That's the tough part Marc... Finding a lot of top line parts now means using more modern standards.

It's a sticking point for a lot of builders (steel bb30). And like one of the posts above, they'll argue on one hand that "steel is just as stiff as carbon" and later in the same conversation say that BB30 on steel doesn't make sense because there's no getting the stiffness out of smaller tubes. But you can make steel plenty stiff and it's not down to just tube size but also about wall thickness that determines the stiffness...

Some might say "it looks wrong" but several people that saw this bike assumed the cranks were not BB30...
 
#25 ·
Just Awesome

First, CharelsM, that bike's frame is awesome. I have been looking at having a 953 stainless lugged bike built, still on the fence but your bike makes a strong case for me to continue looking at this option. Just stunning. All the details are icing on the cake.
And, you have ruined electronic shift for me now. The shift gear in front in turn shifts gear in rear feature devised for your bike is now a must because I know it exist. The cost of the Di coupled with the cost (if they would do it again!) of making the pieces to rig it makes my budget cry.
Common to us both though are your wheel choice, brake choice and the cables. Question: are the eeBrakes a huge leap better than say, SRAM Reds version or Campy Record level brakes? (I could really use that money elswhere if it's a wash between he ee's and top level grade brakes). SRAM Hydro rim brakes are on my look at list too.
I'm not in the know enough to stray from the norm with crank choice as you are, will go with a complete group, but your choice does flow the whole build.
Devil's advcate: with any endeavor there are things that go well and some not so well. What would you have done differently now that you have lived with it for awhile?
She is beautiful, thank you for showing/sharing it. Will be screen saver for awhile.
 
#26 ·
Throw me an email address at charles@pezcyclingnews and I'll send you a full sized pic for a screen saver : )

The EE brakes are fantastic but part of that is down to looks and weight. I really do like the ease of modulation versus Dura Ace and the stregth/force is very good. I've used these on a few bikes now because I really like the way they function. I wouldnt call it night and day better though and they ain't cheap. But then stock brakes are pretty darn expensive too... They hydro stuff works well also. they're better than everything else (even the hydro rim versus disc). They're especially neat on carbon and really close the braking quality gap to metal wheels even further... Tough but VERY fun choices...
 
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