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GS Team Bike Build

GSAstuto

Maximum Pace
Oct 11, 2009
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I've sold quite a few of our generic carbon 'team bikes' and decided to put one together for myself. I have been riding everything from Ti fixed gear to my old 1980's steelie and latest and greatest NPB Diablo (same bike used by United Health Care Pro Team if that matters), so this was a 'practice what you preach' excercise. And I need a solid 'stage bike' for the upcoming Haute Route - so it's good timing to sort out my ride.

The framesets are pretty generic. I'm choosing a well founded front section that has geometry preferable to the type of fit and performance I like. Which is generally around a 73-74 seat tube and 72-73 head tube with medium stack and reach. Just a little 'over square'. My frame is a 520x525 to be specific. The rear triangle uses beefy chainstays and light seat stays. I wanted to keep it somewhat supple for the hours in the saddle, yet responsive for climbs out of the saddle which I do alot. Fork is a little beefier than normal - I hate 'bump steer' and so I built up some with a little extra reinforcement to restrict the blade deflection. I don't mind a fairly stiff fork and ride well damped wheels, so the combo is fine for me. Overall - the frame is about 950gr with fork another 320gr. Not super light , but not clunky.

I'm starting out with a standard Ultegra Groupset and will tweak from there. The main change I've made is to <finally> get back to 172.5 cranks. This is same as my 35yo bike and I prefer this length for long rides up hills than the 170's so common on most bikes. For Haute Route I'll probably swap for the DA Crankset as I find it a bit stiffer (and lighter). But for now the Ultegra is fine.

Cockpit is generic Deda - I'm making a set of custom bars for myself and will keep the Deda Z100 stem once I settle the fit. Even being Mr. Carbon - I prefer an alloy stem. Saddle is carbon and seatpost is currently Deda until I get my new Colnago Clone carbon posts done.

Deraillers are stock Ultegra for now. Though I modded the rear with a set of 7075 / ceramic AEST pulleys that we now stock. The mod is a little bitchey thanks to Shimano NOT using real 5mm pulley bolts, but something slightly oversize due to them being rolled and not machined. I will change them with Ti Pulley bolts when I get them in stock. The difference between the stock pulleys and the alloy pulleys was surprisingly noticable. Both in terms of friction and shifting. it took appx 50gr less weight to move the crank ( I checked) with the Alloy / Ceramics than the stock (brand new) Shimano. On the road - the shifting is more precise with each index. And under load especially, I can get a faster and more certain shift. So, for now, pretty happy with that mod.

Pedals are stock SPD-Sl and I also have some Look KEO I've been trying. I'm gravitating to the Look's. Whichever I go for - I'll upgrade to a lighter, probably carbon, version. I'm not a heavy rider so any pedal will work fine for me and last forever. But I like a very solid platform cause I'm in and out of saddle alot and don't like my feet shifting around. I've popped out of the SPD's on several occassions - even cranked as tight as they will go. Not good.

BB Is now standard - but I will change it to the new GoKiSo 'otaku' BB which features a special double row, self-aligning bearing system. It makes the stock Shimano feel like a wooden axle running on bacon grease leather bushings. I swear - this BB is like log rolling! If you've ever done that - you'll know what I mean.

Current wheelset is 38mm Carbon Tubular. Nothing super special here. They just work well under any condition and offer enough aero characteristics to make me satisfied. With exception of perhaps the TT Stage ( Alpe d' Huez), I'll probably stick with this setup the whole race. For actual race wheels I will change hubs to <again> GoKiSo - they are heavy (like the Dura Ace) but rock solid and this is important for descents that will exceed 90kph. Any shaft oscillation results in spoke tension changes which ultimately result in wheel oscillation , which could result in, well, not fun. I'll use our same rims we sell everyone with small tweak to the nipple bedding - where we have a special 'UCI Pro' addition using Aramid reinforcement and T800 sidewall. The rim doesn't last as long as a normal rim due to the rapid deterioration of the matrix with time - but, I only need them for a year max. Spokes, of course, will be Sapim. Tires will be Veloflex or Clement Seta (Challenge).

By the way , at Kusatsu , I test rode several of the BMC's including the new Gran Fondo yet to hit the streets. Surprisingly my <new> team bike feels alot like this bike! Though the Grand Fondo has some very interesting dampening characteristics that I'd love to try out at tempo on hard nasty descents like the river side of Yabitsu.

This is a work in progress and I'll update from time to time. So far, I've got a pretty decent ride and the total cost is less than 300,000 yen! The GoKiSo additions and DA parts will obviously push the price up a bit - but they are more security blanket and durability purposes than anything.
 
Nice write up! Looking forward to some pics of this bike coming together!
 
It's very similar to Eric's, Gunnar's and Anthony's.. btw. All are laid up in the same factory with just some minor tweaks to the choice of rear triangle and geometry. I have 2 or 3 basic stack / reach setups I like and then just tweak from there or choose based on the rider profile. You can't really custom make a monocoque frame - but if you have alot of molds to choose from then you can put together more or less unique variations.
 
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