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The Chinese Stealth Weight Weenie Bike - a build thread.

All users are reminded that the single purpose of this thread is to document, research and plan the assembly of a street storming badman missile for bawbag, and not for the utterly predictable and cringy debate about Chinese manufacturing.

tl;dr(@Chris Williams give it a rest you wally)
 
Goodluck on the build, I rode with cheap Chinese no name for almost 2 years it was still good in the end. Would I go that route again? No but only because of the small things. Overall I was very happy.

I think it was lighter than my now bike, but definitely not as fast.
 
Looking forward to seeing your progress. Ultralight climbing wheels sound interesting... will have to pick @TCC 's brains about them.
 
Goodluck on the build, I rode with cheap Chinese no name for almost 2 years it was still good in the end. Would I go that route again? No but only because of the small things. Overall I was very happy.

I think it was lighter than my now bike, but definitely not as fast.
Small things like the propensity for them to shatter into razor sharp shards of carbon fibre as soon as you hit a speedbump on the Arakawa? I'm actually interested in your real answer though, just so I know what to look out for.


Looking forward to seeing your progress. Ultralight climbing wheels sound interesting... will have to pick @TCC 's brains about them.
Well, I found some Kinlin rims which weigh about 400g. Those with some superlight hubs/spokes would come to about 1200g, but I think a beefier wheel might be better due to my umm... amazing pothole discovery skills. My front wheel is like a divining rod for them, I swear.
 
1200g is heavy, and will be plenty strong enough. Wheels can get much lighter than this.

Edit; I reckon 839g is about as low as a wheelset can get at the moment...
 
My wheels came in at a "hefty" 996g. Love them to bits.

Cool thread btw. Very interested to see how the build goes.

Don't listen to the haters. What does @Chris Williams know? He rides around with coloured tyres for God sake ;)
 
Things like...
In the end there was a small issue with the fork bearing seat wearing, giving some play in the front end, general creaking and groaning, and frame flex (Not a fault, just not what I want)

Small things like the propensity for them to shatter into razor sharp shards of carbon fibre as soon as you hit a speedbump on the Arakawa? I'm actually interested in your real answer though, just so I know what to look out for.
 
1200g is heavy, and will be plenty strong enough. Wheels can get much lighter than this.

Edit; I reckon 839g is about as low as a wheelset can get at the moment...

Interesting. According to t'internet my wheels weigh a Flintstone-like 1502g. Room for improvement, methinks.
 
Totally depends what kind of wheel he wants; carbon tubular / clincher, aluminium braking surface, rim profile, etc.
 
Totally depends what kind of wheel he wants; carbon tubular / clincher, aluminium braking surface, rim profile, etc.
Not tubulars, just because I can't be arsed fixing flats for 20 minutes. They're cool and everything, but nah. Spare innertube/puncture kit vs entire tyre.

I'm guessing carbon is out of my budget. If not, still unsure as I descend like a proper flange and will probably end up melting them after one ride. I am totally up for being schooled on this subject though as all I know about bikes is they go fast when you pedal hard, and don't go fast when you pedal like a drunk chimpanzee. They MUST look boss as, though. Boss as ≠ cheese logos. Bonus points if they have a dynamo in the hub powering small speakers which pump out the first eight bars of the Knight Rider theme on a loop. That was a joke when I started typing it out, but the idea of burning past the Sunday massive on the Arakawa on this bike while wearing a David Hasselhoff wig and jeans/leather jacket combo is so tempting.

Edit: Any carbon wheels must have a carbon layup explicitly dictated by consultations of the I Ching.
 
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Alright so clinchers of some sort then. That narrows it down to carbon clinchers or metal clinchers (lol@this narrowing anything down).

Let's us imagine for a second you are going to go with Carbon Clinchers, and want to do it for about 50,000yen.

You could either get the parts separately, or buy a complete. For that price you will be dealing with a Chinese company direct (Enve, AX-Lightness, etc., cost way more than 50,000yen per rim let alone the whole wheel). The main ones to deal with are Yeoleo and FarSports. Both of these are agents for some massive factory somewhere (there is a tonne of info on WeightWeenies about this, as well as RoadBikeReview etc. They found out the factory in question, etc.), so they are pretty much the same thing you are getting from both places. A couple of examples, (without looking at weights or anything like that yet) of completes would be something like this...

http://www.yoeleo.com/super-light-2...her-38mm-with-novatec-291-sl-482-sl-hubs.html

http://www.farsports.cn/product/detail.php/id-192.html

The rims are amusingly similar (ie, they are the same), the spokes are Sapim CX-Ray mostly (which are really good) and the hubs are cheap but alright Chinese units (like Pedal Swan Sexy had on his rear wheel on Sunday that I pointed out). The main weight penalty you will get here at this price will be in the rear hub, as most of these Chinese units (ED, Bitex, Novatec, Hubsmith, YuHub etc.) don't go under 190g. The front hubs from these Chinese guys are usually pretty light (but again, not MEGA-light). To get a really light wheelset you need to go premium on your hubs and get some mint, but brutally expensive Italian or German babies in there, which will be between 130g and 170g and will be well sexy with a CLACKING freebody that drive @theBlob to distraction.

If you want to build them yourself, for that price, you can get the rims from those places (if you want), then add the price of spokes, and hubs that you choose yourself. This gives you more choice over the parts, but honestly, for 50,000yen-ish, it might be worth just getting a complete set from one of these two (if you are going for Carbon Clincher).

About melting them; I have melted carbon clincher rims. I have also melted carbon tubular. This was mainly due to using the wrong brake pads. I use the right brake pads for the rims now, and have had no such issues since. I am sure they will melt eventually though, but everything breaks, and everyone dies, and everyones kids and grandkids and their kids, and our future evolved species will die, and the earth will eventually be swallowed by the sun as it too dies, and the whole lot will be dragged into a vast black hole where it will become one with the void of infinite mass in the seas of endless quantum foam, forever.

Anyway, if you don't want Carbon Clinchers, the alternative is a metal rim, with the same set up of good spokes, and a Chinese hub. @GrantT just bought a set up like this, for very cheap so maybe have a word with him.

You have loads of options basically, and building them yourself would be the sickest and most satisfying way to do it for sure, but you can also get some very good prices on built wheels in this kind of bling range direct from China.
 
Seriously if you like the sounds around you as you descend, then you want to think about what hubs you get. Owens have a about 30 loose stones rolling around in them. I would have a totally silent freebody if I could.
 
Seriously if you like the sounds around you as you descend, then you want to think about what hubs you get. Owens have a about 30 loose stones rolling around in them. I would have a totally silent mouth if I could.
 
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This video sums up both the general aesthetic of the bike and the mood of this thread. Excellent synergy.
 
I just bought the wheel build kit on special offer here, and @TCC did all the hard work and built them for me. Weight for the pair is under 1300 g. Just got them last week and haven't had the opportunity to ride on them yet.
IMG_20140917_211913.jpg

ps, Hylix 180 g carbon bars here for 50 squid (9000 yen).
 
Excellent synergy.

Haha, that cracked me up. Dark bikes bring dark vibes. It is the way of things. Ever since I switched to the dark side I have turned into an even bigger **** on the roads than I was before, and started carrying a skeng with me to duppy any mansdem come tes' wi. The mere sight of a dark steed and people are sent off on a brutal one.

There will be deaths and vendettas met by the time this build is concluded. Savage times.
 
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