Drewe's V20C Build

[piston9]

Since i'm documenting this for myself, I may as well throw up here, as i'll no doubt have questions and some of you may have suggestions

Day 1, progress immediately blocked. Groupset hasn't yet arrived (a few more days out), and without the brakes to mount and run internal cabling, I'm pretty much stopped . I decided to mount the tires and discs to the wheels - and found that a bottle of tubeless sealant had gone bad (chunky! like off milk), and then my injector had broken. Oh well, no groupset means I go no further than unboxing and mounting tires! (The fork is just sitting in there, not mounted at all for those noticing missing bearings...)

I do have a set of EZ-Gains disks designed for the rear wheel of a normal bike, still deciding whether to run on the 'rear' of this with some fiddling - or just wait until I buy something faster. These DT Swiss wheels are honestly pretty nice for non-aero wheels - be nice on a climbing bike if carbon was out of reach... They will do until i'm setup and comfortable.

My wife has already commented on my use of the couch for building , but this is my office, so . As soon as I can mount wheels, it will be off!

 

[piston9]

So..... After a month of delays and wrong parts shipped, the bike is built . Of course, it's 40f outside today, so.... Maybe this weekend I'll get my first test ride in, it's been <>5 years since I rode a cruzbike....

Fit is hopefully close, I was able to dial it in a little with the chain off, so I am in a good starting point. Only real issue is the bars are so high, I have to 'slide' into the seat - but much further down I can't hold them, so... Long body, short arms

Build up with Rival 12speed electronic, hydraulic brakes. I will upgrade the wheels at some point (these were 'cheap' wheels to get me rolling - and give me time to decide what I really want to run).

Bring on the new race case! I was able to use an old under seat bag in the gap, wasn't hard to do. Though access is at the 'back', so not easy . Oh well, it will do for now.

 

[piston9]

Gearing was a real pain to get right - gone with Sram 10-36 on the back (the 10 is SUPER small, and i'm not sure I would want to use it often, the turn is so tight I can't imagine its efficient, you can feel the chain 'chunk' over it), and 48/35 on the front with integrated power meter. I also have 46/33 - it's not much smaller, but with the 36 on the back, I don't imagine i'll want to go any slower - it's not like a roadie where I can track stand!

And with those gears, you need a 120 tooth chain, so my first 116 tooth was no good............ Ahh, the travails.

 

[Apollo]

Gearing was a real pain to get right - gone with Sram 10-36 on the back (the 10 is SUPER small, and i'm not sure I would want to use it often, the turn is so tight I can't imagine its efficient, you can feel the chain 'chunk' over it), and 48/35 on the front with integrated power meter. I also have 46/33 - it's not much smaller, but with the 36 on the back, I don't imagine i'll want to go any slower - it's not like a roadie where I can track stand!

And with those gears, you need a 120 tooth chain, so my first 116 tooth was no good............ Ahh, the travails.

I don't like small cogs and always try to create custom gearing but sometimes that isn't possible. 11T is as small as I'd want in any cassette and that is still too small for my tastes. I prefer 12T or even better 13T. The inefficiencies of small cogs is often ignored. Maybe for the non-performance rider it doesn't really matter, but this is a very high performance bike and I'd want as much watt savings as possible.

SRAM XD/XDR hubs are out of the question for me because of the 10T final cog. I don't like these cassettes and it would necessitate smaller chainrings on the crank. I went down from a 50T to a 48T chainring to have a slightly lower gear for the hills I was tackling a few months ago. It's better for climbing but for every other type of riding I do, a larger chainring/larger cog combination is preferable.

Anyway, you have a great bike in the best color choice. Congrats and enjoy it!

 

[Frito Bandito]

Good points guys. So many options on gearings and component manufacturers so there are a few ways to get the range needed for climbing and/or the flats, especially with a 2x system. 1X often has a HUGE range, and I could be wrong but the gaps between them seem too far apart for me.
I have a 52/34t front and an 11-30t cassette. Top gear gets me up to 70kph at about 120rpm cadence when the wind and slope are right, and I never need to get off the big front ring during my normal rides. But the 34t front with the 11-30t cassette should be able to get me over any hill I'll ever encounter. My crappy balance at slow speeds (6kph or less) is my limiting factor in climbing, not the gearing, but I do have an 11-34t cassette if I ever find myself in the hills much more frequently.

 

[Sonnybea]

I drought the front forks closer which makes them higher at the same time the handle bars come down
Worked for me