My Ultegra Triple equipped Silvio

[Brian Lewis]

In February 2008 I purchased a Cruzbike Silvio frame. This is a front wheel drive recumbent bike frame. I've wanted to get a recumbent and when my friend Elias purchased a Silvio recently I felt it was the perfect solution.
Full Writeup with Large Pictures on my website http://www.brianlewis.net/cruzbike/
Parts purchased:
Cruzbike Silvio Frame - $2,190 from cruzbike.com Mercier Serpens 30 LTD Ultegra Road bike - $899 on Ebay Shimano FD-6603 Braze On Derailleur PN 25942 - $51 from bikepartsusa.com Continental Grand Prix 4 Season with Vectran 700c x 28mm Tires + Tubes - $103 biketiresdirect.com Spin Doctor Integrated bottom Bracket Tool - $13 at Performance Spin Doctor Universal Chain Tool - $10 at Performance Jagwire Hyper Stainless Slick Tandem Brake Cable 2750 - $7 at Plano Cycle Polar CS Speed Sensor (for my Polar CS300 Computer) - $33 at Performance Polar CS Cadence Sensor (for my Polar CS300 Computer) - $33 at Performance Forza In-line Barrel Adjustor Kit - $8 at Performance JagNew Jagwire brake and derailleur housing - $20 at Performance Forte Rim Tape - $3.49 at Performance Forte Strada Lite Black Aluminum Waterbottle Holders - $5/ea at Performance Old Man Mountain Sherpa Front Rack - $107 at Cambriabike.com WTB Mountain Road Bar 25.4 clamp 60cm wide, 127mm angled drops - $70 at elitecycling.biz CatEye TL-LD600 Tail lights - $15/ea at Nashbar.com Hydrapak 50 Ounce Reservoir - $18 at Nashbar.com Zefal Tripper 12" deep bag - Previously purchased
Notes:
The donor bike (Mercier Serpens 30 LTD) was a full Ultegra 6600 Triple road bike with Ultegra brakes, cranks, bottom bracket, derailleurs, cassette, chain, shifters, Shimano WH-R500 wheels. I wanted the smoothest ride possible and since this is my first recumbent I didn't want to try this on a 700x23c tire that the donor bike came with, so I upgraded to the best Continental offers, their Grand Prix 4 Season tires in a 700x28c size with Forte Rim Tape and 28C tubes I took apart the rear wheel and put new Park Tool Polylube on the bearings. I think the parts bike was a instore display unit, it had never been ridden and was in new condition but was a year old. You can use your original donor bike rear brake cable for the front brake cable, no need to purchase a new front cable since you have to replace the rear brake cable with a longer one anyways. WTB Mountain Road bars make a night and day different from the 44/46cm wide bars. They are 60cm wide at the bottom drops so they are not as wide as you would think, that added inch of clearance at the thumbs and levers plus the added leverage is worth every penny

 

[John Tolhurst]

That's looking very nice there Brian!

I like to run the gear cables alongside the brake cables, between the stem sleeve and the pivot clamp, so I get nice symmetrical cable loops in front of the handlebars. I like to use a barrel adjuster at the far end of the outer cable, instead of the near end at the brake lever, so the cables are more easily kept clear of the knees.

Best,
John

 

[Brian Lewis]

Great advise, actually ran the brake cables (new sleeves/cables) thru the pivot area making a nice clean setup. I was going to attempt the same with the derailleur but was waiting for the Inline Barrel Adjuster Kit I had Performance Bike order for me before I attempt to run those thru. So you like the adjusters that sit at the sleeve stops on the fork instead of the inline huh? My Giant OCR-C2 bike has inline barrel that have worked out very well but if you think the adjusters that sit in the sleeve stops are the better route I can look at exchanging them. I don't necessarily need to adjust while I ride which is what the inline adjusters provide.

I did loosen the bottom bracket clamps to remove the bow out of the chainstay, thanks for pointing that out, the chainstay shipped already clamped down so I wasn't aware that me adjusting the handlebar upwards was bending the chainstay!

 

[Brian Lewis]

Here is the bike assembled, still have a few things like a WTB Mountain Road Bar system (60cm with angled drops) and Old Man Mountain Sherpa Front rack coming for it. I've put about 10 miles on it so far, still getting use to the bike and I think the wider bars will help out greatly, the 44cm bars are just too tight and don't give you enough leverage to control the weight of the front end. The rack will be mounted on the back to provide storage for tube/co2 pump/clothing/camelbak.

 

[Mark B]

Beautiful bike, Brian, thanks for sharing. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


Mark

 

[Hotdog]

Looks great Brian

What rear cassette have you chosen to go with the triple setup? I suspect gearing choice is a bit of a dilemma for many prospective Silvio owners, not being quite sure how well they'll climb on the bike before they've built it.

 

[Brian Lewis]

Crank
Shimano Ultegra 6600 10 Speed (30 total) 53/42/30 T

Cassette
Shimano Ultegra 6600 10 Speed 11-23 T

These both came on my Mercier Serpens LTD 30 that I bought on Ebay exclusively to be a donor for the Silvio. The gearing is fantastic and provides a great range for everything I'll encounter on the road.

 

[Brian Lewis]

I've now upgraded the handlebar system to a 60cm wide 30 degree angled 127mm drop road bar

http://www.cruzbike.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

 

[John Tolhurst]

Whatever gearing you use on a normal bike, that is what you need on a Silvio. While a lot of people are keen on a triple, we still have a little adjustment work to do for it - I have recently amended some info pages.

 

[Mark B]

johntolhurst wrote: Whatever gearing you use on a normal bike, that is what you need on a Silvio. While a lot of people are keen on a triple, we still have a little adjustment work to do for it - I have recently amended some info pages.

John,

I looked up the amendments you made to your Silvio info pages. I'm confused, which is normal, but Brian put a triple on his bike with no issues. Did Doug run into problems on his Campy build?

Mark

 

[John Tolhurst]

Ah, short people.
What happens is the angle opens up between the boom and chainstay. On the Sofrider we ues a long cage FD. On the Silvio, all is fine on a double for all riders as designed. But we are finding people want to ride triples. As you know a classic road bike has a double not a triple .. but what the customer wants the customer gets. So this means we need a small plate to be machined up from 6061 to drop the FD down a little. Nothing major, just have to work through it. :geek:

 

[Brian Lewis]

Mark,

There actually is a slight issue with the Ultegra Triple Front Derailleur. Although I can get into all 3 front gears, while in the front granny gear with my bike set for a 41" X-Seam and the bike is setup at 41" from seat crevis to pedal surface, only allows me to be in gears 1,2,3 on the rear, if I try to go any smaller the chain drags on the bottom of the derailleur. I created a template for John and verified a new mounting point that would work out better for us Triple derailleur owners. Looks like John's plan is to machine up a few of these brackets that triple owners can use. This will rotate the derailleur slightly closer to the chainstay so there is enough clearance to access all 10 gears when in granny gear. Its not a show stopper at this point but if you run less then a 31" inseam you might have a little chain drag in granny gear until you move to the new front derailleur mounting point.

If you forgot to pump up your front shock or your extremely long legged this becomes less of an issue because the boom to chainstay angle closes tighter in both instances and gives better derailleur clearance.

Brian

 

[Brian Lewis]

Pictures with Old Mans Sherpa Rack and WTB Bars

Well I have installed my new WTB 60cm Mountain Road Bars and Old Mans Sherpa Rack. Both fit perfect. I love the control the new WTB bars are giving me compared to the 44cm road bars. I've fitted my previous Zefal Tripper rack bag which is 12" long onto the 9.5" rack, it fits just fine with a little overhang, it will do until I can find a 9.5" bag that looks good.

Rack : Fits love a glove, this is the Sherpa standard kit (no extra brackets). It comes with the necessary brackets to fit the Silvio, I did lock them into a vice and heated them up a bit and hit them with a hammer to add an angle so that they fit well since the fork mounting holes have a narrower profile then the width of the rack. This is the perfect rack for the Silvio.

Handlebars : the WTB Mountain Road Bars 60cm wide 25.4mm clamp with a 30 degree angled 127mm drop. These bars are amazing and worlds better than the 44cm no angle drop bars that came with the donor bike. I highly recommend theses bars. No modifications were necessary

Bag : Zefal Tripper 12" deep bag. It fits the rack shelf with 2.5" overhang, not a huge deal, when I stumble across a 9.5" deep rack bag that looks good I'll change it out.


Total Bike Weight with CO2 pump, spare tube, bag, rack, wtb bars, polar speed/cadence sensors, Polar CS300 computer, Ultegra Triple, 700x28m Continental Grand Prix 4 Season tires, Shimano WH-R500 rims, Forte Carver MTB pedals is currently 31 lbs

 

[Mark B]

F-in' A....

Ding, ding, ding.... We have a winner!

Mark

 

[defjack]

I think the problem is with shorter riders.My X seam is 41 and the triple went right on with no problem. Jack

 

[Robert Stewart]

Re: Pictures with Old Mans Sherpa Rack and WTB Bars

Brian Lewis wrote: Well I have installed my new WTB 60cm Mountain Road Bars and Old Mans Sherpa Rack. Both fit perfect. I love the control the new WTB bars are giving me compared to the 44cm road bars. I've fitted my previous Zefal Tripper rack bag which is 12" long onto the 9.5" rack, it fits just fine with a little overhang, it will do until I can find a 9.5" bag that looks good.

Rack : Fits love a glove, this is the Sherpa standard kit (no extra brackets). It comes with the necessary brackets to fit the Silvio, I did lock them into a vice and heated them up a bit and hit them with a hammer to add an angle so that they fit well since the fork mounting holes have a narrower profile then the width of the rack. This is the perfect rack for the Silvio.

Handlebars : the WTB Mountain Road Bars 60cm wide 25.4mm clamp with a 30 degree angled 127mm drop. These bars are amazing and worlds better than the 44cm no angle drop bars that came with the donor bike. I highly recommend theses bars. No modifications were necessary

Bag : Zefal Tripper 12" deep bag. It fits the rack shelf with 2.5" overhang, not a huge deal, when I stumble across a 9.5" deep rack bag that looks good I'll change it out.


Total Bike Weight with CO2 pump, spare tube, bag, rack, wtb bars, polar speed/cadence sensors, Polar CS300 computer, Ultegra Triple, 700x28m Continental Grand Prix 4 Season tires, Shimano WH-R500 rims, Forte Carver MTB pedals is currently 31 lbs

Congratulations Brian. Very nice job.

I particularly like the idea of the WTB handlebars. There is a similar product in the uk I might try out - the On-one Midge:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=7
http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article.asp?UAN=1788&SP=&v=1
http://www.63xc.com/mattc/midge.htm

I might just order a set and give them a try on my Silvio. What do you think?
Cheers,
Rob

 

[Brian Lewis]

Looks to be the same bar! 58cm center to center on drops.

I just got back from a 30 mile ride going 3 times around White Rock Lake, this bar turns my Silvio into an extremely comfortable and maneuverable recumbent. I could not imagine using any other bar. The 60cm is perfect for my knees, the hand angle is perfect, even the drop length is perfect, I can turn at any speed and it doesn't bump into my thighs, there is no need to cut anything off the drops, I'm keeping it exactly how it is... LOVE IT!

As always, here is a picture from today's ride at White Rock Lake!

 

[Hotdog]

johntolhurst wrote: Whatever gearing you use on a normal bike, that is what you need on a Silvio.

Ah yes, but what if you don't have a normal bike?

All my riding in the past year has been on a Bacchetta Giro 26 SWB high racer recumbent and I've never owned a road bike, so I'd still be a bit uncertain about the best gearing for me and my local terrain. If the appropriate gearing for a Silvio is the same as for an upright road bike then that makes it rather different from other recumbents (which it does seem to be, part of the reason I'm so interested in it ).

Changing to a different cassette if need be wouldn't be very expensive or difficult, but you'd want to make the right choice of double/compact/triple cranks at the beginning.

 

[kling]

Hi Hotdog,

Quote: Changing to a different cassette if need be wouldn't be very expensive or difficult, but you'd want to make the right choice of double/compact/triple cranks at the beginning.

I agree. I think that boils down to - unless there are no hills where you plan to ride, aim to setup with a triple crank. (I think there is an advantage waiting for people to try out the options and sorting out the tweaks required)

Kendrick

 

[Mark B]

kling wrote: I think there is an advantage waiting for people to try out the options and sorting out the tweaks required

Kendrick

There is much wisdom in these words. For that reason, I'm going to set my bike up with the road triple off a 9 speed road bike I already have. Then, I'll just sit back, relax, and see what the hot ticket is to upgrade to.

Mark

 

[Rick Harker]

Hi Brian,

I was just looking through the posts and trying to find out if this is your first recumbent.
And, how do you find the handling, comfort and speed factors over the upright bikes you've ridden.
Also with the triple chain ring do you need the granny gear or does it come in handy for the riding you do?
One more thing, how was the learning curve?

Regards,

Rick.