S30 buildup with Volae Comfort Carbon L seat.

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tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
To see the build, click the following link to go to the correct posting in this thread:
S30 buildup with Volae Comfort Carbon L seat.


I'm doing an S30 build for my dad, who, after seeing me tour the Silvio successfully up the whole east coast, decided he would take the plunge. As a reminder, I did learn from my tour that very low gearing is ineffective on the Silvio, at least while one rides on two wheels.

As with my Silvio, we're doing a build-up from frame.
We have wheels on the way (disc-brake, aileron rims), calipers (hy/rd), housing (jagwire elite non-compressible), and a hardshell seat (similar to what I did for mine).

(As an aside-- what happened to the 'brag' forum? I'd posted my build and seat mods there, and now it seems lost? )

What I'm not sure about is drivetrain. I was thinking about Di2, but it looks like the stock gearing is wider range than what you'd get with the road Di2. The XT/XTR Di2 is fairly spendy, and doesn't seem like a wonderful option.

Any drivetrain suggestions? I could attempt to replicate the stock (perhaps with some slightly upgraded parts) drivetrain.
 
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castlerobber

castlerobber

Zen MBB Master
tiltmaniac said:
(As an aside-- what happened to the 'brag' forum? I'd posted my build and seat mods there, and now it seems lost? )
Click to expand...
The forums were reorganized a while back, but all the posts should still exist.

To find your own posts easily: Go to your profile page and choose the Information tab. "Find all threads by [your name]" will give you a listing of every topic you started; "Find all content by [your name]" lists each individual comment you've made on any thread. Both are in descending date order.
 
T

tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
@ super slim
I'd posted in that thread waaaay back when :)

@ castlerobber
I'd tried that, but couldn't find the posting. Which is sad, 'cause I don't remember how I'd mounted the hardshell and don't particularly want to take the bike apart to find out ;)
Laziness!
 
Mathew Fy

Mathew Fy

GRU
tiltmaniac,
Have you gone through all 156 of your posts going back to Dec. 2014?
Lots of cool stuff there. I enjoyed your Atlantic Coast Epic Tour ride report. And 57 mph!
 
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tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
I've looked through all my posts and can't find it, so perhaps they were on the old forums.
Oh well, I'll muddle through again somehow (I did it once, I can do it again!).

@ratz Any suggestions on e-shifting sets for folks who do some hills?
 
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tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
In the end, we went with the SRAM gx rear derailleur, sram red front and brifters and crank (though we may swap out the crank with a shortened crank, e.g. the SRAM Apex).

We also stuck a Volae L Carbon Comfort seat onto the frame. I'm fairly happy with how that went, and have some recommendations for someone else wishing to do the same. I feel that I did a better job this time around.

For the current S30s, the following (13/64 OD) drill bushing fits perfectly into the bottom seat mounting holes:
https://www.mcmaster.com/#8492a003/=15qa5pg

This bushing makes reliably and perfectly drilling pilot holes in the CF seat for mounting at the bottom seat mounting holes nearly foolproof. Highly recommended for someone else doing something similar.

I additionally got some rubber conical feet which I used to center the seat (for drilling the mounting holes at the top) easy.
What I did there was wedge the rubber cones between the inside ridge of the spines of the seat and the frame. This centered the seat perfectly.
I then took a screw and put it pointy-end-up through one of the mounting holes, with a nut holding it in place at the top.
Finally, I pressed the seat down firmly (while centered with the rubber stoppers/feet) which caused the pointy end of the screw to mark the seat at the location for the drill (well, pretty close to it).


With the holes drilled (using a series of bits until finally using a 13/64" bit), the next step was to make mounting the seat easier.
To do that, I took a 70mm length M5 .8 screw, and cut it down using a dremel until it would reliably reach the scissor-jack as it lay at the bottom of the inside of the frame. This made mounting the seat change from a half-hour-long exercise in patience and frustration into a 10 second event. I'd suggest that Cruzbike ship with bolts like this for the scissor-jack. It just makes life easier.

Finally, I reinforced the seat mount by getting some low-temp thermoset plastic (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V2BKU3I/?m=A3QSHM7NA4371O), and sticking it (while malleable) between the frame and the seat at the top and the seat-bottom. I then pressed the seat down, screwed it in place, and let it sit until the plastic hardened. This seems to work swimmingly, though I have some worries about what might happen if it is left in a car to heat up. If that becomes an issue, then I'll do it again, and use it as a template to create something with a higher melting temp.

This plastic provides for a very firm foundation for the seat, and reinforces it nicely laterally so it has little motion.
(For shock-absorption, we'll use a Ventisit pad, so additional "suspension" for the seat is not interesting).

I'll provide pictures shortly.
 
T

tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
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T

tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
As you may note, I installed the headrest rails upside down, which works perfectly for this build. The Bachetta Brain box is fitted on the rear (it fits perfectly).

The plastic isn't the most beautiful thing ever (I didn't have time to beautify it greatly), but it'd be reasonably easy to take a hacksaw to it to even out the edges for appearances sake, if desired.

We didn't have the fit of the bicycle right yet (I can't finish the build since the curved boom arrives after I leave), but it is there for the mostpart.
Other components:

PowerTap driven wheel with 700c 32h Velocity Aileron rims, and bladed spokes.
DT Swiss 350 undriven wheel with 700c 32h Velocity Alierons and bladed spokes again.
HY/RD brakes and 160mm rotors on both wheels.
Jagwire Elite Link for the brakes (need 2x sets to get enough 'beads' to reach the rear caliper). Threading the rear brake cable took a fair bit of time, but seems to work well. I'd done the same on my prior build. As usual one must take care to make the run as short as possible after fitting..
Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires (not really recommended with these rims-- too difficult to get on/off!)
6x6in Rubber Packing sheets (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QD7LY...3500566&sr=sr-1&keywords=6x6in+rubber+packing)
Some Jagwire alloy cable guides (https://www.amazon.com/Jagwire-Allo...&qid=1481683791&sr=8-6&keywords=housing+guide)
Origin8 Plastic Cable guides (https://www.amazon.com/Origin8-Plas...&sr=8-1&keywords=Origin8+Plastic+Cable+Guides)
Low-temp thermoset plastic (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V2BKU3I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Next time, since it doesn't melt at low temps, instead of the thermoset plastic, I expect to use some apoxie-sculpt to make the seat shims (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013UDWXI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
 
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super slim

super slim

Zen MBB Master
Could you use two straight tubes of the same diameter of the headrest to support the seat bag over it's full length?

The Plastic will evenly distribute the load into the frame, with no high spots!
Smoothing the plastic up and painting it black will make it disappear!

What are the three holes in the flat plate at the bottom of the main frame for?
 
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tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
There are 5 holes in the flat plate of the frame, all there from the factory for the frame. Basically it seems to be a bit of an update to the frame.

One is a weep-hole (Yeay!).
The other four (two pairs of two) seem to be for mounting somethings. The spacing appears to be about right for bottle cages, though I didn't test that.
 
T

tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
super slim said:
Could you use two straight tubes of the same diameter of the headrest to support the seat bag over it's full length?

The Plastic will evenly distribute the load into the frame, with no high spots!
Smoothing the plastic up and painting it black will make it disappear!

What are the three holes in the flat plate at the bottom of the main frame for?
Click to expand...

The seat bag doesn't need the tubes for support-- it really just needs the back of the seat. I put the headrest tube like that to be an easy grip on the bike and to allow for mounting lights and radar unobstructed on the rear. I'm sure you could do as you suggest, though-- the scissor clamps would work on the same diameter tubing just fine, I'd wager.

As for making the plastic black-- you can also dye it as well, while it is molten. The plastic is nicely lightweight, as a bonus.
The upper plastic shim is firmly stuck to the frame-- I intentionally did not cover the holes in the upper frame while mooshing the seat, plastic, and frame together (excepting the scissor clamp bolt-he which had a bolt in it), and so the plastic flowed just enough over the edge of the hole there, and just enough into the headrest-rail holes to be unable to be removed (without some sawing/melting).
 
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B

bladderhead

Zen MBB Master
Shame it doesn't fire rockets.

You don't like to be bored, do you? You have finished customising this one, so you are getting another one for your trike project, am I right?

Where do you find the time?
 
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tiltmaniac

Zen MBB Master
This one was for my dad for Christmas during Christmas vacation with the family at their place.
I'm getting most of one for the trike project (don't really need the rear triangle for my project), so I can ride the one I have instead of letting it sit in the garage as a prototype all the time :)
 
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