I got in on the V20c pre-order and the box arrived a week and half ago. I started the build that Sunday morning. Robert's video was extremely helpful and I made good progress in the 2 hours available that day. It was already a bit more assembled than in the video with the chain stays pre-mounted to the slider assembly. I got to the part where he says to trim the front derailleur cable in that first session.
You may have seen the post where Robert mentioned that on some shipments the brake levers were attached too far down on handlebars and that was the case for my V20c. Since I was going to have to unwrap the handlebars anyway to fix the brake lever position I thought I'd trim the all the cables so that I could route them all the way under the handlebar tape. If you look at the assembly video you can see that, as shipped, the cables come out from under the tape a couple of turns away from the brake hoods. I thought it would be more aero if they went under the tape all the way along the top of the handlebar and then curved to follow the boom. In order to shorten the front brake cable housing I had to release the cable from the brake and that's where I ran into my first problem. When I went to put it back the screw that holds the cable to the caliper stripped the threads on the caliper. I really didn't think I'd cross-threaded but there was nothing to be done except replace the front caliper since those threads are integral to the actuator mechanism. I was able to get a TRP Spyre from Jenson and it arrived a couple of days later.
Here's a view of the cables routed under the tape:
I finished the build last night late and did a quick ride around the neighborhood to make sure everything was working. Cruzbike has been very up-front about not having been able to source the level of components they wanted for this initial shipment. As I set up the shifting I was worried that the shifting wasn't going to be good but out on the road it was just fine. It's Campy style shifting and I like SRAM better but had used Campy for years on uprights so it wasn't too weird.
I had a long standing appointment today to meet a couple of friends for a ride around the Northampton, MA area (a 90 minute drive from home) and decided that the V20c was ready to make this the maiden voyage.
I had ordered a nice set of used aero wheels (Bontrager Aeolus) and brought them to the LBS to set up tubeless because I hate doing that and wanted to devote my time to the build. When I came down to load the bike onto the car for the drive out to Northampton the front wheel was flat. After reinflating I could hear the air coming out and see it spitting sealant which was doing absolutely nothing to close the hole (I've been riding tubeless on my old V20 for years and haven't had a problem). So I switched out to the stock front wheel but with regrets because there was going to be a big climb with steep sections. I had put an 11-34 on the aero wheel but the stock has 11-28. I mounted the bike on the back of the car and headed out. 20 miles into the drive I looked into the rear mirror and saw no cushion on the V20c seat. I realized to my horror that I'd forgotten to take the cushion off in the panic over the flat front tire and that the wind had removed it for me. It's somewhere on the side of the Mass Turnpike. I called my friends and told them I'd be quite late and they should go get brunch or something, took the next exit to turn around and go back home, ripped the seat off my old V20 and headed back out.
The ride itself was great. The bike felt very stable and smooth, shifting and braking were no problem. Today's ride was leisurely. I will put a better tire on the aero front wheel and do my standard club time trial on Wednesday. I'll have the power pedals charged and be ready to offer a comparison of performance and aerodynamics vs. the old V20. Here's a picture from today:
You may have seen the post where Robert mentioned that on some shipments the brake levers were attached too far down on handlebars and that was the case for my V20c. Since I was going to have to unwrap the handlebars anyway to fix the brake lever position I thought I'd trim the all the cables so that I could route them all the way under the handlebar tape. If you look at the assembly video you can see that, as shipped, the cables come out from under the tape a couple of turns away from the brake hoods. I thought it would be more aero if they went under the tape all the way along the top of the handlebar and then curved to follow the boom. In order to shorten the front brake cable housing I had to release the cable from the brake and that's where I ran into my first problem. When I went to put it back the screw that holds the cable to the caliper stripped the threads on the caliper. I really didn't think I'd cross-threaded but there was nothing to be done except replace the front caliper since those threads are integral to the actuator mechanism. I was able to get a TRP Spyre from Jenson and it arrived a couple of days later.
Here's a view of the cables routed under the tape:
I finished the build last night late and did a quick ride around the neighborhood to make sure everything was working. Cruzbike has been very up-front about not having been able to source the level of components they wanted for this initial shipment. As I set up the shifting I was worried that the shifting wasn't going to be good but out on the road it was just fine. It's Campy style shifting and I like SRAM better but had used Campy for years on uprights so it wasn't too weird.
I had a long standing appointment today to meet a couple of friends for a ride around the Northampton, MA area (a 90 minute drive from home) and decided that the V20c was ready to make this the maiden voyage.
I had ordered a nice set of used aero wheels (Bontrager Aeolus) and brought them to the LBS to set up tubeless because I hate doing that and wanted to devote my time to the build. When I came down to load the bike onto the car for the drive out to Northampton the front wheel was flat. After reinflating I could hear the air coming out and see it spitting sealant which was doing absolutely nothing to close the hole (I've been riding tubeless on my old V20 for years and haven't had a problem). So I switched out to the stock front wheel but with regrets because there was going to be a big climb with steep sections. I had put an 11-34 on the aero wheel but the stock has 11-28. I mounted the bike on the back of the car and headed out. 20 miles into the drive I looked into the rear mirror and saw no cushion on the V20c seat. I realized to my horror that I'd forgotten to take the cushion off in the panic over the flat front tire and that the wind had removed it for me. It's somewhere on the side of the Mass Turnpike. I called my friends and told them I'd be quite late and they should go get brunch or something, took the next exit to turn around and go back home, ripped the seat off my old V20 and headed back out.
The ride itself was great. The bike felt very stable and smooth, shifting and braking were no problem. Today's ride was leisurely. I will put a better tire on the aero front wheel and do my standard club time trial on Wednesday. I'll have the power pedals charged and be ready to offer a comparison of performance and aerodynamics vs. the old V20. Here's a picture from today:
