Custom Superlight Road Bike V2

For the second interration of this project I wanted to both decrease the weight and increase the stiffness. Trying to include the BB30 design had been a problem to have a lightweight shell and maintain the bearing seat precision through the brazing process, so I went back to a threaded shell on this frame. The downtube is the (now sadly discontinued, I wish I had bought more!) True Temper S3 Aero DT, effectively 1.5″ in diameter compared to the ovalised 1.25″ I used previously. This will increase the front end stiffness but maintain the aero theme. I came up with a more secure two bolt saddle clamp for the seatmast, which I custom butted to give more strength at the toptube/seatstay junction. Otherwise it was all the usual lightning features – machine out all the tubes at the joints, machine all excess material from the dropouts, custom cable stops, custom butted headtube and BB shell.

The frame ended up lighter than V1, but I lost some of that advantage with my choice of paint – the gold finish is a two coat paint and thus probably adds 20g or so over a single coat. But it did come out pretty! Painted frame weight as pictured is 1320g. And built up as shown the complete bike is 11.8lbs. Initial rides have proven mission accomplished on the improvements – definitely better front end stiffness, it is solid when sprinting and pushing hard into corners, and there is no perceptable flex at the BB (helped by the stiff Lightning cranks).

 

 

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