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pictures speak for themselves

THM CLAVICULA

it arrived yesterday...what can i say...the crankarms are absolutely amazing, one problem though...after almost 3 months of painful wait they shipped the cranks with the wrong BB. called thm and starbike and i was told that they are "investigating the problem"...i told them i want them cups shipped first class next day...it seems that the German seriousness is just a myth

i am complaining becuase i want this blog to contain infos from all points of view . although the product is absolutely amazing, the customer relationship is to me relevant as well. in the case of thm it was very bad, not too happy about starbike either , i did not receive any apologies from neither when my only mistake was to purchase something from them!

i regret now not going through r2-bike.de, but although they were 2 weeks late answering emails they seemed very nice and helpful.

shame on THM and starbike.com, definitely my last order with you! keep investigating!

here a pic



update: today I called thm and this time someone very nice answered the phone. not only he explained clearly what went wrong, he also sent the cups via airmail today.

8160g

everything here minus clavicula!

pictures speak for themselves!

THM Clavicula Dp & Cane Creek Aer Headset!

although it is very hard for me to part with the very beautiful and stiff rotor xc2, the weight weenie inside of me has taken control! i ordered the very expensive crankset from THM!
it will save up to 200gr, bringing the weight down to 7.9xxkg! a barrier that is very difficult and expensive to break with a full susser especially when it is ment for 90kg riders like myself!
the clavicula dp is a 2 chainring crankset and by default it has a weight limit of 85kg! because you can customize the cranks the way you want with thm, i opted for a higher weight limit, bringing it to 90kg!
these cranks have the best weight-stiffness ratio, and therefore they come at a price!
also they have race thoroughbred in them, being ridden by the womens beijing olympic champion Sabine Spiez!

crankarms+spacers+bottombracket =415
ta specialites chinook 42/32 = 60+30= 90
chainring bolts = 6
Total=511g (xc2 720g)

second upgrade brings just 50gr down!
the Cane Creek Aer Headset is only 50gr heavy in the ZS form that i will be using!
it has a lower bearing like any other headset but the upper one is a new thing! In fact it is a teflon bushing, very poshy named Norglide. so instead of a whole bearing you only have this special teflon coated bushing that does the job! of course there are disadvantages, and of course it is only road intended, but i will give it a try!

got all the parts today, frm lockrings work fine, verhuteli ok, zylons not installed yet because there is an incompatibility with the da mech. bcompostes had to be modified cos of the bottlecage mounts...

paduano is now 8240 g light

miscellaneous parts

i have been spending some cash on cool parts lately...r2-bike.de is a nice shop where you can find all kinds of things , especially if you are bike- weight-concerned like myslef(sounds stupid i know) ! the guys at r2-bike.de are really nice and helpful, so check them out!

among various things i will be upgrading the front mech with a dura-ace braze on...you will say, ok but how are you going to install a braze-on front mech without a brze on the frame....easy ! with a carbon-braze-on adapter!

xtr=130gr dura ace =65+5gadapter!....-60g!
cables will be changed aswell with du-ponts...
normal jagwire teflon cables(what i use now) weight around 15gr, the duponts only 2.7!...-24.6g



tune verhuterli stemcap 6.5g...gumgum+stemcap+bolt=16...-9.5g



grand total...94.1g..so almost another 100gr...the paduano will hopefully reach 8.3kg!!!

DT Swiss XRC 1250 Wheelset

time has passed and the paduano has suffered a few modifications....

first of all a new inner seatpost was installed , a kcnc tiprolite and an aluminum seatpostclamp which has brought the weight down another 150gr.



the big news is that i have ordered a set of dt swiss xrc 1250. they usually come at arund 2000e which is outrageous given the fact that you can build similar weight wheels for 900euros, but i have found them in an almost new state at only 925e and bought them. the main reason is that they have a 90kg weight limit due to the carbon rims! they also come with ceramic bearings (190hubs) which is also a very nice asset! you can have slightly lighter wheels built with ztr race rims and tune hubs but you have to be 80 kgs heavy , which i am not and will never be! so, for the little bit heavier fellow the xrc 1250 are ideal...

they have flaws apparently, although the rims are carbon , they are not the stiffest wheelset on the planet and this is nicely said, and they are center lock, which means you have to use an adapter whch comes at 30grams (adapter+lockring). 30x2=60gr. i saw the wheelset on the scale wo the adapters and it had 1210gr. 1210+60= 1270gr complete with adapter which is decent for 90kg! the good news is that the center lock that comes with the wheels has 10gr. the guys from light-bikes.de gave me a good hint meaning that you can replace the dt swiss lockrings with a durace 12t one which shaves 10grams from the wheelset , meaning that you reach 1260gr! NICE!

my current wheelset has on the scale 1480gr...1480-1260=220gr shaved off and i am coming close to 8400g! the target is 8.3kg, when i reach that i will probably stop, although i have wet dreams about the thm clavicula...1000e for a cranskset without chainrings is still too much for my pocket at the moment, maybe in the future!

here are a few pics of the dt swiss xrc 1250

money express feature

today i got the photos from money express ! enjoy!

the whole article can be found in the magazine and on this link

new parts on the way

this week i ordered 2 new parts for the bike. they will bring down the weight just a bit.
it's going to be a tune potenz saddle at 38g without weight limit and a schmolke tlo handlebar 600mm at 79gr . theoretically the weight loss is going to be 102gr which means that the scale is going to show 8.69kg.
they say that the potenz saddle is as comfortable as a normal speedneedle one , it just lacks that front part, which makes it ugly but also interesting .

the conclusion!

it's been almost 2 months now since i have been riding the bruto. i am usually very critic with my purchases and it happens very often that i criticize things i buy(eg the stupid iphone). I've been thinking and analyzing this bike from all possible points of view and wanted to find a defect, something i did not like about it...it took me a little while to get used to the frame and position and i just LOVE IT! the only thing that i hated about it were the nobu's which i replaced with sachs quartz gripshifts and now i really consider this bike perfect. it is exactly what i have dreamed at all these years and i am still excited with every ride or eye that i throw at it!
the overall feel of the bike is absolutely amazing! the position on long rides is comfortable. i went on a 80km ride and besides the muscle cramps, i had absolutely no problems whatsoever. usually i get back pains and numbness in my palms, this time everything went perfect!
if you think about it, it all makes sense as it is obvious that Francesco Paduano spent a lot of time designing this frame. everything on the bike, every small feature, adds to the quality of the ride!

there are 3 highpoints on the bike, all equally important and all adding quality to the ride in the same amount:
the frame
the fork
the crankset

if you can , go for the german a forks! i know they are expensive but they are absolutely brilliant. they react to small and big bumps , they are very stiff in corners and at 1147gr they are also very light!

same with the crankset! the q rings have a very "round" feel. if you try a normal chainring afterwards it feels strange, uneven. the stiffness is above xtr aswell! you can feel it especially on sprints, when you put a lot of stress on the crankset! add the lowest available q factor on the market and you can say that rotor did a nice job !

my weight estimation was 8.55kgs. of course it didn't go that low. i was actually 250gr off, which means that the bike is at 8.8kgs. decent weight for a full susser keeping in mind that there were places where i couldn't shave off weight due to my 0.093tons and to the fact that i did not wanted to loose stiffness!
next year hopefully i will be upgrading to 5rot and also i will go for a backer carbon saddle and probably a schmolke handlebar just to make the scale show 8.6kg

*the riding position has been modified from the picture. i've cut the steerer and i now have a 5 mm spacer under the stem ;)

finally...

the bike is finally ready

i will post a movie of how it came what it is

this is how it looks and what it weights. at 8.8kg i did not make any compromises regarding rigidity and strength.

i am still testing with the position of the stem and handlebars, therefore the fork steerer is not cut yet

as a general impression after a few km's the only things i don't like are the nobus and the kmc chain. the chain was already replaced in the pictures , the nobus will be replaced next week with sachs quartz grip shifters

the german a fork and the softail are fantastic. the rotor crankset although it has developed a small play that was sorted out, feel very "round". when you pedal you have the feeling that the torque is linear , unlike normal round chainrings

don't forget this frame has the steepest, shortest most rigid and sexyes looking back triangle on the market, as Mr Paduano recently told me!

YOU GOT MAAAIL!

today i received 2 important components for the bike, the crankset and the brakeset

rotor agilis xc2

first impression with the crankset is very very good. it looks very carefully built with high attention to detail! the chainrings are absolutely impressive, everything is cnc machined.



i opted for the agilis xc2 mainly because of it's rigidity. they have a special cnc operation where they cut the crankarms outside aswell as inside! yep cnc inside the arms! they go through this very complicated cnc process because they say that the rigidity is 30% higher at the same weight!
forged aluminum loses some of the strength properties compared to the cold cnc machined one !

the chainrings are q-rings, which means they are oval and are adjustable. adjustable in the sense that you can set them to behave differently . i installed them on position 2 , later to have them moved to 3! there is an accommodation period with these chainrings and they suggest you start with position 2!
the xc2 is two chainrings only and because of they're shape they come in 40/27 t . i've noticed that as well with 29'er bikes, that the mtb direction is towards 2 chainrings and not 3. a little bit of inspiration from road bikes now with the release of sram's 10spd mtb casette?!

also a special part of the crankset are the bb's. because i wanted to have the bb's for 68mm without spacers, the guys from velotechservices sent me 2 bb's one sabb and the bb1, a nice gift from a bunch of nice chaps!
the bb1 is a 100gr light bb designed for mtb use with spacers for 68mm shell
the self alignment bottom bracket is what it's name says...the picture explains everything!


they claim a weight of 753 grams including bottom brackets, chainrings, spacer etc but my scale shows only 720...



hope mini x2 pro


well...evryone knows how hope brakes feel and how they brake but the x2 is a step higher than my m4 and m6! i have to honestly say it that i ahave always been a huge fan of this small company called hope and they have not let me down with the x2 pro!



620gr with 160mm rotors, i think it's pretty fair!

german-a kilo no 1

I WANT ONE!

it's going to take some time though, 1500 europeans isn't cheap at all!
this fork is absolutely amazing, i have tried one on a merida nintysix and it feels very plush and responsive. also, because of the design it comes with anti dive technology and hi lateral stiffness all because of the parallelogram.there are aother forks with anti dive but they don't come light this one has a carbon shaft and carbon legs delivering an impressive sub 1100g weight
high quality german technology...

brakes ordered !

hope mono x2 pro for me please!

after watching different other manufacturers models being serviced at my local bike shop i definitely went for hope! they are simple and easy to service!they are sub 600gr and as any hope product they work flawlessly.
i've seen formula r1 and magura sl's broken after verry little use so , althought it might only be a coincidence, i cannot trust anything other than hope! the frm and formula disc brakes are with around 10-20gr lighter per set, but i like the looks and the way they feel better with the x2 pro!

next week i'll have then, till then this is how they look !

the quick releases and tires are ordered!

i went for the procraft pro sl titanium qr, i just love them and they are 40g



tires are going to be furious freds 2.25 rear and 2.0 front with 100g schwalbe xxlight tubes
i had the opportunity of weighting several tires (17) and came across the 385g rear one and a 301g front one. in the weighting process i encountered 2.25 tires at 440 and 2.0 tires at 340...so huge differences in weight. if you have the chance go weight your tires before buying them you can save up to 70-100gr! enormous!

i did the same thing with the tubes but there were only small 2-3% differences , no need for stress

the rims have arrived! slowly the bike is starting to build up!

these are the specs of the wheels

dt swiss 240 s front and rear hub
dt swiss revolution spokes
dt swiss alloy red nipples
dt swiss xr 4.d rims


all weight together 1480gr on the scale!

enjoy the pics!

the frame is almost ready !!!

today Francesco sent me a picture of the frame while being set up for carbon "welding". the picture shows exactly my frame disassembled. enjoy!

titanium?

because the bruto comes both with titanium and carbon fiber tubes i will try to explain a little bit about these 2 materials and about the "boron" carbon.

so what's the big deal with titanium? why titanium and why so expensive?

first of all just a little bit of titanium history...
titanium also known as the "space age metal" is a light, noncorrosive and very strong metal. given these 3 qualities , this metal was mainly used for building space ships and space ship parts. because of the difficulties arousing when extracting this metal and because of the fact that it is rarer than aluminum or other metals, titanium has always been very expensive and only in the last 2-3 decades it has become available for bike frame builders. although it is hard to believe, titanium was discovered by William Gregor in 1791 and named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth for the Titans of Greek mythology .

there are various types of titanium , the one used in bike frame building is ti3al/2.5v or grade 9 which basically means that the titanium alloy consists of 3% aluminum, 2.5% vanadium and 94.5% titanium.
from what i understand this type of alloy is very good for welding having also a low corrosion level. for more types of titanium check out the link.

The two most useful properties of the metal form are corrosion resistance and the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal. In its unalloyed condition, titanium is as strong as some steels, but 45% lighter. There are two allotropic forms and five naturally occurring isotopes of this element; ⁴⁶Ti through ⁵⁰Ti, with ⁴⁸Ti being the most abundant (73.8%). Titanium's properties are chemically and physically similar to zirconium.

carbon fiber on the other hand is something a little bit different :)

Carbon fiber is a material consisting of extremely thin fibers about 0.005–0.010 mm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in microscopic crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber. The crystal alignment makes the fiber very strong for its size. Several thousand carbon fibers are twisted together to form a yarn, which may be used by itself or woven into a fabric.
Carbon fiber has many different weave patterns and can be combined with a plastic resin and wound or molded to form composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic (also referenced as carbon fiber) to provide a high strength-to-weight ratio material. The density of carbon fiber is also considerably lower than the density of steel, making it ideal for applications requiring low weight. The properties of carbon fiber such as high tensile strength, low weight, and low thermal expansion make it very popular in aerospace, civil engineering, military, and motorsports, along with other competition sports like our most beloved cycling.



there are various types of carbon fiber the ones mainly used in bike frames being from 1k to 3k. the difference between these 2 is tensile strength vs weight, 1k being the lightest and also the one with a lower tensile strength(more fragile=dangerous)

weight per unit area (g/m2)	weave	fibre
80	plain	CF 67 (1K)
93	plain	CF 67 (1K)
120	5H satin	CF 67 (1K)
150	twill	CF 67 (1K)
160	plain	CF 200 (3K)
195	twill	CF 200 (3K)
200	plain	CF 200 (3K)
200	twill	CF 200 (3K)
245	twill	CF 200 (3K)
240	twill	CF 400 (6K)
400	twill	CF 800 (12K)
600	twill	CF 800 (12K)
650	twill	CF 800 (12K)

the bruto, comes with ti3al/2.5v titanium tubing plus carbon fiber 3k top and down tube.
the special part about the bruto is that it has a special type of carbon 3k, called "boron"(not moron)
this type of boron carbon comes with a perpendicular fiber, meant to increase the rigidity of the tube. this is an option with paduano and Francesco himself recommended this upgrade.

so , the bruto is made out of high quality and high tech materials explaining why it comes at a price.

in the future posts i will take a look into the integrated seatpost option and softail vs full susser debate