TT bike build on a budget

[fair weather cyclist]

Update:

I bought everything apart from:

• TT brake levers
• wheels
• tyres

Money spent so far: £712

£250 for a second hand set of carbon wheels? Possible or am I asking for the moon?

 

[DCLane]

£250 for a second hand set of carbon wheels? Possible or am I asking for the moon?

Absolutely possible if you keep looking. Mine (60 front, 100 rear with cover) cost £240 in total

 

[fair weather cyclist]

Thanks for giving me some hope.

I'll start looking for good deals today. Ebay seems the obvious starting point, to which I'll add Facebook marketplace.

 

[DCLane]

I'll start looking for good deals today. Ebay seems the obvious starting point, to which I'll add Facebook marketplace.

eBay's gone silly for carbon wheel prices delivered, although 'collection only' seems to be OK. Facebook marketplace is worth a try and a FB cycle sales group with 'wanted' advert (i.e. there's Yorkshire Cycle Sales near me). There's time trial items for sale FB groups worth joining.

Given I've just bought a NeilPryde Bayamo TT frameset I'm about to start the same thing with some component upgrades from my Principia TT bike.

 

[fair weather cyclist]

Update: still on the lookout for wheels. I haven't had much luck as of yet. There are not very many good deals on carbon wheels or on any wheels really.

I'm in 2 minds: be patient and wait for a good deal, or buy something cheap like a pair of alloy training wheels just to get the project moving. One thing I need to pay attention to is to buy the right wheels. Given I'm 100kg I can't just buy ANY wheels, I need to double or even triple check the specs for weight limit 😄

 

[fair weather cyclist]

Here's where I'm at:

• I bought everything, currently waiting for the last bits to be delivered (saddle, pedals, chain)
• I had my steerer tube cut by a mechanic as I didn't have the tools nor the confidence of doing it myself
• I couldn't find any carbon wheels that fit the bill. My main priority was for the wheels to be tubeless ready. All I could find in carbon that was within my budget was tubular and with very few spokes (at 100kg, the more spokes the better). So I settled for a pair of cheap and cheerful giant tubeless ready wheels
• Speaking of tubeless, I installed my tyres of choice (hutchinson fusion 5 performance) in 10 minutes, no tyre levers necessary and I seated the bead of the tyres with only a floor pump. Success!

I'll start putting things together this week when I've got time. Photos coming and I'm super excited.

 

[fair weather cyclist]

Update: I hate my life

Trying to save some money I bought a set of deda parabolica extension bars with the riser kit and all because it was good value for money, only to realise yesterday that the extension poles don't have holes for internal cable routing for the bar end shifters, which I really really REALLY want.

The deda extension poles 24mm wide. The industry standard is 22.2mm

Question: do I need to buy a whole new system (poles, risers, clamps) or can a 22.2mm wide extension pole be clamped in the deda clamp (which I assume is designed for 24mm wide poles)? Is it safe to bodge it by I don't know, wrapping some tape around a 22.2mm pole to make up for the 1.8mm difference?

Thoughts?

 

[DCLane]

@fair weather cyclist - you're about to hate me as well.

You could fashion a sleeve to go in, rather than tape, but are your bar end shifters going to fit in the other end?

 

[fair weather cyclist]

@fair weather cyclist - you're about to hate me as well.

You could fashion a sleeve to go in, rather than tape, but are your bar end shifters going to fit in the other end?

I think they will, the bar end shifters are the shimano dura ace ones, with the wee expansion nut. There isn't much choice out there for bar end shifters, I'm sure there's more people with dura ace shifters on 22.2mm poles than on 24mm poles

In the meantime, I found this

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares/jtek-shim-for-bar-end-shifter-24mm-to-222mm/

 

[fair weather cyclist]

Righto, I just splurged on a new set of aero bars, clamps and all.

Got the zipp vuka alumina with above bar mount. They come with zipp evo poles.

I'll try and sell the deda on Facebook market. Or will chuck them on my road bike and use that for short triathlons.

Live and learn, I guess...