My winter project.

What do I think? I like cheap bikes! You're off to a great start.

Like you said, fit is going to be the determining factor and there's no accurate assessment going to made until Judgement Day: Road Riding and tweaking it from there.

As far a the frame goes...you got a great deal. Sometimes Nashbar will blow out some killer closeout deals, but even those are usually minus a fork, in weird sizes/colors and unpopular geometry or models. For what you spent, you can't lose even if you Craigslist or eBay the Narni.

Thanks,

I figure that the fork and headset alone are worth the purchase price, I would really like the frame to work out to make it an even better deal. Ideally, for road use, the seat tube should be slacker and the headtube longer. I have about 45mm of stack above the headset to get a tolerable drop. I wouldn't want to go any higher with a carbon steerer, right?

I have been watching nashbar, my original idea was to use the nash integrated alloy / carbon frame and may still go that route if they have a returned item or good sale.

For a budget triathlon build, this frame would be perfect. There are plenty more for sale at this price on ebay.

Most of the specs I've read (my frames and others) seem to fall in the 30 MM max. spacer area and one stated 25 MM max. I know they tend to get flexy as hell with 25 MM under the stem (42 CM bars C-to-C and a 120 MM or 130 MM stem as leverage elements). No clue what Javelin recommends, but it should be online somewhere.

The discontinued (white paint on the ones I've seen) Nashbar Alu-Carbon got good reviews. I also thought about snagging one a couple years ago. Now, with standard Chinese carbon toys coming in for $250-$500 or so, I lost interest.

Whenever the local bike clubs have their white elephant/clear out the garage sale a fellow can score some good deals on complete bikes and components.

There is that weird 'bent pipe' looking seatpost...I'm sorry, but I can't remember the manufacturer. Even with a 76° seat post it should yield plenty of setback. The seat clamp slides front to rear on the horizontal portion of the tubing. I'll see if I can dig up a pic.

It was something 'cheap'...like this one, but with a continuous bend instead of the welded joint:

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Of course, there's always that $130 kinked Thomson!

If I'm pounding calculator buttons correctly, going from a 73° angle to 76° gives about 1.42" more forward saddle location over a 27" distance (just a guess at centerline of BB to top of saddle measurement). YMMV.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by maydog
There is a potential problem, I cannot get the seat back to my normal road riding position. Right now the "sweet spot" of the seat is about 8 inches behind the bottom bracket, my normal position is 10 inches. I cannot push the seat further back. My normal road bike effective seat post angle is about 71.5 to 72 degrees.

---

What do you think?

To say the least, TWO more inches is a lot more set back than you currently have ...

How handy are YOU?

Are you skilled enough to fabricate a new CRADLE which you will subsequently install in a suitable diameter seatpost?

OR do you know someone who can?

Alternatively (I have NOT tried this), have someone who has a metal bending tool bend either an aluminum seatpost, ever-so-slightly [i.e., akin to one of Easton's (?) or Moots's (?) seatposts which have zero offset cradles on a bent seat post] ...

When in doubt about using a non-factory bent seatpost, find suitable diameter STEEL tubing & have someone bend it, accordingly.

• Use a SHIM, if necessary, to accommodate the frame's seat tube inner diameter.
  

OR, buy one of THOSE fore mentioned seatposts & replace the zero-offset cradle with a regular cradle (that will probably only get you 1" more, however).
OR, get a THUDBUSTER seatpost ...

and, adjust the cradle's rearward position by adjusting the parallelogram by trimming (?) the Neoprene insert OR possibly (?) by installing a solid plug ...

The seatpost I have already has 30mm of setback which is about the most for any decently priced unit on ebay. 30mm is more than the thompson seatposts I found. A fancy post would almost be the cost of a different frame anyway. There are probably some tricks to get more setback - I recall someone using a stem - but I already pushing the limits of the geometry and would like to keep the aesthetic clean. I do not plan on finding a way to get extreme setback on this bike.

Also, would too much setback stress the frame. I am no lightweight at 225 lbs.

I guess what I am wondering is if the further forward position would work for road use or is it not worth the time and money experimenting and get a proper road frame. As I said, I do ride with a similar setback on my tri bike, but I am 90% or more in the aerobars.

Is anyone riding on a mid steep setup?

I had a 74° parallel crit bike. It was good for laying the power down, coming up out of the saddle fast, tucked the rear wheel up nice and tight. Rode like a brick. I did some 100-milers on it, but it wasn't really built for that stuff and it showed. For short, fast club blasts it was a hoot.

How long you think the Sakae Ringyo MTE-100 (100 MM of going bass ackwards!) would last under you? The guy that posted the pics claimed to be 235 when he started using it.

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Looks scary to me at 165 pounds!

http://forums.bicycling.com/topic/54635607127278148

I don't think I would be using that seatpost anytime soon.

I spent some time on the trainer tonight and it feels that my legs would be pretty happy with the current setup. I actually spun pretty comfortably. The main issue is going to be my hands and arms. This setup has about 4" of drop from the seat to the handlebars. On the trainer, I feel the pressure in my hands and shoulders pretty quick. Granted, I don't have bar tape on it yet.

I probably can't risk adding anymore stack between the headset and stem. From what I hear for a carbon steerer tube, 45mm of stack is already pushing it.

Subjectively it feels fast as is and would be fun to ride as long as its comfortable.

I think my plan is to do several easy trainer sessions on the current setup to see if I can adapt to the fit. Perhaps I am just using different muscles and just have to work my way into it. In the meantime, I will keep my eyes open for a bargain frame.

There is a hiccup in my build. I orginally purchased Tiagra 4600, double, sti levers. Instead, I was shipped Tiagra 4603, triple levers.

Can the front shifter be used and perform well in a double setup? I have searched shimano's tech docs and couldn't find an answer.

If the triple shifter will not work, I will try to get replacements from the seller.

You CAN use a Shimano shifter which can accommodate a Triple with a Double crankset.

Is there a reccomended way to set this up?

Should I use the small, medium ring combo or the medium, big?

Messing with the shifter, there appears to be 5 settings, 1 setting in the small, 2 trim settings in the medium and 2 trim in the big.

Thanks

FWIW. When 'I' have set up a Double Crankset with a Triple (capable) Shimano Shifter then I have simple set it up with the extra indexing clicks coming BEYOND the outer stop ...

That is, the derailleur doesn't care that the shifter can pull more cable AFTER the stop is reached.

I was able to snag a decent deal on a lightly used Nashbar Carbon/Alloy frame. The specs indicate the geometry is more compatible with my intentions for the build. Though the bike may not be as sexy as it is now.

I have done a few light trainer sessions with the bike in its current state of partial assembly and it does feel a bit more tolerable, but the fit would be a bit too radical to make it my primary group, charity and solo century bike.

I may keep the frame and swap my cheapy tri bike (see my profile pic) components over, or sell it - I have time to figure that out.

Nashbar is Super Sexy! Nothing says, "Screw your Venge!", like blowing by the Assos/Castelli-clad posers on a $500 slapped-together no-name!

You've now got a white billboard to sport some funk. "Bye Bye" on the seat stays, just below the cluster FTMFW! Lowest winter ride temperatures documented on the back side of the seat tube!

Buy some Pinarello or obscure Eyetalian decals...profit! Yeah, the Nashbar is vanilla ice cream, but everyone that bought it seems to be impressed with the ride. The fun part of the build might be the detective work required to weasel out of Nashbar 'who' built it and for whom it was built. It's probably a name brand over-run/discontinued item and they have been appearing in Nashbar's catalogues for at least three or four years. They appear similar to one of the old, discontinued Ridley aluminum models. I forget the names, but Nashbar was also selling three discontinued Ridley's for awhile.

If you're looking for a seatpost with a bit more set back you could always get the Specialized [censored] gobbler cobl gobl-r and get a nice plush ride.

Holy [censored]! Tromso?!?!

Well not sure what that post has to do with my project, but it looks like quite a trek,

Anyway, I finally received the nashbar frame today and took a few hours to transfer all the components over.

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The frame is pretty nice, but doesn't have all the bling of the Javelin frame. The nashbar frame uses round tubes instead of aero shaped tubes, the welds are not smoothed, I needed a braze on adapter and the paint job is not as fancy, white shows everything.

Perhaps the frame is still a bit small for me, but fit-wise I am able to get everything more or less equivalent to my current setup. The stack to the stem is 30mm now instead of 40mm which should be a bit safer. After logging some miles, I may try for an even shorter stack.

Now all that is left is to route the cables and wrap the handlebars.

Quote by Maydog:
"Well not sure what that post has to do with my project..." Snow and extreme cold, Obi Wan. -6° in Ohio on this brisk January morning. How tall are you?!?! That looks to be 58-59 CM. I would think you could flip that stem with 30 MM under it. The build looks good. The fork looks right at home. The white paint looks good, but is begging for some rattle can red and black panels/stripes and a few tastefully applied decals (Pssst! I hear the Chinese sell Pinarello Dogma decals on the web, but you might wanna snag a wavy fork first.) You see my avatar? That's Matt Eaton riding the Milk Race on a very proudly decaled NASHBAR frame! Never mind that was probably a Colnago under the Youngstown, Ohio 'Nashbar' banner! [IMG]cyclingforums.com700Open ↗[/IMG]
After the Brit rider, Steve Jones, called Alexi Grewal a "sand [censored]" while the leaders climbed a steep hill Matt grabbed a full water bottle and chucked it squarely into the side of Jones' skull.

Ride your Nashbar proudly, knowing Arni Nashbar and a bunch of frozen Ohioans (Note, Matt was actually born in England IIRC) helped kick some Euro ass back in 1983!

Edit: Matt's bike was an Olmo, not a Colnago.

You might drop Nashbar an email. They probably still have some frame decals hanging around the Canfield, Ohio facility (most of their shipping now comes out of West Virginia and is handled by Performance personel).

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Photo from the Bobkestrut website.

Detail of Matt Eaton's fork blades from the Milk Race bike.