Cyclocross - New bike - Flyte Cyclocross

I finally got pics! Here's the bike I just bought. The frame is Flyte, carbon Flyte fork, 10-speed Campagnolo Centaur group, FSA big chainring (46), Campagnolo Scirocco wheels, Maxxis Overdrive tires for the commuter/trainer mode, Hutchinson cyclocross tires for the other mode. It's feels light, responsive to pedal input yet smooth and comfortable.

My question to you... can the wheels take off road punishment?

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/misterpolak/Bikes/Flyte/Flyte1.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/misterpolak/Bikes/Flyte/Flyte2.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/misterpolak/Bikes/Flyte/Flyte3.jpg

damn, that thing looks fun! enjoy.

Your bike looks nice but your front derailleur is mounted too high! It should not be between the water bottle bosses, but below them. If it was set up by a shop you should take it back and have them set it up correctly.

vjp

Your bike looks nice but your front derailleur is mounted too high! It should not be between the water bottle bosses, but below them. If it was set up by a shop you should take it back and have them set it up correctly.

vjp

It does work, though. The lower bottle boss is in the way and if I move it below it will be too low. I think I should go with a different Campy derailleur, but which one would work?

That's a pretty bad design mess up.

That's a pretty bad design mess up.

Other Flyte frames do not seem to be suffering from this as the bosses are higher on the frame.

The wheels can definitely take off road but I would look into getting a derailleur that fits if they make different types, I don't know. Typically you want to have the derailleur about 2mm tops above the teeth on the large ring. yours looks as though it's about 10mm. You may easily loose your chain on bumpy ground. I'd say give it a try and if it works then great but if you find you are dropping your chain then you will need a new set up.

It looks a lot like my Airborne that I run a single 43T on. I'll have to check and see where my water bottle braze ons are. I can see why they lowered them for a compact frame but really that is a design flaw that I hope they will fix. It probably would work just right for a 52/53T ring but who uses that for cyclocross?

Thanks for the advice! I'll try it out and see what happens.

It does work, though. The lower bottle boss is in the way and if I move it below it will be too low. I think I should go with a different Campy derailleur, but which one would work?


Actually, I've worked with and ridden several different bikes in the past which exhibited the same thing: FD clamp band secured to the seat tube between the bottle bosses. It's an outcome of the compact geometry and to provide sufficient shoulder clearance when slogging it -- this is a cross bike frame.

There are a few cage designs that will clear the clamp band, but a sure fire solution is to simply use small but thick washers, coupled with longer cage screws, to provide cage clearance. All you probably need is a few mm.

As an aside, however, I'm familiar with the Flyte frames. IIRC, they recommend less than 46T large chainring. I presume it's to avoid having to find a solution for cage clearance. IT's strange that your clamp band still goes above the cage boss... Is it the 50cm or 54cm frame?

Sweet bike, BTW. Was thinking of building up an XLS-3 as a commuter/all-rounder. How was your experience dealing withe Jamie and the rest of the Flyte gang?

The wheels can definitely take off road but I would look into getting a derailleur that fits if they make different types, I don't know. Typically you want to have the derailleur about 2mm tops above the teeth on the large ring. yours looks as though it's about 10mm. You may easily loose your chain on bumpy ground. I'd say give it a try and if it works then great but if you find you are dropping your chain then you will need a new set up.



Didn't catch this comment earlier -- concur. FD does look a bit on the high side.

I wonder if a braze-on adapter and a braze- on Campy FD would allow me to position the derailleur correctly. Any thoughts?

^^ not sure but I think for the most part the adapter mimics the band anyway so it may not work. I checked my Airborne (which fwiw is what Flyte came out of) frame last night and the derailleur does indeed go between the two bottle bolts but it still fits properly. I am running a 43 ring with the derailleur on just as a chain guard but it definitely is set up to fit a whole range of chain rings. My frame is a 58.5cm Top tube so it’s pretty big frame.

I thought it was odd on my Airborne and I see it on your Flyte too that they but bottle bolts on the underside of the down tube like on a touring bike. I guess the idea is that you can use the bike as a multipurpose bike which is cool but in cross you don't need any bottle bolts at all. If you remove those bolts is there a little bump there or is it smooth such that you can just mount the the derailleur over the bolt hole? And if you did want to have a bottle you can get clamp on bottle thingies.

Sweet bike, BTW. Was thinking of building up an XLS-3 as a commuter/all-rounder. How was your experience dealing withe Jamie and the rest of the Flyte gang?

The frame is a 50. I bought the bike from a gentleman who assembled it with intentions of racing cyclocross, but subsequently changed his mind, so I haven't dealt with the manufacturer at all. I would have bought a 54, but with the setback seat post this works quite well.

Typical of Airborne/Flyte frames. The guy that does their frame design isn't smart enough to think of this stuff before he sends the plans to the factory. Of course that guy is also the owner, so that kinda should tell you something.

I've put a few miles on the bike since I've bought and I LOVE IT! My Cannondale used to beat me up but this thing is smooth and it just flies! I haven't taken it off road yet, but I will soon.

Typical of Airborne/Flyte frames. The guy that does their frame design isn't smart enough to think of this stuff before he sends the plans to the factory. Of course that guy is also the owner, so that kinda should tell you something.

The dérailleur issue only applies to this size frame. As I mentioned before the bike came with an XTR derailleur, but I changed it back to the Campy so I could fit 38-sized tires on it.

Nice looking bike! I've had my eye on this frame for several months now but right now you don't seem to be able to order the fork with the frame, for some reason. Maybe they ran out, or had some problem with it - I don't know. You can still order the complete bike, but not frame+fork only. In the meantime I'm buying a carbon cross fork with disc mountings to fit to my commuter hybrid (Sigh)

I installed a Campy Record triple front derailleur and the shifting is great!

I took the bike out for a ride in some serious hills and discovered that the 34-tooth small ring with the 25-tooth rear cassette does not give me low enough gear to tackle the big stuff. ARGH!

I'm thinking about swapping the campy gear for shimano and going with disc brakes and a touring triple (48-38-28) crankset.

That's a pretty bad design mess up.

as good a reason as any to go single ring up front:beer: