Syncmaster

Hey everyone. First time posting in the Road Cycling forum, I used to post mostly in the Singlespeed/Fixed gear forum a while back. So I guess this is my formal introduction here. Hello! I've been on the hunt for a while now for a road bike to upgrade from my beat up track bike that I've put tons of miles on. I'm now in a place where the terrain isn't entirely flat so I've been longing for gears for a while. I had an old Trek 420 road bike a while back but it was quite heavy and I enjoyed riding my track bike more.

Anyway, after searching for a used higher end road bike for months and not finding something with the components I wanted for the price I had in mind, I came across the Nashbar AL integrated frame with Carbon seat/chain stays for only $150, and my imagination started wandering. I searched a bit for the frame online to read reviews and everything seemed positive. Also found a thread on another forum of a high quality build someone did and it really got me thinking about what I could do with the frame. Here's his thread if you're interested:
https://forums.roadbikereview.com/bik...ld-255940.html

Then the real epiphany happened when I stumbled upon the blemished/damaged complete bike section of Bikeisland.com.... and they had this complete Motobecane Immortal Force with Ultegra components, plenty of carbon and Mavic wheelset at a big $500 discount due to the carbon frame having cracks and no warranty. They still have one in white if anyone thinks they could do the same as I did:
BikeIsland.com

Just needed to buy the Nashbar frame and swap over the components. Everything fit perfectly and I just got the bike back from my LBS today after they finished installing what I didn't have the capacity to do myself.

I now plan to sell the damaged Motobecane carbon frame on ebay and see how much I can get back for it which will lower the cost of this build even more.

I haven't been able to ride it yet because of the weather today but I'll give a full ride report when I have.

All in all I'm very excited about the bike. It's basically my first real road bike and I think it'll be a blast to put some miles on.

I haven't weighed the complete bike yet but it's very, very light. Definitely well under 20lb even with the relatively heavy Mavic Aksium wheelset.

Here are some first pics of the bike in my tiny apartment. When the weather clears up I'll shoot some more outside and add them here.

Only concern I have is after looking at the photo of the crankset, I noticed the teeth on the FSA chainring are slightly uneven. It's hard to tell in the stock photos of the crankset online if this is the case with all their rings on the SLK Light crank, but I'm wondering if this crankset had been used before?.... thoughts?

rjones28 

Looks pretty sweet. Enjoy.

Juan Foote

Don't worry, the "uneven" teeth on the big ring are to facilitate the chain hopping up to it when you change gears.

Nice looking build, how much do you have in total?

Syncmaster

Thanks so much for addressing this. I wasn't entirely sure what I was looking at.... Good to know it's okay.

And thanks for the kind words as well. So far the cost of the complete bike and the frame together was $1145. I paid the LBS to do some of the installs when swapping over parts but that's it. I plan to sell the Carbon Motobecane frame on either ebay or craigslist asap to get some more money back on the total build cost so it will go down once it's sold. Anyone want a 62cm carbon frame?.....

Syncmaster

Forgot to add that I got the 50cm frame after not knowing whether or not the 50 or the 52 was right for me. I ordered both and realized the 52cm was too long in the ST. The 50cm actually has very very close geometry to my old kilo tt track bike that fit me nicely.

RT

That bike is solid. Makes me want to pick up a frame and do the same.

Syncmaster

Go for it! Bike Island still has one more of the Motobecane Carbon bikes I used as a donor bike for this build on sale at the same big discount. Someone should snatch it up.

RT

Two kids in college, Ramen stocked in the pantry. I will have to live vicariously through BF for a while :-\

Syncmaster

I've been there, man. I finished school a year ago and just started working full time. This was the first thing I did with my paychecks..... ha!

Hunt-man

Cracked carbon frames are not worth much if anything. Good price for a parts bike though. Post some pics of the cracked frame. If the crack is in anything other than the clear coat it is done and needs to be replaced. So no resale value. Sorry....

Hunt-man

Good link for a parts bike. I just grabbed a parts bike from them too. I got in on the Pedal Force CX2 group buy. BikeIsland had a 56cm Le Champ for 1K with a broken down tube, all 6700 with the SLK crank and all the parts were sized so I can use them.

M_S

Sometimes people like to use them to play around with and practice their carbon repair skills, or salvage some tubes, or just use it as wall art. I'm sure there's someone who will pay 50 bucks + shipping for a slightly cracked frame, maybe more.

Nice build.

Hunt-man

Interesting, wall art.... Maybe I'll do that with my frame. I also threw my hat in the Pedalforce DI2 Upgrade kit group buy. I'll have some extra parts if the DI2 group buy goes through....

Jaytron

Pretty sweet. What size Kilo did you ride? I ordered a Nashbar frame myself, since I had leftover parts from my totaled Scott. I went with the 52.

Syncmaster

Thanks. I ride the 50cm Kilo tt. But their frames are measured c-c so it's more like a 53cm. The next size up kilo frame was too big for me. The geo of the kilo to the nashbar is pretty similar.

Hopefully I'll be able to get something for the carbon frame. I"ll be sure to make it clear it's damaged and needs to be repaired before it's ridden. Don't want any legal issues from it.

The crack is very small at the top of the ST and there is some scratching on one of the chain stays. I"ll post pics tonight. Doesn't seem to bad but you never know with carbon.... The mechanic at the LBS said that if he had the frame and it was in his size, he'd take an extra long seat post and stick it in there, set it to his height and then epoxy the post in there permanently to add rigidity to the ST.... not sure how much i'd trust that. Another guy said there were some reputable places in CA that do good carbon frame repair.

Thanks for all the comments, everyone.

Jaytron

Cool, I also ride a 50cm Kilo. It feels a little small, but I felt that the 53 may have ended up being too big. Hopefully the 52 Nashbar works out.

I've heard of some places that repair carbon around here, but I've never looked into it.

Weigh your bike and let us know what you're at!

Syncmaster

Just got back from my first ride with it. Only got to do a quick lap around the park before sunset, but by quick, I mean QUICK! This thing is a speed demon. Wow. Honestly, it's fantastic. I haven't ridden many high end road bikes, but this is what I expect them to feel like. The Shimano Ultegra components shift beautifully, and so flawlessly. I was amazed at how fast they work.

But we all know Ultegra should be top notch. What makes this bike unique is the frame. For $150 I'm absolutely thrilled with how it performs. The complete bike with the frame is super light weight which I realized again and again when I went to accelerate. It takes off like a rocket and feels very very nimble under power. Didn't feel any flexing when pushing it hard. Not skatey or unstable either. When going down hill It held it's line well and I felt very confident in the bike at speed. The size I got I feel is spot on. I think the 52cm would have been too big for me and I'm very glad I ended up getting the 50cm. Nashbar's frame sizing is weird. Their 50cm frame has a ST length of 54.5cm. I went what was closest to my current frame size and I'm glad I did.

The carbon fork, seat post, seat stays and chainstays definitely help to dampen the bumps in the road and it was quite comfortable once I figured out my saddle position.

Overall I'm blown away by the bike and so stoked on riding it. I'm going out again before work tomorrow morning before the park's open to cars :-)

Highly recommend the frame! At $150 it's a total bargain. And not to worry, at the same time, I was still able to give my LBS business in this whole process ;-)

Thanks everyone for the comments. I'll keep updating this thread with more pics soon.

kabex

I think what you did was great but if you had spent 100-500 more you could have gotten a kick ass Titanium bike that would ride so much better than that cheapo mixed material AL bike that'll probably fail at the carbon seatstay joint in little time.

If you don't mind SRAM the $1600 Ti Rival is a 2x better deal than that. The Titanium frame will ALWAYS be worth a considerable amount of money ($600-700 no matter how old) while the carbon & AL frames you have aren't worth anything.

Jaytron

I was more worried about the reach for me. Their TT's seem to be super short (but yes similar to the Kilo's compact Geo). My Kilo feels a bit short for me, so I think I made the right choice

I went with the full AL frame myself, and I have a bunch of leftover Tiagra components I'll be throwing on.

I'm glad your bike turned out so well! I've heard nothing but good things about Nashbar's budget frames. Bikeisland might be the cheap way to get a good groupset too. $1100 for an Ultegra bike is pretty nuts, especially if it's all brand new!

Of course, I'm going to keep bugging you about the weight because I'm very curious

kabex

This also:
https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...mp_slti_xi.htm
full ultegra(unlike your bike)
ksyrium wheelset (much more expensive)
~$850 titanium frame (compared to $50)

$1999 (you spent $1650+)

Jaytron

How do you figure 1650? Comes out to about 1150ish for me. Maybe you forgot the $500 discount off the donor bike?

Syncmaster

Yeah that bike is nice, but when did I ever say I spent $1650+?.....

In total I've spent $1145 on this bike, and It will be less once I sell the carbon frame (not sure how much less... but it will still be less).

I think the components I got were pretty high quality (minus the wheelset maybe), and the frame was such low cost that I don't ever think I'd see myself trying to re-sell it. I'd just buy a nicer frame if I wanted something different/better, so I think my choice was right for what I needed. I can always upgrade later on with a nicer frame if I see the need.

So for around $1000 I think I got a pretty good deal on what I bought.

Syncmaster

Good luck with your build! Yeah the bikeisland route was a good way to get the components I needed I think. I'm super happy with what I got so far. Will keep updating this thread as I learn more about the bike.

And I'm quite curious about the full weight as well so when I figure it out, I'll post it here! All i know so far is that it's much lighter than my kilo ;-)

Jaytron

Kilos are heavy My buddy's Windsor is way lighter. I wonder why they're so damn heavy.

kabex

Oh, my bad. I thought you paid 1500 for it instead of 1000.

Not a bad deal then, but I stand by my suggestion. The titanium frame is a $1000 value, and the complete package is $1600.

Full rival group compared to franken ultegra, also, as we've said the carbon frame is worthless.

You'd have spent $1600 but you'd end up with a way nicer bike. $450 more is not THAT much.