carpediemracing 

Sorry for hijacking the thread. For me I did the fitting. I'd been racing since 1983, worked in a bike shop for 15 years, fitted some top level riders (including some time trial fits of a nationally ranked rider as well as a Masters rider that won a big stage race due partially to his TT and finally a several-year pro in Europe) so I have an idea of fit. At that time I could never afford a custom frame because they were only top of the line frames or they were steel (and one of my requirements is that the frame be ungodly rigid - I climbed off of a steel framed bike once thinking the bottom bracket was cracked but it flexed only because it was flexible).

First frame thoughts
Second frame thoughts.

Tubing - Since I have no clue on aluminum tubing specifics I just said I want a frame that rides like a SystemSix in rigidity, comfort, and front end stiffness. Gave Joseph a blank slate, whatever tubing he used would be fine. Second frame had some specific requests, hoping that the requests wouldn't compromise the ride too much. He assured me that it wouldn't and it didn't.

save10

750? including paint and everything?

fa63

The fit was achieved through a combination of my personal experiences and preferences and recommendations made by Randy over at Oliver's Cycles in Tampa. The tubing was chosen by Joe (the builder) based on what I wanted from this frame.

Your bike is looking good

fa63

Yes.

carpediemracing 

When I first called Tsunami Bikes I thought the price listed on their front page was just for a "stock" frame. What I didn't realize is that they don't have a stock frame - they just build whatever you order. Custom geometry (even if you say "I want the same geometry as my TCR" it's custom to them), whatever tubing, paint (he told me at some point 1 or 2 colors, and he's partial to pearl paint), and shipping.

Add $50 for BB30. Add a tip if you want. I told him to raise his prices after I got my first frame. My second frame was a bit more expensive

tagaproject6

Those frames are gorgeous!

fa63

I think it is such a great deal that I am already thinking about a second frame myself; one that can take fenders and some fat tires to use as a commuter...

But I will have to wait until I put some miles on this to make sure the frame rides as good as it looks before pulling the trigger on another one.

nostromo

Hi, how did you make out with the wheels and bike? I believe I'm in contact with the same wheelbuilder, we're going over various wheelsets I could get.

fa63

We decided on a build with the following:

Ambrosio Nemesis rims
DA 7801 hubs
Silver Sapim Race spokes
Silver brass nipples

I bought the rims and the hubs, and had them shipped directly to the builder. The hubs will get there on Monday, and after that he expects it will take him about ten days to build them and ship back to me.

Nachoman

This should be an awesome bike.

fa63

The frame came in the other day and it looks really good. Unfortunately, I am terrible photographer and I was using my cell phone to take the pictures so I am sure these won't do it justice:









While it looks very good, it is a bit on the portly side: the frame, derailleur hanger, and the CK headset cups registered 1,660g on my scale.




This is a bit more than I expected. To the builder's credit though, I did not mention weight as one of my priorities so I won't complain too much. However, it is making me question whether I want to put any light parts on this frame, especialy because pretty much most of the parts actually came in heavier than expected. So I am now starting to lean towards building this up with SRAM Rival, and putting the SRAM Red and other lighter parts on my one of my other frames. What do you guys think?

I also got this fork from Tsunami (he has great prices, by the way):

Ritchey WCS UD fork (uncut):

fa63

Started the build tonight, here is a quick progress picture (with my Campy Zonda wheels):



I will stop by the LBS tomorrow to get the crown race installed, and I am hoping to be able to finish the build sometime tomorrow evening.

carpediemracing 

Nice. Kinda funny, my first pictures of the second Tsunami frame were all on couches, then floor (no outside area where I could take pictures that night), all with a cell phone. The pearl paint usually looks dull/dirty with my cell phone.

As far as weight goes, a truly custom frame will be so much better fitting that parts are secondary. My bike, which is considerably off the standard bell curve (same top tube as yours but a much shorter seat tube), is so good fit-wise that I could run Tiagra on it and it would be great (as long as I had good wheels, my bars, my stem, my pedals, my cranks... okay so not that much different). Your frame looks like it was made very tall, with a tall head tube. I have feeling that when you ride it it'll seem just a lot "better", i.e. it fits better, everything (bars/stem/saddle/pedals) is where it should be. I could get on a lighter bike but if it doesn't fit it doesn't fit. I did a few miles on a 10-ish pound bike, 55.5 tt, 51 st, but the bars were weird, and the bike, although light, didn't allow me to feel settled in.

As far as weight goes, if you really want a light bike, put the parts on a light frame. But for an optimized bike, you'll enjoy the fit of the custom, and hanging good functional parts on it will complete this. I have just regular stuff, nothing light (except the BB30 cranks, but that came on my Cannondale). The bike is fun. The original non-aero styled Tsunami was about 1440g, the new aero-style one is 1680?g, something like that.

fa63

cdr- Thanks for the comments. You are right about the frame being tall; I wanted to do away with spacers as much as I could on this build. Also, I have thought about it a bit further and decided to hang the SRAM Red bits on this frame anyways. I had a WW moment for a second, but at my weight (or any weight, for that matter), a few hundred grams saved won't make me any faster.

Fork is installed; here are a couple quick pictures in the sun:



The shiny crankset:



Please ignore the position of the shifters for the time being. Also, the spacers and the seatpost collar are temporary; I will switch them out for silver ones when the parts arrive. Actually, I will probably take out the spacers altogether; based on my calculations I should be fine with no spacers but I left a 10mm spacer under the stem for now just to be safe.

In the meanwhile, I plan to complete the build tonight so I can try it out on Wednesday morning's ride.

fa63

The build is 95% complete; all left to do is fine-tune the front shifting a bit more, and put on bartape and bottle cages. I will probably fine-tune the position of the shifters after a few rides as well. Anyways, here are some initial pictures:

save10

that is sick. i want pics of the Ambrosios

fa63

The Ambrosios are not in yet; I am guessing probably another week or so until they come in. That is fine though; gives me time to fine-tune the details on the this build. But I will glue those suckers up as soon as they come in and of course share it with BF before anything else.

eippo1

Looks like an awesome build. And 17.5 is by no means heavy. It could be lighter, but a pound or two isn't really gonna matter. I have a "heavy" build on my Tarmac of just shy of 17, but don't feel any need to change anything out for weight. I did just put on a Red crank, but that was more for aesthetic reasons

VA_Esquire

Can anyone tell me the appeal of these frames? 2 guys around here have them and everyone drools over them.....

I would think more people would prefer the CAAD10 for a crit bike, but idk...im a cat6

fa63

I am sure CAAD10 is a great frame, but it only comes in stock sizes. This is a custom geometry frame that costs about the same (or even sligthly less) than a CAAD10. So if the stock sizes fit, I think it is hard to go wrong with the Cannondale for aluminum. But for folks like me that could use a custom geometry frame to get a better fit, it is hard to beat Tsunami.

carpediemracing 

Remember Fit > Material. Or, in more broad terms, you can have a great light bike but if it doesn't fit it ain't worth much. I wear a size 41 shoe. Someone offered me really expensive size 45 shoe. What would I do with a size 45 shoe? Nothing. (To be frank he meant for me to resell it and keep the money).

I'd love to have a CAAD10 that fits. Or CAAD8 that fits. Or any other regular off-the-shelf bike that fits. My specs on my first Tsunami included sizing plus the phrase "I want it to ride like my SystemSix", in cornering, stiffness, and comfort.

To find (for me) a 40 cm frame with a 56.5 cm top tube, 9.5 cm head tube, 75.5 deg seat tube, 39 cm chainstays... you find me a $800 frame with geometry like that and I'll buy a couple of them. I found them with Tsunami Bikes and bought them.

Waves77

How are you liking that Reynolds fork?

dstrong 

It's a Ritchey fork I believe (unless Reynolds makes forks for Ritchey). I use the same fork on my ParkPre. It works well for me.

sbxx1985 

I had to google ParkPre. Just read about Cozy. Photo of the bike?

Reynolds stopped making forks a couple years ago. I still use the Ouzo Pro on both my bikes.

fa63

It is a Ritchey fork indeed. I haven't ridden the bike yet, so I can't comment on the fork.