I made a thread when I first snagged this off of eBay, but I wanted to make another one dedicated to the build process. You know, just for fun.

The frame ended up costing me $650 after I sold the parts it came with. It is brand new and was never fully assembled. Some people get lucky and find used CAADs for like $200, but I wanted this one very badly because #1 it was new and #2 it has a standard English threaded BB and not a stupid BB30. Considering my other frameset cost me 4x as much, this is still a bargain in my eyes. I plan on racing this next season.

All the parts in this picture are what I have so far. I'm looking for another 120mm stem to replace the 110mm ARX Pro in the picture. Still not sure what kind of stem and seatpost to go with though. I have 53/39t Stronglight CT2 chainrings, LOOK Keo Blade 12Nm CroMo pedals, and a new Cane Creek low-pro headset on the way. Pedals are coming in tomorrow and the rest should be in by the end of the week.

I will be pre-ordering a set of November carbon tubulars in the next week or two. Going with a 58mm rear and a 50mm front with the Novatec hubs and black CX-Ray spokes. Those will set me back $805.

As for which component group to go with, I'm still deciding but leaning towards Ultegra Di2. I'm going to wait until the initial demand dies down so I can get it for less $ on eBay.

I will take more pics as the build progresses over the winter.

I bet you finish your build first. I got a used Six-13 last winter and have installed the front derailleur so far. Prolly shoulda got a CAAD9 instead .

What's the difference between the Ultra fork and the Premium fork? My CAAD9 came with the Ultra, is it just heavier?

I'm not really sure. Mine is actually the Slice Premium "Plus" (note the little red + sign), which is lighter than the Premium. FYI, Premium is 440 grams uncut and the Premium + is 344 grams uncut. I don't know anything about the Slice "Ultra" forks. The Slice Si is the one that everybody wants because they were made by Time and they are the lightest. Somewhere in the 320-340 gram range I believe.

Thanks! I payed $850 for my complete CAAD9-6 so I don't think it's the light version.

EDIT: The Ultra weighs 50g more than the premium. I thought it would be more than that.

Why do you say that? Start building it up already!

Looks good. Those ROTOR cranks are nice (but I'm pretty sure you already knew that), and I'm sure you'll like the Novembers (I have the 38 clinchers). Want a 3T Dorico seatpost for the build?

This is gonna be nice. Anticipating the finished build.

+1

Really like the frame colour, this should make a really sweet build. Plus it's a CAAD. I'm gonna trawl the Bay later.

The rings came in today so I put them on the crank. I must say, this crankset is easily the nicest single piece of bike schwag I've ever spent my money on. The machine work is incredible and it just looks plain snazzy! I wish I had a scale to see how much it weighs with the chainrings, but it feels just as light if not lighter than my SRAM Red compact crank. It's a very impressive piece for sure.

Btw, I didn't secure the chainring bolts down to their 7-8 Nm spec because I ran into a little problem. The rear of the chainring bolts appear to use some kind of Torx wrench to hold them in place while the front is torqued with a standard 5mm Allen. I used a "T40" sized Torx (close in size to a 6mm Allen and the largest size I have), but it seemed like a loose fit. I didn't want to risk stripping out the back of the chainring bolts so they are only thumb-tight right now. A 6mm Allen/hex seemed to fit too, but it also seemed a bit loose. Anyone know what I'm supposed to use to keep these stupid things from spinning while I torque them down?

Nice CAAD and parts; especially the CT2 rings... top shelf stuff.

So what is the plan for your cockpit? Any workup of the total build and estimated weight?

Oh, the larger torx could be a T50 or T55....

Thanks! Cockpit will consist of the Pro Vibe carbon bars seen in the first picture and probably a Pro Vibe 120mm/10 degree stem. Still thinking about what seatpost to go with..thinking about a Thomson set-back post.

When you say "workup" I'm assuming you mean price. Everything seen so far has set me back around $1400. Add $805 for the November 58/50mm tubulars I just ordered (upgraded to black cx-ray spokes) and $1300-1400 (what I hope to pay off eBay) for Ultegra Di2 components this Spring...well you get the idea.

I have no idea how much this thing will weigh when it's done. My goal here is to build a top-notch race bike with quality components where no single part costs more than a few hundred bucks in the event that I crash it and have to replace it. In other words, still an expensive race bike but built with a reasonably priced frame and wheels to protect myself financially if/when I do crash.

Sweet. I am in the middle of a Six13 build myself for a race bike. Its going slow but buying off local CL and Ebay take time and I am trying to not buy anything brand new. I am hoping to complete the build in under $1500 (without wheelset) and be in the range of 15 to 15 1/4 lbs.

What I meant by "workup" was an estimate of cost and component weight; I copied someone's post about their build and made a quick spreadsheet to keep track of costs and figure out the weight. Its pretty cool to have on hand as you decide on your parts and doubles as a good document to have for insurance purposes.

Looking forward to your build!

More specs on your crankset? How much were the Rotors and chain rings? And why did you choose those rings over the red/force rings?

Thanks,
Tina

Would you mind sharing that spreadsheet with me? Sounds very useful to have! I can pm you my email address if you wouldn't mind.

I'd be interested to see what your Six13 build consists of. How much $ do you have left before you hit your $1500 budget? Depending on how much you paid for the frameset I'm sure it's possible to build a nice race-worthy bike with $1500. IMHO your best bet for keeping things reasonably priced but still high performance is going to be SRAM Rival. You can get the entire group brand new on eBay for $700. That's what I would have gone with if I was on a tighter budget.

I paid $360 for the crank itself, $55 for the Rotor BB1 bottom bracket, and just shy of $100 for both the Stronglight chainrings. It was all new. These were the best prices I could find on this stuff. The crank and BB were purchased from www.twohubs.com and the chainrings were from xxcycle.com in France.

I chose the rings because I've heard good things about them and I wanted black rings. I have Red rings on my other bike with a SRAM/Quarq power meter and I just wanted something different for this bike. I don't plan on using any SRAM components for this build.

those cranks are ass ugly, but im sure im in the minority on that one. quality is solid no doubt.

Those cranks look amazing! Can't wait for the rest of the build!

Are you building the bike for racing next year? Or just for fun?

Great crankset choice and to a great looking build.

I've got the same cranks with Sram Red-Black rings; the only regret I have with these was not buying the 3D+ cranks which has the 30mm spindle.

The Ultra Fork is a boat anchor. It comes with an aluminum steerer. Its about 550 grams. I replaced it with a 3T when I had my Six13.

Only a couple hundred grams, I don't really care that much about weight.

cycling...your bike is going to be bang on when complete...

IMO...the Rotor cranks are a legit substitute for the Hollowgram crank. I replaced my SRAM Red cranks with the Rotor...no regrets. You plan on running the Q rings later on?

For racing, but fun comes with the territory.

No Q rings for me.

More of the goods. I recently read somewhere that people were not happy with their Keo Blades because the spindle has some play. Mine do too. I immediately checked my Keo 2 Max pedals on my other bike and sure enough they have the same play. I'm not upset though because I figure LOOK knows how to make a pedal by now, being that they invented the clipless pedal and all. It's a little annoying just knowing the play exists, but I highly doubt it affects performance in any way. But just to be on the safe side before I unwrap the cleats, does anyone have a pair of Keo 2 Max or Keo Blades that DON'T have any play?

By the way, I'm pretty sure my Blades came with TWO sets of cleats! Like I said, I haven't taken the cleats out of the plastic wrap to confirm, but I think there is a set of grippy cleats inside those black cover things. I can see gray plastic in there so I'm almost positive those are the grippy cleats. There was also a set of non-grippy cleats in the box. Did I just get lucky or are they shipping these things with two sets of cleats now? If so, that's very cool and makes these pedals a great value IMO.

Does anyone know if the cleats are the same cleats used by the Keo 2 Max pedals?