Update +1000km 🚲

Here you go. This is my latest update on the Roadmeister (VeloBuild VB-R-099) for now.

Over the last months I did a variety of rides. Solo rides, group rides or rides as part of a triathlon. Rides in excellent weather ☀️, but also absolutely poor 🌧️.
A variety of short rides and long rides. Flat rides and just came back from the French Alps (click here for more info on these mountains).
I’ve transported the bike on both car-roof and rear carriers. The bike survived 💯.

As said before, I haven’t got much reference to other bikes I owned to create a really good comparison. But this is my verdict: This bike rides absolutely great and I think is absolutely real value for money. If you’re a hands on type of person this is absolutely a great project.

Nothing negative? Yes, a couple. But that’s also due to the fact that I’m sensitive to certain sounds. Especially creaking or rattling noises make me kind of aggressive.

In the beginning I had some issues with the seatpost. It cracked. It cracked so loud that fellow riders on the road almost got a heart attack. It was an embarrassing ride. Luckily the issues was solved by using some carbon paste. Since then I never heard that specific crack again.

On nice kind of asphalt roads the bike rides like a charm. No doubt about that. It’s sometimes the more bumpy brick roads where I sometimes hear the outer cables rattling (or vibrating) somewhere in the handle bar and/or headset. This is the part where I wasn’t possible to add the anti-vibration foam (see cable routing info here) simply because there is no room to fit them in. I still haven’t found a solution for this, so if anyone has an idea please let me know in the comments. I would really appreciate that.

During my last rides in the French Alps I heard some little cracking sounds from the headset spacers. Only when climbing the mountains at a low speed. Maybe they need a bit of grease. I’m aware this is not a bike for climbing mountains. I didn’t try to solve this issue yet.

The color. I love the matte greyish color. The only downside is that it is difficult to remove grease dirt from it. I think this is more easy with glossy. Next time I would only choose matte black or choose a fancy glossy color.

I replaced the carbon bottle cages which I bought from Velobuild. They are absolutely nice but sharp and therefore damaging the bottles.

The wheels are absolutely fine too. Nothing negative about that. The noise from the rear hub (when you stop paddling) could do with less decibels. On the other hand, you’ll be heard when someone stands (or rides) in the way.

For the rest, nothing to complaint about. I would definitely recommend building you’re own bike and can absolutely recommend a frame from VeloBuild.

The pictures below are from my latest ride in the French Alps where I did the Triathlon de la Madeleine (see more info here). Although I was a bit insecure about whether I was able to fully climb the two mountains (total climb 2200m), the bike felt absolutely great all the time which is a big compliment for an aero bike. Of course I had to change the groupset for this. I replaced the Dura Ace derailleur for an Ultegra with long cage. A new chain and an 11/34.

I’m now considering building a 29’er MTB for off-road activities.
Any questions, please let me know.