First off, sorry about the crappy pic, but the room was dim and my phone was all I had, but here it is.
The story behind it is I was always an avid Mtn. Biker, but after riding my friends Litespeed several years ago, I had always wanted one. Moving from Austin to South Florida, I felt like the trails here were not that much fun, so I decided to ditch the Mtn. bike and build a road bike. My funds were very limited, so I stayed under 1500 for the entire build using ebay and waiting a couple months for good deals to come along. My patience wore thin over the couple months, but I feel like for what I ended up with, I made wise choices and have a much better bike than 1500 would have got me at a lbs. My buddy with the Litespeed always told me roadbikes were more about components than anything else so I tried to get the best I could, for what I had.
I'm short, so I found the frame on ebay and started there,
2003 Litespeed Saber 49cm, (I know it's technically a TT bike, but it fits very well and I like the geometry)
2003 or 2004 Zipp 650c tubulars (had in interesting first experience changing a tire and cleaning old glue off)
2010 Sram Force gruppo, 11-23 cassette, 53-39 crank, 170mm arms (I lucked out and found these nearly half price from the new stuff on ebay, the guy said they only had 150 miles on the entire group, the mechanic at the bike shop agreed that these were barely used at all)
At this point I had the weight weenie bug and decided to build it as light as I could, so I found some zipp carbon bars, carbon seat post, exustar carbon/ Ti pedals and a fizik arione full carbon seat, well besides the padding.
I really didn't know what size stem to get, so I found the cheapest I could to use for now as a base measurement, I am thinking on going about 10cm shorter, so I am glad I didn't drop the money on a carbon stem yet. I have about an inch to play with under the stem to drop the bars if needed, but for now I like the way it rides, probably after more mileage I can see myself dropping the bars on down.
I had my Lbs put it all together and throw on a cheapo cateye strada double wireless computer so I could support them somewhat and voila we hung it up on the scale and ended up with 15.7lbs with pedals and computer.
My farthest ride on it so far is only 33 miles, but hopefully that will improve and I will soon be able to go out with the groups and ride the long weekend rides. I don't think it's the distance they go, but they travel at a higher speed than what I am used to. I've been searching around for a beginner group ride, but having no luck so far. Once I move over the weekend, I will have a better way to ride to work, so I am excited to get some mileage in before work!
The story behind it is I was always an avid Mtn. Biker, but after riding my friends Litespeed several years ago, I had always wanted one. Moving from Austin to South Florida, I felt like the trails here were not that much fun, so I decided to ditch the Mtn. bike and build a road bike. My funds were very limited, so I stayed under 1500 for the entire build using ebay and waiting a couple months for good deals to come along. My patience wore thin over the couple months, but I feel like for what I ended up with, I made wise choices and have a much better bike than 1500 would have got me at a lbs. My buddy with the Litespeed always told me roadbikes were more about components than anything else so I tried to get the best I could, for what I had.
I'm short, so I found the frame on ebay and started there,
2003 Litespeed Saber 49cm, (I know it's technically a TT bike, but it fits very well and I like the geometry)
2003 or 2004 Zipp 650c tubulars (had in interesting first experience changing a tire and cleaning old glue off)
2010 Sram Force gruppo, 11-23 cassette, 53-39 crank, 170mm arms (I lucked out and found these nearly half price from the new stuff on ebay, the guy said they only had 150 miles on the entire group, the mechanic at the bike shop agreed that these were barely used at all)
At this point I had the weight weenie bug and decided to build it as light as I could, so I found some zipp carbon bars, carbon seat post, exustar carbon/ Ti pedals and a fizik arione full carbon seat, well besides the padding.
I really didn't know what size stem to get, so I found the cheapest I could to use for now as a base measurement, I am thinking on going about 10cm shorter, so I am glad I didn't drop the money on a carbon stem yet. I have about an inch to play with under the stem to drop the bars if needed, but for now I like the way it rides, probably after more mileage I can see myself dropping the bars on down.
I had my Lbs put it all together and throw on a cheapo cateye strada double wireless computer so I could support them somewhat and voila we hung it up on the scale and ended up with 15.7lbs with pedals and computer.