New Bike Day (Come One, Come All!)

[ReapThaWhirlwind]

Been working on this bike for about a year now. I named it—Nightmare Seeker.

I had previously attempted to convert a GT Transeo 5.0 into a road, but suffered to find a suitable rigid fork. I found this Vilano Commuter and instantly knew it would make a perfect shell for the build. Pro riders like to use smaller frames and then make up for it with a longer stem. From the start I was looking to immerse myself in the full pro experience. I even wanted to originally fit this with a 56t oval chainring, but decided I should scale first, due being on a 1x and having a limited cassette range to work with because of that. After riding, I have to say that I got about everything out of it that I expected, and a little better even. Very happy with the build. The 26c tires are incredibly responsive, and I do feel a bit of loss handling bumps over the 32c, but I think it's incredibly manageable for what's gained. This bike is a lot lighter than all of my previous bikes, so the acceleration gain is incredibly noticeable. I am totally amazed by the VP Mirage pedals. I thought they were a little awkward and bulky when used on the Transeo conversion and my Aggressor street racer, but on this bike, when you lean down into the hoods and the drops, the geometry of the pedals totally changes and takes full form. VP really went to build the ultimate road bike platform pedal. The balance, displacement, and drive force is just incredible. I was expecting to have to upgrade with a longer stem ultimately. The original stem was 100mm and it felt incredibly short on the original ride home. This one is just a little longer, and the fit to the drops is absolutely perfect. No tremendous hunching over, or contorting your core. Great activation in the legs, with some new activation I can feel that I'm not used to yet. The reach to the hoods feels a little stretched, and I am now considering going back down now to 100mm or 90mm even on the stem. I'm going to give it some more time to see how I adjust.

Specs

FSA Compact Drop Bars 44cm
Specialized Bar Phat & Cork Bar Tape
110mm Stem
Sora M3000 9 Speed
Sora M3000 GS (custom 11t / 12t ceramic pulleys)
Dura Ace 11-23
165mm Shimano 105 R7000 Crank
Stone 54T Oval Aluminum Chainring
Shimano BR-R451 Brake Calipers
Tanke Oil Slick Chain
VP Mirage Nylon Pedals
24H Ligero Alloy Rims
24 Arc RT001 Alloy Ratchet Style Sealed Bearing 11 Speed Rear Hub
24h Novatec Alloy Sealed Bearing Front Hub
Pirelli P7 Sport 26c Tyres

[Painkiller]

Nice, I like the look, no way at my age to spool that baby up.

[meamoantonio]

You were not kidding about putting waifu stickers on every bike you own on the other thread haha Nice build!

[enkei]

Nice mélange of Shimano components!

[ReapThaWhirlwind]

Thanks.

I've been enjoying this bike a lot. I have decided to go forward with shortening the stem. I've already ordered a 90mm and it should be here soon enough. Everything has been performing great. I get great stop and go in 3rd gear, even despite being very cross chain on a 1x, with a very large 54T oval chainring.

I don't really have incredible trouble riding in the drops, but some future upgrades might include an anatomic bar.

I kinda loathe that Shimano 105 R7000 11 speed is available right now for just 150 bucks. I was going to upgrade to Tiagra 10 speed for $100 USD, but why bother when for just a few more bucks you can double your upgrade. Sadly, I can't afford either upgrade right now.