Monthly Archives: August 2025

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155mm XMCS carbon crankset came in the mail.

Not so light 1 by narrow wide 52T chainring (chainring bolts were 6g).

All assembled.

Assembled weight.

Almost UCI Illegal.

I got my XMCS crankset today, with carbon spider and 52T 1 by narrow/wide chainring.

I’m running on Dura-Ace on the S5, so using a waxed Dura-Ace 12-Speed chain, and the Shimano quick link is “sticking” to the chainring causing the chain to stick on some but not all rotations.

I had to bail out of my test ride, but on the stand I can see the quick link is too narrow for the narrow/wide chainring teeth (it doesn’t engage completely thus causing the chain to lift off the chainring).

I did some googling and found that Stone narrow/wide chainrings state: You have to replace the 12s shimano original quick link to other brand 12s quick link like KMC YBN SUMC any brand. as the Shimano 12s quick link is too narrow.

It’s after hours now but I thought I’d raid my parts bin and run a few experiments:
– ZTTO 12-Speed chain quick link, same problem.
– ZTTO 12-Speed chain + ZTTO quick link, same problem.
– SRAM Red E1 chain quick link, no go (stiff links).
– 10-Speed KMC quick link, perfectly smooth (but the link is loose/felt too easy to install).
– 11-Speed KMC quick link, perfecty smooth, and again, felt a little too easy to install.

I’ll try to track down a KMC 12-Speed and/or YBN 12-Speed quick link tomorrow when the shops are open.

Every gram counts.

I was a weight weenie with my car builds, and naturally I’m a weight weenie with my bike builds too.

In all seriousness though, weight-weenie-ism and the relentless obsession to shave grams is a terrible disease so I’ve started a FB Group for all those who suffer. Let’s suffer… together!

Weight Weenies FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1104629935091496

Sam has a background in BMX.

Secretly a Specialized fanboy.

Random Ostro frame near the bins outside.

These 150mm LEESE cranks look great in the light.

Sam putting on the 34cm Quick Pro cockpit on Gina’s SL8.

Little people need love too. Can’t wait for Gina to try out the shorter cranks and bars (if only it stopped raining!).

Bar to frame integration is pretty nice taking the lines of the speed sniffer into account.

Dropped in to Sam’s cave for hangs today and he installed the new Quick Pro bars on Gina’s SL8 (bleeding brakes is something I haven’t bothered to mess with!). Always mad hangs with Sam, he’s a living legend.

Five Black.

Feels like home again.

Dropped in to Wheelhaus Bicycle Boutique in Enmore to pick up some 38cm bars to replace the way too wide 40cm bars on the S5. Store owner Greg Chalberg runs a beautiful little shop. Lots of Factor bikes and he had the new S5 on display too (a complete Dura-Ace build in my size and one that I seriously considered buying before picking up this 2023 S5). He put the new S5 on the scales whilst I was there and it came in at 7.4kg’s (without pedals), so for sure, it’s lighter than the model I have out of the box, quite impressive as the head tube is SO much deeper on the new model.

Got home and got the bars on right away. They feel right! Burgh Lightning bar tape (IMHO the best bar tape out there) and hey… I’m getting damn good at wrapping bars (I’ve learned from the best! IOW: Sam Mingle).

PS: It’s not even been a day since I got these bars on, and without mentioning names (I don’t want to get into trouble) I’ve been offered an aftermarket 36cm bar for the S5 that should come in significantly lighter than these OEM bars (as the brand making these new bars are known for making very light bars!). I’m happy with the 38cm bars on my SL8 though, but do have 36cm bars on the way, so maybe I’ll get those on the SL8 and see how I get along with them first.

Quick Pro Can Win.

285g. Not bad. Not bad.

150mm LEESE cranks also came in today. They look good.

Quick ZEPHYR-SSL handlebars in 340 x 70 with SL8 specific spacers came in the mail today from Panda Podium. They were the only bars I could find in this spec for Gina. Packaged well and they look great! LEESE 150mm cranks came in too. Will get this stuff on her bike ASAP.

It’s the little things.

I’ve been using ELITE FLY water bottles for over a year now. I love them. They’re super light and squishy and the nozzle is easy to use. That said I’ve had to buy black bottless, and clear bottles to swap the black bottle cap over to the clear bottles (to replace the white bottle caps that come on the clear ones) and it kills me that their logos are red as that introduces another colour to my builds.

I was browsing Pushy’s and stumbled upon a clear bottle with black lid version and holy shit! The logos are black! I wasn’t sure whether or not it was a greyscale product shot, but I bought them, and hey hey! Black logos, happy days!