Erm, yeah, I know I said I was looking at Steel but… Cheers to Fli for sorting us out with KTM in the shop, and the offer of a frame only for myself at a great price. So I built this little beastie up…

It’s a KTM Revelator 3300 frame (which is technically their bottom of the range, but all their frames are the same barring the top end one which is Di2 only), which is just under 1kg frame only for this 55cm frame Fork is well under 400g too, so the bike wasn’t going to be heavy at least.

Built it up with a selection of parts I sourced on the cheap, so 2nd hand SRAM Force Groupset (and a brand new Red chainset I picked up for a bargain), new DT Swiss R1850 wheels again for a bargain (I know they’re not that light, but I swear by DT hubs, and by god they’re stiff!), an XLC Carbon post and ally bars/stem.

Total weight (for those remotely interested) is 7.44kg including pedals, or for those that weigh without pedals, a smidge over 7.2kg.

So far, it’s been round the block. I can confirm it’s stiff and fast, but will hopefully be able to report more in due course…

I quite like that.
Not a fan of white tape ,and I would have gone for black decal free rims.
That rear mech cable is a real rabbit snare 😀
Of course it would have helped if you had snapped it without all that clutter behind it 😉

Not 100% sure on the white rims myself either, but hey… At least I’ll get noticed!

Only just noticed that the rear mech cable could probably lose a couple of inches. I’ll get on it tomorrow.

Nowhere to snap it in the shop without clutter at the moment, will try and get a shot of it outside in the daylight tomorrow probably.

So far, it’s been round the block.

Surprised it’s not in the classifieds by now then 😉

What seat post is that?

Looks like a cheap Essex girl on a night out !!

Nice light frameset.

I like that. How much did the full build cost you?

Nice looking. Look even better slammed though.
Maybe red tape & black hoods??

Good God that’s lairy! I think it’s the red hoods and the white stem, swap them for black and it might gone it down a bit.

Other than that it’s nice

I hope you’re quick. Looks ace but is so in your face that a slow rider will look a bit silly on it… but if you’re dropping everyone then you will be Mr awesome on that!

You’d better wear a vintage long-sleeve Arsenal shirt when you ride it.

Not a fan of the rims, but everything else is very nice. I like the color scheme, and it looks fast!

Looks rather awesome.

Don’t ride it. Pin it up in the shop 😉

i like how you’ve managed to get it to match that can of GT85 perfectly

😉

I can’t see the image but I too don’t like the rims. 😆

shouldn’t KTMs be orange?

happy new bike by the way!
I will be posting my new one up over the next few days and it is very opposite in terms of colours!

Nice! 😀

Surprised it’s not in the classifieds by now then
What seat post is that?

Nah, give it a week though! 😉

It’s an XLC Carbon Post. It’s light, seems pretty decent quality, and at £70 RRP it’s cheap for a carbon post. Will see how it fares.

Looks like a cheap Essex girl on a night out !!

I was more going for the look of her boyfriend’s XR3i… 😉

I like that. How much did the full build cost you?

Not really fair to say as I work in the trade, but less than you’d think for sure bearing in mind most of the drivetrain, the brakes and the saddle are all 2nd hand anyway.

Nice looking. Look even better slammed though.
Maybe red tape & black hoods??

I have some new black hoods and red tape I VERY nearly fitted… Wanted to see what the red with white tape looked like first. Think when it comes to new tape time though, I’ll go black hoods with red tape.

As for slamming it… Saddle height is roughly (within millimetres) of being correct, haven’t experimented with position yet. I’m not as inflexible as many, but I’m not Chris Froome either. 20mm of spacers in there currently, might end up dropping it a touch.

I hope you’re quick. Looks ace but is so in your face that a slow rider will look a bit silly on it… but if you’re dropping everyone then you will be Mr awesome on that!

Ahhhh 😳

Got some work to do then!

shouldn’t KTMs be orange?

Yes, I quite agree. But… There was quite a bit longer wait for the same frame in black/orange, and I’d have had to pay more too! I’ll put up with Red for now…

i like how you’ve managed to get it to match that can of GT85 perfectly

You spotted my inspiration!

Looks rather awesome.
Don’t ride it. Pin it up in the shop

Might have to mate as unfit as I am right now… Does look a bit more in yet face than I was originally expecting!

Why do sram rear mechs require such a massively long loop of cable, it looks rubbish

Why do sram rear mechs require such a massively long loop of cable, it looks rubbish

Did that by mistake, already mentioned above.

SRAM road drivetrains do seem a lot more dependent on smooth cable runs than Shimano though. So longer, larger radius loops are better than short right ones in that respect.

Using 1.1mm slick shift inners and Shimano SP41 on this bike and shifting seems better than any other SRAM setup I’ve tried right now! Tempted to just leave the lasso on there… 😉

Oh, and did just under 40 moonlit miles on it last night.

First impressions… It’s fast! But then sadly I’m not. Even though I’m currently unfit, I did get a number of Strava PR’s (and I wasn’t really trying either) on some considerable length segments last night somehow!

It’s also a better fit than my old bike for me. I’ve got to move the saddle back a few mm I think, but otherwise the size is spot on. My old Merida I think was just a touch too big for me (it was a 56 TT, this is a 55 TT).

Nice. Looks like it came out of a TCR mold. Who’s the CMO for KTM? White rims and wet rides, microfibre cloths and Detol surface cleaner work well 😉

Nice. Looks like it came out of a TCR mold. Who’s the CMO for KTM? White rims and wet rides, microfibre cloths and Detol surface cleaner work well

KTM design all their own frames, but there’s lots of touches all over the frame that scream “made by Giant”. Certainly there’s a heck of a lot of TCR similarities, though geometry wise it’s in between a TCR and a Defy.

Being made by Giant is only a good thing in my book anyway!

If they get mucky, they get mucky. I’ll clean them once in a while. The bike is for riding! 🙂

Being made by Giant is only a good thing in my book anyway!

I would wholeheartedly agree. And for the geometry too. I hate cleaning rims! Enjoy it. I bet you are a whole mph faster.

mboy, do they normally do the frame separately or did you get a deal?

Very nice, you just need to tipex an ‘o’ between the ‘k’ and the ‘tm’

Nice. Looks like it came out of a TCR mold. Who’s the CMO for KTM? White rims and wet rides, microfibre cloths and Detol surface cleaner work well

Not always available, but I understand they had more frames than build kits for this model when they did the last production run, I managed to snaffle a spare frame luckily for me!

Very nice, you just need to tipex an ‘o’ between the ‘k’ and the ‘tm’

Won’t be too many of those going on sadly! I know my place… 😉