XC Hardtail Frame Only – Options?

Sure you’ll be kicking yourself every time you look at all your lightweight kit and see that your frame is the ‘heavy’ model from Open……

Looks like an interesting gravel bike have fun :0)

Barely anything between the 1.0 and 1.1. I like the white and from reading the thread dirtyrider was not going for weightweenie build
I’m keen to hear about his experience with the lauf.

Would love an Open but….. I hate twitchy (it may not be but I don’t want to take the risk) and there’s not much point of going so light on the frame and then putting Conti protections, heavy comfy saddle, heavy bendy seatpost etc.

finally got round to finishing it, 18.8lb

That actually fits together really well Dan 😀 It should be properly hideously ugly but you’ve found a great match of parts.

Is that junction box going to get tucked away? Were you able to do anything fancy with the wiring and the Pro bar and stem?

Looking forward to a ride report 😛

Is that junction box going to get tucked away? Were you able to do anything fancy with the wiring and the Pro bar and stem?

cheers,

oh its 18b 8oz as well, not 18.8lb

Shifter wire runs through the bars and comes out the stem faceplate, joins 3 port box, then a long wire runs from there to an internal junction in the bb area,

the idea originally was to put the 3 port in the steerer but it doesn’t fit, i tried a couple of spacer mounts for the box but none of them fitted, might just sugru it to the bottom of the stem

i tried with an XTR display but it looked stupid having 2 displays once the garmin was mounted

just need some motivation to ride now

That makes sense. I really liked the idea of the Pro stuff but it doesn’t seem to help much on most frames. I guess tucking the wires away in the bars is nice though, even if it stays kinda normal around the stem. Can you get the 3 port in the stem? If not then I seem to remember Shimano do a magic-converter-junction-type-thing that gets around this problem and is popular with the TT guys. It isn’t something that usually gets listed and I’d have to look it up….

EDIT: Shimano splitter box

I can’t quite visualise if that helps you but was what I had in my mind!

i think I’ve read that article before

the 3 port junction doesn’t fit in the stem (it might if my stem was longer)

The smaller JC41 doesn’t work on its own, i just tried, i did however move the long wire from going round the head tube, up the stem and through like this

i might order the splitter and try and hide it all in the stem/steerer

worst case scenario is i zip tie the 3 port like this as theres probably enough room to get a zip tie though the top of the lower stem bolts

Was that replacing the A junction with a B junction? I tried my ultegra/DA setup on the TT bike without an A junction and it did all seem to work ok. You can have any number of B junctions too if that makes it easier to hide the A junction. I’ve heard of some people just plugging the a junction in when they need it.

Could to get it in the stem if you took a Dremel to the tabs on the back? Going to have to do that to mine.

Nice bike. Still not sure about the aesthetics of that Lauf fork though.

Ah, the way I had it in my mind was the Junction A (?) in the downtube/ BB for charging and connectiong everything and then a JC41 at the stem to take the shifter wires to the BB mounted box. I know on my Chiner 29er the BB port makes this feasible but I’m not sure if you have BB access on the Open? Does that even seem possible or have I gotten very mixed up??? 🙂

There was probably room however everything is now fitted so I’m a bit stuck – I could maybe fish the b junction out the bb area and switch them round

But then you’d have to remove the cranks to charge, or get another Junction-A for when you want to charge it.

Lauf aside it looks good!

But then you’d have to remove the cranks to charge, or get another Junction-A for when you want to charge it.

If you can get the junction A by the BB then many frames have an access port that would be a case of removing one allen bolt to charge… I haven’t seen an Open in the flesh to know if a similar thing might be feasible.

On the second idea, is it possible you could have a trailing wire from an existing junction box (either the one in the down tube or stem) which then exits the frame in an inoffensive place (perhaps discreetly held in place next to another cable) and then connects a Junction Box externally just when you want to charge? Is that what you meant Nick? If that were feasible then that could be quite a nice approach too.

But then you’d have to remove the cranks to charge, or get another Junction-A for when you want to charge it.

the wires run under the pressed in BB cups, however upon looking theres no room, there a 15mm x 15mm hole more for pressing in a cable guide than an access point like on a Pivot

8.5Kg is seriously light but you could lose another 400g by using rigid carbon forks rather than the Laufs

The OP more than knows what’s up when it comes to the Weenie game 😉 🙂 Sometimes it is fun to experiment I guess and you won’t be seeing any similar builds any time soon which is a plus in my book

I notice in an earlier post that he had the Laufs “in a cupboard” so probably weren’t purchased for this build. They are certainly a unique looking fork – not seen any in the flesh and only seen a couple of builds with them on the interweb.

i did buy the Laufs on a whim, with nothing to put them on, the Di2 was on my Tallboy but id not used it and the cabling was so messy i thought id itch a hardtail scratch thus looked for something i could run everything internal

8.5Kg is seriously light but you could lose another 400g by using rigid carbon forks rather than the Laufs

literally everything bar the forks could be lighter, like someone said above, its even the “heavy” open frame as its painted, theres tubes in the too as they are really old rims which i cannot be arsed to run tubeless, I’ve tried and its a faff on these, ill replace them one day, I’ve got some Rise XX tub wheels in the cupboard, but this isn’t the build for them

i do love weight weenie stuff, but sometimes its just nice to buy boring old dependable XTR 🙂

Right,3 rides in and back from the ban hammer being wielded

1x local ride
1x sherwood
1x Dalby

Which probably amounts to a lot of my riding apart from in the peaks and I’m guessing for some of the big rocky descents they won’t be great, but that’s a guess we’ll see when the weather is a bit better

I swear I wouldn’t be able to tell in a blind test between these and my sids,they feel great, never felt them bottom out, never felt like the rebound is like a pogo stick, no sense of any arm fatigue I used to get from my krampus, although they have all been around 2hr rides, which is generally short for me

For the riding I do, these seem perfect

XTR di2 – shifter doesn’t feel great, such a wasted opportunity by shimano by trying to replicate a cable shifter, multi shift is nice when I remember to use it

Fabric alm – first ride my arse felt ruined, today I cannot say I noticed it, I guess that’s what you want in a saddle

Positioning – seem to have achy pads of my thumbs, like I’m putting too much weight though them, coupled with the same area being in the thin section of the esi fit grip, might lower the saddle a touch,

Terribly unfit as well,although that’s hardly a surprise

Glad to hear some good real world feedback re the Lauf, still trying to convince my wife (with no success) that they would be ideal for her xc and marathon racing. At 84 kg I might not be the target audience..

Decent enough lap round Dalby for someone terribly unfit 😉 Glad you managing to get out again, we were in Sherwood the day after you. We got the rain !

Peter S

im 84kg as well

Decent enough lap round Dalby for someone terribly unfit

it was about the worst conditions I’ve ever ridden round there in, was snowing as i crossed the Humber, hammered it down all the way around, and was sleeting when i finished, the switch from hurts to beavers was a sensible one 😆

we were in Sherwood the day after you. We got the rain !

yer was a shocker the day after, the weather is crazy at the minute, fast lap for in the wet 8)