This is the first project build up for SpokeCulture based on the beautiful BB17 Karma, with some top quality components. Photos from Perth Western Australia. www.spokeculture.com.au
Frame:
BreakBrake17 Karma
Fork/Headset:
BB17 Carbon Fork \ Spike Integrated Headset
Crankset/Bottom Bracket:
Factory 5 Lattice Chainring\ SRAM Omnium Crankset
Pedals:
Time iClick
Drivetrain/Cog/Chainring/Chain:
15t Miche. 48x15 ratio \ Izumi Super Tough Chain
Saddle/Seatpost:
Cinelli Cavaliere Nero \Thomson Elite
Brakes:
Cane Creek Brake Levers (front brake only attached to Ultegra 6700 Caliper)
Front Wheel/Hub/Tire:
Shimano RS80 C50 or Malvic Cosmic Elite \ Ultegra or Malvic \ Continental GP4000s
Rear Wheel/Hub/Tire:
Notorious 90 \ BLB King \ GP4000s
Bike History
Click a link below to see past stages of this bike.
Current Stage Info:
Swapped the Crankset to the External cup SRAM Omnium for better clearance of the chainstay and chainline over the spaced Miche Primato Advanced.
Hoods added for regular group rides along with a front brake. Bars swapped for track.
Swapped the front wheel out for either a C50 or Malvic Cosmic depending how I am feeling which is a better option rather than catching the 90mm Notorious in the heavy summer winds.
Added by sil3nt. Last updated almost 10 years ago.
31 Comments
Holy! Love the bike and photos!
Posted almost 10 years ago
Thanks for the love man :) I definitely need to get better at taking photo's but appreciate the encouragement!
Posted almost 10 years ago
Loving it! Thinking of getting one of these as a daily rider, is the geometry comfortable?
Posted almost 10 years ago
Hey man, appreciate the kind words. I have put a reasonable amount of Km's on this bike now and I would be happy to ride it everyday.
The Geo is tight as can be expected but I put some hoods on there and hooked up a front brake for riding one of my regular Fixed group rides and it has improved my position on the bike to make it really quite comfortable. In fact if I didnt have to race my road bike I would have sold it in favour of riding this permanently. I will sling a pic up with the hoods at some point.
I also have since fitted a Sram Omnium Crankset as I didn't like the chain line I was getting from the Miche having to space it out to clear the chainstay. The external cups have made that much easier. Pull the trigger man :)
Posted almost 10 years ago
Awesome! I like the Omniums, I personally rode with them on my Bianchi. Thanks for the info!
Posted almost 10 years ago
love bb17s! How's the wheels?
Posted over 10 years ago
Hey man, the wheels are great they roll extremely well on the road, they are a touch heavy given the profile but its not noticeable. I will see how they go on the drome next week.
Posted over 10 years ago
hey, turned out great. how do you find the tyres? also, do you have issues with toe overlap?
Posted over 10 years ago
Toe overlap is a bit of an issue at the moment, I have switched to a short crank arm since and I need to do some more tweaking .
Tyres are nice, but I would imagine I will go through them quickly seems like quite a soft compound, they roll nice though :)
Posted over 10 years ago
yeah, i've got toe overlap on mine as well, only seems to be a problem when trackstanding or making tight u-turns. never knew it existed whilst riding around as usual.
I was planning to get the Ultremos acutally. might get them in the future!
Posted over 10 years ago
sick ride man. Looks like you've collected the parts over months until everything matches perfect and then she was ready to be built :P
Posted over 10 years ago
Thanks man, yeah I was waiting on some bits and pieces to arrive from different places over about 6-8 weeks. I am really happy with the result.
Posted over 10 years ago
Looking forward to seeing this, these frames are great. I haven't yet seen big'ol N90's on a Karma!
Posted over 10 years ago
Yeah can't wait to see it come together, I should have it all sorted in the next 2 weeks based on stuff being delivered :)
Posted over 10 years ago
Reslly like the lattice chainring, but the crankset they sell it with has steel arms. Lemme know if you feel any flex?
Posted over 10 years ago
Yeah man can't speak from experience here as I have not run them before but I will let you know. Worse case I will swap them out with Miche, Omnium or Sugino 75 cranks.
Posted over 10 years ago
so any trouble with flex? Maybe they put a typo on the factory five site because steel arms would be wayyyy outdated
Posted over 10 years ago
No problem with flex in fact no noticable difference between them and my Miche Cranks. I have since swapped the cranks out for the Miche again but that's only because I prefer 165mm over 170.
Posted over 10 years ago
I just spoke to the cool dudes @Factory5 and they said the cranks are 6061 Aluminium tempered to T6. Hence no noticeable difference to my Miche cranks. There site is incorrect if it states steel :)
Posted over 10 years ago
NICE!
In the process of building one up myself (on a budget, initially)
can't wait to see how your Karma turns out!
Posted over 10 years ago
Looking at the builds I have seen online they come up really nice. I have both the Karma and the Transfer in raw so I was trying to decide which one I should build up first, the Karma won the vote
Posted over 10 years ago
true that. you should build the Transfer soon after! is it the latest Transfer frame?
also, what size is your Karma, how tall are you, and what stem length are you using?
sorry for badgering with questions.
Posted over 10 years ago
All good man, I am riding a small. I am only short being 5'7. Running a 90mm stem. I could probably stretch to a medium but as I have a short reach the TT length was a touch to long
Posted over 10 years ago
Just to clarify, I could run a shorter stem on a medium but I prefer this option as I personally feel the handling quality suffers when you go <80mm
Posted over 10 years ago
hm. i'm 5'9, and i got the medium, and i'm actually unsure of what length stem to get. this is going to be my first real bicycle.
the tt length on the medium feels quite compact though, to me. but i have no starting point for reference
was thinking about 90mm for a stem. in your opinion, is it worse to get a stem that's slightly too long, or slightly too short?
Posted over 10 years ago
It's hard if its your first bike, ideally when your sitting on the saddle you want to make sure you have some bend at the elbow and they are not locked in position as this will cause fatigue (arm, neck & shoulder pain). You could just mock this up sitting on the saddle and have someone hold the bars out for you to reach, remembering stem length is from the middle of the stem (where the bolt is) to the middle of your handle bars. Hope that's somewhat helpful.
Posted over 10 years ago
Photos
Raide says:
Very nice bike, great work! Quite a similar look to mine, have a look at my post :) I was thinking about 85mm track tubs next, do you recommend the deep wheels?
Posted almost 9 years ago
sil3nt says:
Hey man, yeah I like the look, I don't run the front generally as we get some pretty hefty winds in Perth but I ride with the 90 rear daily.
These Notorious 90's are clinchers, tubs are cool if your on the track but if your riding on the street its a pain in the anus.
Posted almost 9 years ago