Plastic fantastic stealth bomber! (carbon 456 :) )

specialeyes

My mates 9spd slx triple with bb weighed in @ 799 grams. My 9spd slx double and bash with bb weighed in @ 1004 grams. That bash is pretty hefty! :shock:

chrisga

DodgeT wrote:

It's here, delivered it from the van myself


few taster shots ..






Will get some full shots later, but gives you an idea of the finish. From the small bits, looks like mainly full matt black at first, but in some bits you can see the weave. Looks nice.

Love the anticipation of unwrapping a new bike/frame. The 456 carbons look great. Have you figured out why there are sets of cable guides on the seat stay and chainstay though?

delcol

she's here.. sweet,, dodge if you need any help/tools (headset press etc) my offer still stands you mor than welcome to pop round and build the bike here.. or we will pop to yours with the tool kit (hopefully you got a garage to work as i'm sat here looking at it persisiting it down) just drop me a text.. or a call>...

and hopefully you can get out on her this weekend...

DodgeT

chrisga wrote:

Love the anticipation of unwrapping a new bike/frame. The 456 carbons look great. Have you figured out why there are sets of cable guides on the seat stay and chainstay though?

Have not seen anymore than what you have seen in the pics at the minute..

The ones on the lower left stay will be for the brake and the ones on the upper right will be for the rear mech.

DodgeT

delcol wrote:

she's here.. sweet,, dodge if you need any help/tools (headset press etc) my offer still stands you mor than welcome to pop round and build the bike here.. or we will pop to yours with the tool kit (hopefully you got a garage to work as i'm sat here looking at it persisiting it down) just drop me a text.. or a call>...

and hopefully you can get out on her this weekend...

Aye will do ta Col. Got a feeling my plans are going to be scuppered by the bump shortly though....

The rain's mad today, just sat at my desk waiting for it to stop so I can chuck it in the car.

chrisga

DodgeT wrote:

chrisga wrote:

Love the anticipation of unwrapping a new bike/frame. The 456 carbons look great. Have you figured out why there are sets of cable guides on the seat stay and chainstay though?

Have not seen anymore than what you have seen in the pics at the minute..

The ones on the lower left stay will be for the brake and the ones on the upper right will be for the rear mech.

Indeed.... but there are cable guides on the left hand seat and chain stay as well as right hand seat stay.....

DodgeT

chrisga wrote:

Indeed.... but there are cable guides on the left hand seat and chain stay as well as right hand seat stay.....

Oh yeah... Can see them now its unwrapped. I can only assume it's so you have a choice for the route of the rear brake hose??? Shame they're riveted on else you could remove the ones you don't need.

DodgeT

Few frame pics, shame about the crappy blackberry pictures, but gives you a good idea of the finish.
Looks really nice in the flesh, kind of a slight camo effect..

fat_homer

Looks great so far, I quite like the C456 frame, it's just the gopping decals they usually use are a real put off. Yours look really rather dapper though!

DodgeT

fat_homer wrote:

Looks great so far, I quite like the C456 frame, it's just the gopping decals they usually use are a real put off. Yours look really rather dapper though!

Why thank you kind sir

It does look good, better than i'd hoped for, but it's very difficult to get the finish to show up properly in a photo - especially when using camera phone..
Will have a go with the proper camera when its fully built up.

Just need the headset to arrive tomorrow, then it'll be full steam ahead on build. Once i've got it heli taped up

delcol

nice slippers dodge,,,,

DodgeT

Can't beat a bit of the Griffins

Take an on one seatpost and a superstar seatclamp


add a bit of this


then work can commence with this


first piece on the top tube, can hardly tell its on there

delcol

sweet i know who to come to now to do mine i always end up with air bubbles in when i do it...

J273

Looks real nice tempted by the yellow myself

What size i this?

Really considering going for one of these rather than a Bfe but unsure on size with me being 6ft ,Am i best on an 18"??

DodgeT

delcol wrote:

sweet i know who to come to now to do mine i always end up with air bubbles in when i do it...

There are quite a few little ones when you look up close, but mud will soon cover those
Just takes a lot of time to get a decent job done. Done the head tube and top of the down tube this afternoon, cut outs for the bottle bosses and everything, looks spot on but took me about 2 hours..

J273 wrote:

Looks real nice tempted by the yellow myself
What size i this?
Really considering going for one of these rather than a Bfe but unsure on size with me being 6ft ,Am i best on an 18"??

Cheers. It's an 18", i'm 6 ft 1ish, 33" inside leg. Had an 18" steel 456 before and the size was bang on, so this should be bang on too. Reckon you'd be fine on an 18" too at 6ft.
I was also looking at the bfe (very nice btw), along with just about every other "tough" hardtail, but I just really like the look of these and I just want to try the carbon frame to see exactly what it is like for myself. Also the fact that it will hopefully be really tough and really light.

chrisga

J273 wrote:

Looks real nice tempted by the yellow myself

What size i this?

Really considering going for one of these rather than a Bfe but unsure on size with me being 6ft ,Am i best on an 18"??

Yey, go for yellow - see mine : http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10017&t=12844177

I'm about 6ft 1" and mine is also an 18" frame. Seems about right, certainly wouldnt want to go much bigger but i do prefer smaller bikes overall.

toastedone

Im 5'9 and mine is a 16"

frazered

sizing guide for 6ft and above suggests a large 20 inch frame
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FROOC456P-B ... ___20_inch

toastedone

the 456 has a longer toptube, at 5'9 my 16" is perfect

kieron_67

Bikes looking great just recently built one of these up myself.

i have a 20" frame at just under 6ft, but ive always prefered bigger frames, the kona i had before was the same

DodgeT

Cheers..
Done a couple more hours on it this afternoon, after the headset finally arrived and has been fitted.

BB and chain device adaptor plate fitted


Shaman Racing Drake device fitted


I'd been thinking of some extra protection for the downtube and chainstay, so a quick trip to the local carbon suppliers has me leaving with this selection of goodies - all proper stuff this, no lookalike. Carbon & Kevlar flexible sheeting


So, couple of pieces Kevlar placed under the BB area and on the lower section of the downtube


A bit of more discreet carbon for chain suck protection


Freshly taped Revs


Superstar zenith 65mm stem


Superstar descent bars, uncut at the minute, but will be trimmed down to 760mm


A little taster... she's starting to look like a proper bike




Really liking the look of it so far, the kevlar doesn't look out of place and the carbon on the chainstay looks :cool:
The more observant ones will notice that the forks look a bit off - need a better tool to fit the crown race as normally just knock it down. However, the cane creek one is all angled, nothing to get a good "knock" on and don't want to damage it. Might need another trip to the shop..

Plyphon

when i saw those carbon offcuts i was expecting that to look whack but it actually looks sick on the downtube! 8)

DodgeT

Spent some more time on her today, annoyingly could not get the chain guide to work with the chainset, so that's off and am on the lookout for another.

Must have measured at least twice it's funny how you keep thinking "have I done it right?????"
Was easy enough with a fresh blade


SFN was a pain in the ass, third attempt went in straight enough


Forks on, wheels on, robbed the charge spoon from my enduro - that'll have the henge back on it - brakes on only to realise i've been sent a set of euro spec brakes. I suppose it'll be good practise changing hoses/olives/bleeding etc as it's the only thing i've not attempted yet.

Looking :cool:


Something missing????


Should be ready to ride in a few days..

DodgeT

Plyphon wrote:

when i saw those carbon offcuts i was expecting that to look whack but it actually looks sick on the downtube! 8)

I know, I knew what to expect (looks wise) with the raw kevlar sheeting and at first thought this aint gona be good. But then I thought, what better to use. Was going to put it on the chainstay too as it's tougher than the carbon, but it wouldn't have looked right there, the carbon looks spot on though.

Plyphon

I love your slippers also.

chrisga

Dodge, quick question...

Did your frame come with the dropouts already bolted on? Your rear brake caliper is outside the frame, but mine is inside:


IMG_2168 by chrisga, on Flickr

I struggled to get a 180 disc in so had to downsize to a 160. Not a big issue, but just wondered how yours was outside and why they were different. Could you take a close up of your frame from the same angle as my pic please?

The Rookie

Really liking the look you've got there, almost military (no insult intended) in its 'bare functional' look, personally I think the red seatpost clamp jars a little with that.

My daughters running a single front ring, we were really happy with the end combo of bash and N-gear jump stop to control the chain at the top and the Blackspire stinger on the bottom, coupled with a short cage rear mech (XT of course) it's proving very reliable. and fairly stealthy.

DodgeT

Chris, couple of shots for you. They were in a plastic bag, i'm sure that was the only way they could go on, looked the most obvious anyway and the disc(160) & caliper fit fine.

DodgeT

The Beginner wrote:

Really liking the look you've got there, almost military (no insult intended) in its 'bare functional' look, personally I think the red seatpost clamp jars a little with that.

My daughters running a single front ring, we were really happy with the end combo of bash and N-gear jump stop to control the chain at the top and the Blackspire stinger on the bottom, coupled with a short cage rear mech (XT of course) it's proving very reliable. and fairly stealthy.

No worries, that's the kind of look I was after. Went with the red clamp just to break things up a little, as bit of red on rims, stem, grips, seat etc so just breaks the gap up. Have got a black one also so may see how that looks on it.

Still a bit undecided on which way to go device wise, been looking at MRP stuff but also thinking the Bionicon dangler thing might be just the trick.

delcol

looks sweet dodge.. just needs some mud on it now...
were did you get the carbon from dodge to protect the chainstay and frame...? i would'nt mind purchasing some for the butcher...