Van Nicholas B17 Flying Fortress

colsoop

I like all the combo's that this bike has been through but my personal preference is the black / black look.
Although there is something about that enve logo that distracts me a bit.

Baracus

looks absolutely stuuning, love the bottom picture wheels

ianho

I've just installed the Limited Edition Chris King purple BB and headset. That is the reason I blacked out the SRAM Yellow cranks. Looks really nice IMO. Am thinking about completely removing the Van Nicholas decals for a Ti Stealth look if there is such a thing. Haha.

colsoop, I actually prefer the black on black ENVE fork but it wasn't available. In fact, I had to beg the LBS to sell me these ENVE forks which came off a complete Lynskey bike.

banana_boy

Love the brown version and love the black version. To stop the bickering I think you should buy another VN and have one in brown and the other in black

secretsam

BTW, the Consolidated B-24 Liberator was a better aircraft than the B-17, if less "sexy"

ianho

It's been a long time since I updated on the Van Nic. Here's some pics of how I did the Dura Ace Di2 wiring. I didn't wanna use an external wiring kit as that costs a lot of money here in Malaysia. It also looks horrible with the battery on top of the downtube near the water bottle. Lotsa exposed wires from the battery to BB n all. I already had an internal wiring kit n decided to figure out a way to do it. Took me 12 hours of trial n error but I finally figured out a way to do it with a simple tin from a breath mint. Haha.

I wanted to mount the battery under the BB just like on my S-Works Venge. I also needed to find a way to hide the huge mess of wires down there as my frame doesn't provide for Di2 internal wiring.


Here's how it looks like under the BB. The black box next to the battery is a breath mint box. I used a Dremel to cut off the bottom of the hatch then painted it black. The hatch opens up so I can stick all the wires inside n the wires come out from the bottom where I cut off a bit of the hatch. In a normal Di2 set up, all those wires r hidden in the downtube, seat tube n BB areas.





This is the breath mint box that I used.



I used silver duct tape to conceal the wire under the downtube. The external Di2 kit uses an ugly looking black rubber strip. I tried that but I think it looks a lot cleaner with the silver duct tape doing a good job of blending in with the Titanium frame rather than a big black strip of rubber on the nice n shiny Ti downtube. The wire that goes under the chainstay to the rear derailleur is concealed the same way.




Control unit mounted under the stem with 3M double sided tape.




The end result IMHO is a very nice n clean Di2 install without resorting to spending more money n making the bike ugly at the same time. Most people don't even realize it's a Di2 bike

papavero

Nice job with the cables. You can get aluminium foil tape that might be better than duck tape.

Iamnot Wiggins

Excellent detailing in the fitment process, very clever routing there. Agree that the silver tape looks better than those horrible rubber length things that sit on the downtube. Chapeau!

iamalex

Nice idea for the DI2 install, and a great bike. Looking to do something similar myself. Can I ask, how did you secure the battery to the BB shell?

shaunclaridge

Christ - that is lovely

ianho

iamalex wrote:

Nice idea for the DI2 install, and a great bike. Looking to do something similar myself. Can I ask, how did you secure the battery to the BB shell?

I use a small piece of rubber. It's what cobblers use to resole shoes. Drill a hole through it n put it between the battery mount n the BB. Then screw it down into the BB with the bolt that usually holds the cable guide there. The rubber gives the battery mount something to bite into n holds it there so it doesn't rotate due to bumps or vibrations. It's been thousands of kilometers now n still holding steady.

shaunclaridge wrote:

Christ - that is lovely

Thanks man.

janesy

I like that very much!! I'm actually in the process of doing this to my Zepyhr.

I'll post up photos in a few weeks when done. My thoughts are long battery mount put place the battery under the bottle cage, then copy your mint box for the internal wiring.

ianho

janesy wrote:

I like that very much!! I'm actually in the process of doing this to my Zepyhr.

I'll post up photos in a few weeks when done. My thoughts are long battery mount put place the battery under the bottle cage, then copy your mint box for the internal wiring.

Don't forget to send me a £10 cheque for copyright n trademark fees. Haha

ledeev

Wouldn't it be better to put the battery on the seat tube if there's room? Won't it eventually get hit by something flicked up from the front wheel where it is under the BB?

dilatory

That's beautiful. What's the chainrings? Praxis?

ianho

Ledeev wrote:

Wouldn't it be better to put the battery on the seat tube if there's room? Won't it eventually get hit by something flicked up from the front wheel where it is under the BB?

This is a mechanical frame with no holes for internal Di2 wiring. i can't put the battery in the seatpost. Many other bikes have the batteries down there too. My Venge n Dogma also have the batteries down there.

dilatory wrote:

That's beautiful. What's the chainrings? Praxis?

I've a few different set ups so far, I don't know which one you're referring to. I've had SRAM Force which r the grey ones with the brown saddle n tape combo. SRAM Red with the blacked out cranks, and recently Q Rings with the Rotor cranks.

ledeev

I recently converted my Euros to Di2 as well. I was pleased how it looked with the battery on the seattube, but reckon yours is a lot neater.

dilatory

ianho wrote:

dilatory wrote:

That's beautiful. What's the chainrings? Praxis?

I've a few different set ups so far, I don't know which one you're referring to. I've had SRAM Force which r the grey ones with the brown saddle n tape combo. SRAM Red with the blacked out cranks, and recently Q Rings with the Rotor cranks.

The ones on your all black photo on previous page. They look like the SRAM ones I guess.

ianho

Ah now I understand. I thought u meant an internal battery inside the seatpost. That's a pretty neat set up Ledeev. Very nice. I don't think it would fit on my seat tube though. Coz mine's a size 50 frame. Will probably not have have enough space there.

dilatory, the all black one is a blacked out SRAM Red yellow edition. The Praxis clover rings do look like SRAM Red actually. I had them on my doggy. I see what u mean now.