just got some new bikes that I'm considering something of an experiment, so I figured I'd share.
I needed a new mountain bike. I wanted fat enough tires to ride the sandy trails around my house, but wanted more versatility than a 5in tire bike could provide. I don’t like to buy new stuff, and the Trek Stache hasn’t been around long enough that they’re easy to find used. So after reading up a little on this forum and others, decided to try out a workswell. When they offered a slight discount and combined shipping for two frames, I decided to pull the trigger on a road frame so I could try a smaller size than I was riding. Ended up with a 066 and and 078. Built them up gradually as I scrounged good deals on ebay. They’ve been just about perfect so far.
Brand: Workswell Type: 066
Final weight: ~6.3kg with 303s
Spreadsheet with weights (in grams):
Frame: Workswell 066 51cm BBright
Fork: Workswell (390g uncut) ~365g cut
Headset, seatpost clamp (24g), Seatpost (190g): all workswell
Seat: specialized toupe stripped (90g)
Stem: Cannondale C1 100mm w Toronto Ti bolts (106g)
Bar: Giant Contact SLR 40cm (174g)
Bartape: Cinelli cork (29g)
bottle cages and hardware: workswell (25g each)
Outer Cables: shimano brake, shimano shift
Inner Cables: ""
Brakes: sram rival w Toronto Al mount nuts
Front derailleur: 105 5700
Rear derailleur: 105 5700
Crankset: Sram Red 22 GXP
Bottom Bracket: workswell w adapter
Chainrings: rotor noQ 53-39
Chainring bolts: sram
Chain: KMC 10SL
Shifters: Ultegra 6700
Cassette: Ultegra 12-25
Wheels: pre firecrest 303 tubular
Tires: Gatorskin (came with wheels, switching soon)
Pedals: keo max
Polar/garmin/computer mounts: none
Tape/glue: mastik
Thought about taking the stickers off the wheels, but they kind of match the pedals. When I get some black keo blades, I’ll take the stickers off.
With training wheels (Fulcrum s19, veloflex master 25, vittoria latex tubes)
Brand: Workswell Type: 078
Final weight: ?? scale only goes to 3kg, so I weighed the 066 as I built it to get a fair approximation. Forgot to do that for this bike
Frame: Workswell 078 17in BSA
Fork: Manitou from a Trek Stache 9
Headset, seatpost clamp: workswell
Seatpost: BMC
Seat: syncros
Stem: Truvative t20
Bar: Specialized stout 720mm
Grips: ESI
bottle cages: specialized green
Outer Cables: shimano
Inner Cables: ""
Brakes: xt m8000
Front derailleur: NA
Rear derailleur: xt m8000
Crankset: Sram xt m8000 boost specific
Bottom Bracket: FSA
Chainrings: xt m8000 34t (very flat around here)
Chainring bolts: shimano
Chain: sram 11sp
Shifter: xt m8000
Cassette: xt m8000 w Oneup 45t
Wheels: mulefut 50 with dt 350 hubs
Tires: bontrager chupacabra 29x3
Pedals: wellgo (spin really well after dissembling and regreasing)
Polar/garmin/computer mounts: none
This is really fun to ride. Opens up a lot of sandy trails that were unrideable on 2.2in tires. Geometry is a little weird, but it works. A dropper post would be good, and it could do with a little more slackness.
Both frames seem to be high quality. I peeked inside the frames at the seatpost, headset, etc, and saw nice finish inside too. Built up easily with 2 minor exceptions. One fork dropouts on the 066 needed a bit of sanding to remove clearcoat overspray for the wheel to fit. On the 078, all the internal routing holes came with removable guides except for the rear brake hole in the chainstay. That was tough to route. It didn’t help that I had to do it three times because I left various connecting hardware on the wrong end of the hose. Both bikes ride great.
