S-Works Tarmac SL6 - my first attempt to build a disc brake road bike

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vilegnus
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by vilegnus

This build was the hardest in many years to complete and I have a couple of upgrades to make in the nearest future. But the bike is definitely rideable at the moment, so I decided to start this topic now and don't wait until the final build.
Everything started a year ago with the attempts to collect a full DA9150 set for my Argon 18 when you could find next to nothing. And just at the moment when I finished the build the war had begun in my country. I returned home and was unable to fly back to Cyprus, where I have left my freshly built Argon 18.
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So, I had to start from scratch. My friend offered me an SL6 S-Works frameset and I didn't hesitate for long. In general, I hate the idea of using disc brakes on my road bike, but this looks like an inevitable future, so I decided to start now.
The story with the wheels sounds scary and fortunate at the same time. The warehouse where my wheels arrived was bombed in Bucha. Yeah, you could hear about this city from the news feeds and everybody was sure that my Rovals were burned in the fire. But for some unknown reason, somebody took them to the store where they spent 6 months until late august as unidentified boxes.
So I was fortunate enough to start this build with some nice crucial components.
Meanwhile, I was fortunate to have an opportunity to find a whole 9170 group except for the brakes, which I decided to replace with 9270.
I'm still not sure about the best power meter option. I have Dura Ace 9000 SRM, Hollowgram SRM and Quarq D-Zero with 9100 chainrings, and every single option from this list is imperfect in its own way.

The ride quality is exceptional! I've ridden about 1200km during the last 5 weeks and couldn't be happier about this build. I am still not sure about the necessity of disc brakes, and sometimes they really annoy me with squicks even with the brand-new rotors. But one day I'll finally get used to it.

I will cut the fork as soon as possible, don't blame me about it pls )
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For now, the components list looks like this:
Frame and fork - Tarmac S-Works Disc
Groupset - Dura Ace 9170
Brakes - i had to temporarily install 805 ultegra brakes, 9270 brakes will be installed soon
Cranks - still wondering about the best option. And I've installed spidering just for fun, I'll definitely replace it with some sort of power meter soon.
Wheels - Roval Alpinist CLX in tubeless setup with Schwalbe Pro One TLE 28mm tires.
Rotors - XTR MT-RT900 160+140mm
Pedals - Time Xpresso 15
Handlebar - random carbon handlebar. Waiting for the fancy replacement soon.
Stem - S-Works SL 110mm
Saddle - S-Works Romin 143mm

At the moment this bike weighs 6600g ready to ride, including pedals, cage, SRM mount, and about 80gr of sealant. I hope for about 6400 with the sealant in the final setup but we shall see.

I will keep this post updated with the real weights of crucial components.
Last edited by vilegnus on Mon Oct 17, 2022 9:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

by Weenie


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robbosmans
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by robbosmans

Wow what a story, hope you are doing well. You definitely know how to spec and build a bike. Both builds are great!

BigDog
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by BigDog

Fantastic build! Hope you're staying safe

vilegnus
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by vilegnus

robbosmans wrote:
Mon Oct 17, 2022 2:35 pm
Wow what a story, hope you are doing well. You definitely know how to spec and build a bike. Both builds are great!
Thanks, I'm rather ok, because I live far from the front line. And thanks for the appreciation of my bike setups. Building and riding them brings some sense and nice moments in our reality.
BigDog wrote:
Mon Oct 17, 2022 2:44 pm
Fantastic build! Hope you're staying safe
Thanks! I'll do my best to ride this bike and keep this topic updated in the future.

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MrCurrieinahurry
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by MrCurrieinahurry

Sending some WW love from London

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk

Formerly known as Curryinahurry

vilegnus
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by vilegnus

MrCurrieinahurry wrote:
Mon Oct 17, 2022 3:11 pm
Sending some WW love from London Image

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk
Thanks for your support!

Wheels story.

Many of you could hear a weird story about the tubeless compatibility of Alpinists CLX of the first generation.
It sounded really weird to me, that the company, which pushed tubeless with so persistent effort just decided to release a top-tier wheelset that is only tube compatible.
All explanations but one sounded like bullshit designed to cover a real problem. The most realistic one claims, that Peter Sagan damaged the rim during his training ride, which caused a tire to dismount. So Specialized just decided to sell these wheels as tubes-only compatible.
I'm convinced, that everything is tubeless compatible except tube rims. My journey with Stan's Notubes has begun 14 years ago and since then I installed tubeless on everything that I could find around, and most of this equipment was never meant to be tubeless officially.
So I just installed a couple of nipples, soaped the rims, and inflated both wheels effortlessly. To be honest, this was the easiest installation ever. I could install Pro One TLE tires without levers and pump them with a normal pump without a booster at the first stroke. So far tubeless experience with these wheels is flawless.

Alpinists are exceptionally comfortable. I switched wheels with my friend for one ride, and his Ultegra 770 wheelset made this bike feel like an entry-level bicycle. Responsiveness, agility, and ability to soften the harsh tarmac are next to nothing I tried before. And I tried lots of top-tier equipment.

And, since we discuss this at WW forum, I'm happy to share the real weight of the wheelset with the tape, which was factory installed. 1265 grams of pure joy.
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vilegnus
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by vilegnus

Hi, guys!
It seems, that I just reached the limit of the "standard components setup".
Of course, I can install superlight tires instead of 300g/each Schwalbes + 80 grams of sealant. Moreover I have gelu saddle and darimo seatpost, so sub6 is definitely doable, but I want to share my everyday setup.
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tonytourist
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by tonytourist

You should leave the Hollowgram on that bike, Cannondale cranks always look nice on other bikes.
Good weight too. I had that color on a SL6 and really enjoyed it. I only sold it to try to time the SL7 release and then COVID hit before it came out.
Enjoy the ride!
Mine had CLX 50s: https://imgur.com/OPbsbRr

vilegnus
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by vilegnus

tonytourist wrote:
Mon Oct 31, 2022 9:05 pm
You should leave the Hollowgram on that bike, Cannondale cranks always look nice on other bikes.
Good weight too. I had that color on a SL6 and really enjoyed it. I only sold it to try to time the SL7 release and then COVID hit before it came out.
Enjoy the ride!
Mine had CLX 50s: https://imgur.com/OPbsbRr
Thanks!
Still not sure about the crankset. I think i'll stick to quarq for some time and then we shall see.
CLX50 suit your bike really well!

vilegnus
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by vilegnus

Life in Ukraine continues no matter what!
Thanks to our military forces we are able to ride our bicycles again.
This looks like a final setup after installing a new handlebar and reaching the sub6.3 target. (the chain is too short on the photo, because I installed the wrong one in a rush)
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vilegnus
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by vilegnus

Hi, everybody!
I want to share my pain in the ass. After installing the new Quarq d-four AXS I measured average wattage like 122W during the solo ride with an average speed of 32kmph. Both my SRMs measure 165-170w avg on the same rides.
Zero offset doesn't change anything. Any ideas on what to do in this situation?

by Weenie


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ColnagoJohn
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by ColnagoJohn

vilegnus wrote:
Sun Mar 19, 2023 7:19 pm
Hi, everybody!
I want to share my pain in the ass. After installing the new Quarq d-four AXS I measured average wattage like 122W during the solo ride with an average speed of 32kmph. Both my SRMs measure 165-170w avg on the same rides.
Zero offset doesn't change anything. Any ideas on what to do in this situation?
I have had a similar issue before and it was some of the 8 bolts that fix the crank to the power meter where not tight enough and this made enough difference to cause an issue of the size that you are talking about.
Same goes for if the chainrings are a little bit loose too

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