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A Few Observations About Building A NeilPryde Alize

As with almost every of my bikes, my NeilPryde Alize was built from ground up, first buying a frameset and then getting all the components along the way. I’ve done it the same way with the Niner One9 in 2006 and last year with the Air9 Carbon. The Alize built up nicely and it turned into a stunning road bike. Whenever you pick a bunch of components instead of buying a bike off the rack - “Ab Stange” as we say here, you will occassionally run into smaller or bigger issues because parts don’t want to play nicely with each other. With the Alize, I ran into two such issues.

First, NeilPryde could have placed the brake boss of the rear brake a tad bit higher. Using REVL carbon calipers, which are beefier than most aluminum calipers, there’s not a whole lot of tire clearance. In my case, there are merely 2-3 mm with a 700-23C tire. During the summer this should not be a problem as long as I don’t pick up a nail. For the winter rides I’ve been doing though, I’ll probably better leave the Alize at home and jump on the Madone, where the rear brake mount sits so high that the pads are bolted to the bottom of the caliper arms.

The second issue that could easily be addressed with a minor design change of the frame is to add clearance between front derailleur and the seat tube. The SRAM Red front derailleur I’m using touches the frame when it’s shifted to the small chainring. In that position, the chain will lightly rub the derailleur cage when in the biggest cog in the back. There’s a bit of a recess in the frame, but it appears neither wide nor deep enough to cover the different makes of front derailleurs and range of chainring sizes. I’m currently not too worried about this, though. Up to now I’ve always had a 39T chainring up front. The Alize is the first road bike I built with a 36T and I don’t think that I’ll be in the smallest gear very often. It’s time to get it out on the road and see how everything plays together in action.

Building A Road Bike In Pictures #18 The Wheelset

The last components to complete the Alize were its wheels, which I almost missed again today. Yesterday, the silly postal service showed up with them at the office at freaking 6.38AM. What were they thinking? Even sillier, the postman didn’t leave a note that they attempted to deliver a package so that I could go pick it up myself. Today, when I rode up to the parking lot, I see the postman walking back to his van with a wheel box. I rode right up to him to let him know he could leave that package with me. He was glad to do so, but he wanted money. More money than I had in my wallet. I usually don’t carry money in my wallet as I pay with plastic everywhere. Knowing that my wheelset was going to arrive, and knowing full well that the Swiss postal service only trusts its own yellow plastic, I stuffed some cash into my wallet. I ran into the office and borrowed some cash. I hand the guy a couple of bills, but do you think postmen carry change? My change was in my back-pack, which I had dropped on the floor in the hallway the first time I ran into the office. So, I made the guy wait once more to get the correct change, which I surprisingly happened to have.

Long story short, I got my All-American Engineered Industry 9 i25 wheels. I chose blue hubs and blue spoke nipples along with black spokes and black HED C2 rims. Industry 9 had everything stock when I placed the order, so their lead time was pretty short. Now, one could argue that the i30 with its more aero looking 30mm Niobium rim would be the better fit for the aero Alize, but since I’ve been riding wide Edge All Mountain rims on my Air 9 Carbon, I’m set on wide rims. Whether on or off-road, wider rims just come with a lot of benefits. With the type of rough road riding I do in the Swiss Jura, I wouldn’t want to miss those. 18mm rims? Never again. 20-22mm? Okay. 23mm? Hell yeah! Now anyone who pays close attention to components might notice that my Revl brakes are not designed for such wide rims. The folks at The Hive didn’t recommend that combo, but I found two guys who have done just that and are happy with it. Well, lets see how that rim/brake combination will work out here.

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Sunday Sneak Peek

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Just about ready to race.

Building A Road Bike In Pictures #17 The Bottom Bracket

Running Rotor 3D30 cranks, there are currently two options for a matching threaded bottom bracket. Rotor’s own BSA30 with either steel or ceramic bearings. I opted for the steel bearings with black anodized cups. A 30mm axle diameter sure is a whole different animal from the up to now more common 24mm - beeeefy!

Building A Road Bike In Pictures #16 New Cassette

Originally, I was just going to use the less expensive SRAM PG 1070 cassette. But the cassette’s design with a lot of single steel cogs should in my opinion only be used with steel or titanium freehub bodies. My wheelset will have an aluminum freehub and the PG 1070 would undoubtedly dig into the aluminum pretty badly. So instead, I shelled out some of my strong Swiss francs for the top of the line SRAM Red PowerDome cassette with 11 to 25 teeth. Sure looks good and weighs nothing.

Building A Road Bike In Pictures #15 The Tires

Whether on or off the road, tires are always a cycling hot topic. While magazines will run tire shootouts in regular intervals and try to put numbers to traction, wear or sidewall strength, tires are ultimately a matter of personal preference. A lab test will provide some valuable indicators but in the end you have to find what you like and don’t like. I’ve run anything from Continental, Michelin and most recently Hutchinson road tubeless. My favorite 700x23C tire for the past couple of years has always remained Vredestein’s Fortezza TriComp for its low rolling resistance, high max pressure, long life and good puncture resistance. As my Litespeed was in dire need for a pair of new rubbers, I got a pair of tried and true Fortezza TriComps as well as a pair of tires I haven’t yet tried - Schwalbe’s Ultremo ZX. These will be mounted on the Alize’s new wheelset. Solely based by weight, they’ll make for a better climbing wheel. I’ll let you know if they stand up to the TriComps.

Building A Road Bike In Pictures #15 The Chain

SRAM’s PC 1091 hollow pin chain with its handy, tool free PowerLock will be transferring my measly human leg power to the rear wheel of the Alize. Thanks to its hollow pin technology, the 114 “Made in Portugal” links weigh just 259 grams.

A Little Bit Of Bolt Tuning

With Zipp, SRAM Red, Revl and other sweet components, there’s not much to do about bolts. Most of these components already use aluminum and titanium fasteners. There were still a handful of them and those were swapped out today. First, four aluminum water bottle bolts added a touch of blue to the bike. Next, the black Chris King headset cap was secured with a blue anodized M6 bolt. Lastly, the Neilpryde Aero seat post lost the backside steel bolt and received a 3mm longer titanium replacement to maintain full thread engagement with the taller carbon rails of the Antares saddle.

Cogset, wheelset and bottom bracket are still missing to complete the bike. Everything on order, though - and most likely arriving faster than initially planned. Stay tuned!

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