Boulder Bicycle Road Sport

[bmeryman]

Just got home from my first outdoor ride of the season aboard this new to me bicycle! (Frameset from gregj). The build is simple and mostly what I had lying around or what was cheap, but I couldn't be happier with how it performed. Being a lighter rider, I appreciate the thin walled, skinny tubing quite a bit here. The geometry is spot on and was plenty comfortable with 30s and latex tubes. I would like to upgrade to newer, lighter, and more performance oriented tires like the P-Zero or GP5k. Any recommendations?

Build as follows:
Frameset: Boulder Bicycle Road Sport
Stem: Salsa (super cool, but too short unfortunately, so will need to swap)
Handlebars: Simworks Co-Miserlou
Seatpost: Velo Orange (the black is a nice match, but it's wicked long and heavy)
Saddle: Selle Italia SLR something
Group: Non-aero Ultegra! 50/34 crank and 11/28 10spd cassette
Wheels: DT 240 hubs laced to Velocity A23s
Tires: Specialized Roubaix 700x30 w/ Vittoria latex tubes

This frame rides so beautifully that I'm looking forward to some tasteful and/or big upgrades as funds allow to bring down the weight a little bit. That being said, the bicycle is certainly not the thing holding me back at this point in the season.

I had a classic side on shot for this location but I can't seem to get it to resize properly. I'll have to follow up with that when I get it figured out.

[lorenbike]

Nice build -- that looks just about perfect! I always thought the Roubaix's rolled quite nice for their cost and weight.

[Bici-Sonora]

Classic lines and a nice build all the way around. Great find.

[Nimrod]

Beautiful

[bmeryman]

Thanks for the kind words, all!

I'll be swapping to a slightly longer Ritchey stem that was supplied with the frameset and getting back out this week to assess the change. We've got some proper spring weather coming soon and I'm excited to ride it again.

[br0qn]

Nice looking bike!

Boulder made some really cool stuff, would love to try their full suspension road bike, the Defiant Paris Roubaix

[bmeryman]

Originally Posted by br0qn

Nice looking bike!

Boulder made some really cool stuff, would love to try their full suspension road bike, the Defiant Paris Roubaix

Thanks!

I just looked up the Defiant Paris Roubaix - I had never seen that before! Pretty interesting.

[bmeryman]

Update: swapped to the longer Ritchey stem shortly after my last post and it's been a much more comfortable fit over the past month. The shorter Salsa stem felt pretty good cruising along seated with my hands on the hoods, but was definitely too short when pushing it trying to get aero (either in the hoods or drops) or when out of the saddle.

Some exciting drivetrain updates coming too!

[mellowandre]

Ugh I love that ultegra crank

[bryanbanducci]

These are made by Waterford to Boulders specs correct? Always liked these, probably a perfect forever bike.

[bmeryman]

Yes, built by Waterford to Boulder's specs.

I tend to be a pretty serial bicycle owner, but this one is giving me no excuses to give it up!

Andre, I agree on the aesthetics of the Ultegra crank! And I do love this Ultegra groupset, but you know what's coming and I am very curious how that will look too!

[mauricesnail]

skinny tubes with mid-reach brakes is the way!

if you're still considering tires, I've got 2000km on ultradynamico cava's with latex tubes in 700x33 (measure 30mm on open pros) and can't recommend em enough

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by bmeryman

Yes, built by Waterford to Boulder's specs.

I tend to be a pretty serial bicycle owner, but this one is giving me no excuses to give it up!

Andre, I agree on the aesthetics of the Ultegra crank! And I do love this Ultegra groupset, but you know what's coming and I am very curious how that will look too!

Very cool, I keep coming back to this -- just about the perfect looking bike!

[bmeryman]

Hi all, big update here.

I've switched to a 1x12 AXS drivetrain. Riding the 50/34 chainrings was a little frustrating as I was always shifting the front ring or cross chained. I could have pretty easily just gone to different front rings, but I thought I might as well take the opportunity to try something new.

I went with XPLR Force components (thanks to Andre for the help in identifying the necessary components!). The 48t front ring combined with the 10-44 cassette gives me a lower and higher end than my 2x Ultegra setup with good steps between gears. I was originally going to go 1x11, but the gearing jumps at the speed I ride around most were a bit bigger than I like.

As a bonus, this change dropped about a bunch of weight. Total weight as shown (including pedals, cages, and saddle bag/pump) is just under 20lbs which feels good.

I've got two rides in with this setup now and it's been really enjoyable having the 1x drivetrain for the riding that I do around here.

Apologies for the terrible image quality here. Having trouble with Imgur for hosting now so trying to figure out a decent alternative.