(sharp music)
- Our friends at FSA
have sent over a brand new K-Force WE groupset.
We just happened to have
a Pinarello F-12 frame set lying around
and so this video is going to show the process of me
building a genuine super-bike.
(gentle music)
Dan what are you doing?
- Oh I am practicing.
- Do you have to do it here?
(rock music)
FSA have been refining and tweaking their groupset
for a couple of years now
but this season marked a milestone.
They got their first ever Grand Tour Stage victory
next to BH Burgos rider Angel Madrazo at the Vuelta.
Now this is more than just shifting.
Now this is a complete groupset.
In addition to the legendary FSA cranks, of course,
we've got cassette, we got chain and we've got brakes.
This one being the disk version.
Let's get started.
We just very gently holding our frame by the top tube.
Not clamped in any way.
The reason being we haven't got our seat post attached yet
and you'll understand why very shortly.
So this F-12 launched in May of 2019.
It's a little bit lighter than it's predecessor
the all conquering F-10 and also more aero.
You'll see why in just a moment.
The first step now though is actually root
the wires for the derailleurs and also the hydraulic hoses.
Now because the groupset is semi-wireless
it means that you get shifters that communicate wirelessly
with the derailleurs by Bluetooth and Amp Plus
but the derailleurs then connected together
and to a battery, the theory being much larger
which means it last longer but you still get all the benefit
of a super clean front end as well.
(soft bouncy music)
Now this, obviously, is a mechanical cable
and it comes with the groupset
'cause attached to the other end is a connector
that you can plug the wire in.
'Cause this is a little bit stiffer.
Basically it should thread a little bit more easily
through our internal cable routing.
(soft bouncy music)
♪ Hallelujah ♪
(laughing)
Tape this in place.
Just so it doesn't accidentally slip back inside.
And front railer.
Let's get the battery in place now, shall we?
The reason why we haven't had our seat post
in the frame up to now, is 'cause this, of course,
is where our battery lives.
So it fits snugly inside.
7.4 volt lithium ion battery.
So FSA reckon you get between four and six thousand K's
of riding before you need to charge it.
And then there are two connectors, of course,
for our cables that we've just threaded through.
(soft bouncy music)
Wires are in securely taped at this end
and in the battery that end.
Seat post is now in, meaning that we can move the frame
from its perilous position on the top tube,
to clamp securely by the seat post now
because the next step is our hydraulic hoses.
The exact way that you thread a hydraulic hose
through a frame is going to vary depending on the exact frame
that you have but in this instance
I'm going to need a little bit helping hand
from a Park Tool internal rooting kit.
So I've got an external magnet here
and then I've got this end here
which got a little thread on and is also magnetic.
I'm going to send this one through the frame,
guide all the way through 'til it gets to the front end
of the bike and then I can get my hose,
thread it on the end here
and then pull it gently all the way back through.
(soft bouncy music)
When we touched earlier on the aerodynamic improvements
of the F-12, part of that can be attributed
to the super clean front end.
We've got one piece, bar and stem,
but the ace card is the fully integrated brake hoses.
We don't need to worry about our shifters, of course,
'cause they're communicating wirelessly with our derailers
but our brake hoses leave the levers
thread underneath through the bar
and then you'll see they go through the stem
before exiting in to our top cap
and you'll see it was a place either side
of the steering tube for the brake hoses to go.
You can get two types of hoses with the K-Force WE Groupset.
One with a quick adapter
where it comes ready bled, ready to go.
You simply plug it into the calibers and away you go
but on this one because the rooting's a little bit tighter
we're going to go for a standard one
where we're going to need to fit an olive and a barb
at the end and then bleed it ourselves.
Levers next, gloves back on, of course,
just in case any brake fluid escapes.
It's mineral oil in this case actually.
And now the reason we're doing this now is so
that we can securely fasten the brake hose to something,
the best thing, the lever,
so that when it's done being threaded all the way through
the frame of the fork, we know that it's securely in place
and then we can then get it to the right length and cut it.
(soft bouncy music)
(ripping)
(soft bouncy music)
(snapping)
(ripping)
(soft bouncy music)
Looking a bit more bike like.
Next up, we're on to derailleurs.
So this bit here, this is the brains of the operation
where we've got the receivers
so this is what connects up to our shifters,
Amp Plus and Bluetooth, remember.
So yeah, the brains.
A bit like the Daniel Lloyd of bicycle components.
But probably smarter.
I'm kidding Dan, I'm kidding mate, c'mon.
Before I attach it, I just show you
that's where the wire connects in there
and there's a little pinch bolt just next to it
and you snug that in
just to make the connection extra secure.
Nice touch.
(soft bouncy music)
Now this is very cool rear derailleur in the sense
that normally they're made with like a parallelogram system
but this one is actually a robotic arm instead.
Yeah how good is that?
Like a little gear box inside.
(soft bouncy music)
This little device is a Park Tool hydraulic hose cutter.
Now because we said we're not going to use the quick adapter,
we're going to have to cut our hose to length.
So FSA said you make a mark on the hose,
in this case I'm using electrical tape,
in line with a caliber
and then add ten millimeters onto that, okay?
But worth bearing in mind
that I've actually pushed as much slack
in the hydraulic hose as I can up back inside the fork,
just to give me a little bit of leeway
in case I need to make any adjustments later on.
Be it to the angle of my levers or maybe,
dare I say it, out of space here on the stem.
(soft bouncy music)
(clanking)
I brought a bracket.
Now this being a Pinarello it, of course,
has an Italian threaded bottom bracket.
This, believe it or not, is my first ever
Italian threaded bottom bracket that I'm going to fit.
So I'm going to remind myself
that both sides screw in clockwise, okay?
So it's different from an English thread.
Happily, FSA have actually put arrows
on the bottom bracket cups as well,
so I can't possibly get it wrong.
And now you notice these are kind of cool
in that FSA's crank diameter spindle is 30 mil
and so even though this is a threaded bottom bracket
you've also got these beautiful oversized cups
that sit outboard to allow us to run
that BB386EVO, crank standard.
All right, bit of grease, and let's go.
(soft bouncy music)
(clanking)
(soft bouncy music)
Check these out.
These are the WE specific cranks.
Those are super cool.
Look at that.
(soft bouncy music)
(gear clanking)
(clinking)
(bike parts clanking)
(soft bouncy music)
(swooshing)
(clanking)
(soft bouncy music)
Who doesn't love a brand new cassette?
Okay that...
So half of it, this bracket's made out of titanium
then the other half, carbon reinforced steel.
(clinking)
Look at that.
Now this one is the 11-32 option.
FSA has three different sizes, 11-25, 11-28, and then,
of course, this one.
Same rear derailleur for all of them.
It fits across.
So I've got a low gear on this bike of 34-32.
(soft bouncy music)
(whirring)
(clanking)
(soft bouncy music)
(soft clanking)
(whirring)
(soft bouncy music)
(soft whirring)
(fast whirring)
All components fitted.
We now need to make them work.
So first we need to pair up
our shifters with our derailleurs.
So to do that, I need to remove
the battery cover on the levers to get a little button.
(soft bouncy music)
Ah-ha!
So first thing, hit that paring switch
into pairing mode.
Then turn the front derailleur on.
Then press set so it goes green.
Then I need to press and hold the on button
until we get a blue light.
There we go and then that one goes out.
Come out set mode
and you ready?
(whirring)
There we go.
Let's get these gears working super smoothly, shall we?
So we need to index them.
For the rear we need to pop the chain on the sixth bracket,
so bang in the middle.
Then we need to press the set button
on the front derailleur.
There we go.
And now, here's a cool bit, right,
so you tell the system which derailleur you want to adjust
by (clicking) flicking a switch.
So in this case I'm now adjusting the rear
and then it's now in micro-adjust mode.
(soft whirring)
So actually it sounds pretty good already, doesn't it?
But if you have a look
just moving the derailleur very fracturally
and a bit like normal indexing
you basically want to get it to the point where it's just,
(whirring)
just wants to overshift.
There you go.
That's the point.
And then now back it off two clicks.
(clicking)
There we go.
(clicking)
Sweet!
Front derailleur now, similar process.
So we open set mode.
There we go.
And we tell the system that we're working on,
the left shifter now,
(revving)
by clicking that button.
(hard whirring)
But then here's the cool bit, so the micro-adjust
is now the right hand shifter.
So meaning you can still use the left hand shifter
to actually change gears.
(whirring)
Brake bleed now, we're onto the final lap.
(soft bouncy music)
(ripping)
Bleed block.
(soft bouncy music)
We pull open the end.
(soft bouncy music)
So near, but yet still so far.
We've got a bit of tidying up to do.
Starting at the front end.
So the headset is not adjusted.
The front wheel and the handlebars are not pointing
in the same direction.
And also we still have to fully integrate my cables.
So this just sits underneath that handlebar stem.
So a couple of last jobs before bar tape.
(soft bouncy music)
(soft clinking)
(soft bouncy music)
One final adjustment of the hoods.
Just to make sure they're level and also in the right place.
Once the lever's in the perfect position,
remember as well that you've got reach adjust on these,
so a little 2.5 mil allen key bolt
at the top of the lever there.
Also with bearing in mind you'll see
that levers come in different sizes.
After all of this bike building
I have a feeling that the one thing I'm going to be judged on
is the quality of my bar taping.
And it's true I've never felt such pressure before.
I don't think I've ever taped such a super bike.
Of course, go for full white 'cause why would you not.
(heavy music)
Now a little pro tip that I learnt very recently
is that on tap like this where you got the logo on
in order to get the logo in the right place
you'll have to tape it the same direction.
When in actual fact,
you'll either want them both in or both out.
So the tip is to actually just start
from the other end of the reel.
Unroll it all and then go from the other end, genius.
(heavy music)
Whoo!
(dramatic music)
Woohoo!
Check it out!
How nice is that?
I mean seriously, how nice is that?
Including, I think you'll agree, the bar tape.
Oh yeah absolutely.
I've got to say I think
that is one of the hottest bikes I have ever seen.
Make sure you let us know in the comment section
what you think about it.
And also would you like to see anymore
of this type of video.
Anymore bike builds.
If you would then please give this video a big like as well.
If you want to see another vid right now
then why not check out Dan's first look
of the FSA K-Force WE groupset when he went to ride it
with none other than Ivan Basso.