Orbea Team Euskaltel

Since I had almost all the components for a road bike from my MTB to road conversion, I decided to look for a cheap frame on eBay. After about 4 months of looking, I came across a 2002/2003 Orbea Team Euskaltel 54 cm frame that was just the right size. No one else put in a bid so I bought it very cheap. Once I received it I couldn't believe how nice it looked and how light it was - 1270 grams (2.8 lbs). After purchasing the missing items I needed - seat post, headset, bottom bracket, compression plug - I was able to put it together very quickly. It looked very nice since I had a matching fork. With everything on it, including pedals and bottle cages, the weight came to 18.5 lbs. pretty impressive for the amount I spent on everything. Definitely much cheaper than a comparable new road bike that would be about 5x more expensive. Most of the components I bought were new as well.

One issue I had was figuring out what size headset to use. It wasn't a standard size and the closest was an Italian integrated headset. Unfortunately the top of the head tube was the only difference with a bore depth of 2.5 mm. The Italian integrated headset sits in a 3 mm head tube. This left a small gap between the head tube and the bottom of the headset. I contacted Cane Creek prior to buying and they said that the small gap should not be an issue. So I ordered the Italian IS headset.

A second issue was that the triple crankset was very close to the frame. I had to use the spacers that came with the bottom bracket in order to clear the frame. Even with the spacers there was only about 1 mm between the small chainring and the frame. I might add another 2.5 mm spacer on the drive side just to make sure I have enough room. The last time I built it on the MTB frame I had to use 2 spacers on the drive side, which gave me the 1mm clearance. So this road frame is much better than the MTB frame.

The picture is of the almost finished result. I have not yet installed the shifter lines as well as adjusting my seat height.

I will post all the components after I finish.