BH G5 First Look

I'll have to agree with lorenzo rivnut - I'd gladly carry the extra grams as well. The BH is, without a doubt, cool looking in the geometry dept. but then I loaded pics of the team sky rigs and kinda reflected on "what could've been".

Nothing like some sexy bike pr0n!

i prefer to line my cables with goat bladder.

think green. say no to ptfe.

My mid '80's Vitus 979 had it. I can't say it was better, or worse, than other systems. Back then I would strip and lube my bike once a year and never had any cable issues. I never used the vacuum technique. My frame with a casing liner in place. I would just be very careful removing the cables and putting them back in. I don't recall having any issues with water in the frame. I will say I like the look of internal cables and would gladly carry an extra 200 grams on a frame to get it.

If you poke a hole in a tube to route the cable you end up making the tube weaker. You can make up for that by adding more material around the hole, but that makes the frame heavier. So this is probably just a cosmetic "gimmick" to differentiate their bikes.

A broken fork is very scary and potentially lethal. What kind of damage was done to the bike as a demo? Why wouldn't BH carefully inspect it before selling it as a demo? Especially a super light weight fork.

There is nothing wrong with Chinese carbon. If anything, they probably have more experience working with the material than anyone else in the world. Very, very few companies make their carbon bike outside of China. Even some of the brands that label their bikes as being "made in fancy European country" are stretching the truth. They should more accurately be labeled "made in China but finished in a more trendy European country".

Chris Cocalis of BH responds to some questions below:

We have nothing to do with Giant. In fact, the molding techniques used on the G5 are far more advanced than that of the Giant. Our BB and Torsional head tube area stiffness are also better.
The frame is a true BB30 standard (not some BH Proprietary thing). The Shimano cups convert the BB30 to Shimano’s BB86. Although this is our design, it will work in any properly made BB30 frame.

Internal cable routing: Heavy and lacks serviceability. We are not willing to sacrifice performance and function just to look cool. Mechanics hate internal routing. On TT bikes the benefits outweigh the negatives but not on a road bike. We tested the internal routing on the G4 prototypes and to do it correctly so that cables could be routed cleanly without coat hangers and other crazy techniques added about 125 grams to the frame.

Weight: The Parlee is truly one of the lightest frames in the world. It is a very simple round tube design. It is made in the same factory as the G5. It uses simple decals with a very light clear coat only. It is true that paint is not light. Also, the extended seat tube is like adding a seat post without the head to the frame. The Shimano BB adaptors weigh 105 grams. I believe a thread-in BB that is required on other bikes weighs more. With an FSA BB30 crank, the savings would be even greater.

Also, they are comparing the large frame to small frame weight numbers. We developed the frame based on certain stiffness criteria for each size. Not only does the large frame have more material by nature of its size, it also is designed to be stiffer then the 54 and 56cm frames because a larger rider will typically be riding it. The size specific stiffness criteria is something that is very unique to BH (Connect, Cristal, and G5). Really, because of the integration, the riders need to be checking out the weight of the complete bike. A 54cm SRAM Red bike out of the box is about 13.3. That is incredible.

Bah Humbug

http://www.bustedcarbon.com/2009/12/busted-bh.html

Joao C. in the style section of todays NYT.

50 free bikes and matching Escalade. (Actual terms not to be disclosed.)

IS BH giving you guys? Free Bikes? Cost? Discount.

Wondering what the deal was?

Nice Bikes! I always liked the BH bikes back when Liberty Seguros was winning on them (Vino, Heras et al).
Another nice team bike you will see on the road this year are the Ridley Embrocation Magazine Team Bikes. The team CX bikes were beautiful.

These are the BH/Garneau team bikes

Bouffant Hairdo

is the new team getting these fine steeds into their stable?

Bulbous Honker

PedalForce is nice. Cheap, stiff, light.
Montecci is basically the same as pedalforce, and is also cheap.
lots of options for cheap carbon these days.

Making nice bikes these days.

Good comments- I do think it looks better but I still think that it is a pain to set up and the holes will open up for issues in terms of attracting grit etc. My experience with internal cable routing goes back to the days of Klein/Spectrum bikes as a shop wrench and I have noted many a time in which there has been debris in the frame even when a good rubber seal was in place.

Not that I ride that much in foul weather to warrant this- but I am guessing why it has not become de-rigeur in the pro ranks is because of how hard it is to install new cables on a bike: pro bikes change cables/housing/chains with much more frequency than what is warranted.

The vaccum technique- although it sounds sort of Frank Zappa-ish it works. I wish I could take ownership of the invention of the technique- try it the next time you are trying to pull that cable through the hole.

Great post.

I've never had any problems routing cable through my road frame. The Giant TT bike was a bit more difficult.

Gomer: Not sure why more frame makers dont do it. I imagine it is more expensive to manuf. so I say $ is probably the difference. I find it hard to believe there's a flex factor involved. I forgot to name LOOK in my good design bunch and so if flex was a factor I didnt hear Thor H. makin a big deal about it on Credit Agr. or Cervelo Test Team.

Sander Bartape: A pain to set-up - maybe but so what, it looks cool and you replace cables less.
It weighs more - B.S. and even if it did, you couldnt honestly ride a bike and tell which was which unless you're some kind of witch!
Dirt & Grit - Not true. One of the ideas for doing it besides its aero advantages is the fact that your cables stay clean. I've never had to lube my cables because they never come into contact with the elements until it pokes out to the components. I've never had a problem with water sloshin around in my frame after a wet ride - never. The design in most cases prevents this. I cant speak for Cervelo, Look, or Focus but my rig is not a water log by any stretch. A dry cable equates to less cable related mechanicals.
I'd love to see the youtube of a guy using a vacuum to route cables. that seems a bit ridiculous but...whatever works.

Isn't this just a Giant? If not what is the difference?

Bulging Hernia

It is a pain to set up, it weighs more (full length housing), and holes in frames make for a great place for grit and water to get in. I can barely tolerate having it on my bars and those are relatively painless to set up in comparision- even using a vacuum set up technique it is hard to get right with internal cable routing.

Big Hickey

that is a be yu ti ful bike!!!

Because other makers don't throw in a seatpost when they quote frame weights.

Why did you leave out the super heavy seat clamp, you know the big metal part that mounts the saddle to the aero seat mast?

Other than that those tubes are huge! Where's the Campy version?

this might get twitchy...no one is thinking about the five pound ball sack that has a certain relation to how fast i want to do anything....let me drop a few grams
that was rather nice...thank you!

Or more importantly, internal cable routing can be a pain in the ass to set up.

Lee, with all due respect, if it was such an obvious design advantage, wouldn't all cos do it.

Maybe there is a trade-off? Less stiffness or weakened carbon when you go internal.

Aside from good handling, flashy looks, and Pro-tour approval, what separates good design from GREAT design - internal cable routing! I only know of 3 that do it - Cervelo, Focus, and BMC. All others are 'also rans'.

BH stands for Bike Ho

My hair weights 300grams

"G4!"

"Hah! G5!"

"Hey, you sank my battleship!"

So the fork thing. I had a G4, which was a demo bike I bought used. The fork snapped, and BH determined that there was some previous damage done to the fork during its life as a demo bike. They honored the lifetime warranty and I took the opportunity to upgrade to the G5, which I was going to get anyways.

The bike is BB30, the cups are BH's own propriety BB30 to Shimano cups (I think).

Meant to say Parlee Z5

Not all companies quote frame weight w/out paint and finish.

Friend just got his Parlee G5. It is advertised as an 800 gram frame. Hi frame out of the box, size medium tipped the scale at 815.

The G5 has an integrated seat mast, so that prob adds 100 grams.

Hmmm, it's not clear from the description. BB30 is an open standard (created by C'dale) and Shimano has one of their own called BB86. It's all tech mumbo jumbo, but there are slight differences. Any idea which it is?

300 grams xtra? 'tis nothing. that's a morning trip to the loo.

sounds like a lot, but 300 gr is actually normal weight for muli paint coat + clear coat jobs

Absolutely shameless.

What was the outcome of your catastrophic fork failure?

shameless promotion

I am sure it will ride really nicely- I test rode the G4 and thought it was a really nice bike so I am sure the G5 will be even nicer.
Keep the tech stuff coming.

Looks beefy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0

This was a large frame, so that, along with the cups, probably accounts for the weight increase.

Andy, did the frame with only the Shimano cups pressed in come to 1219 grams? So, from the website claimed +/-820 grams, you paint it red and black and you add BB cups and it weighs 400 grams more? Wow!

Nice Andy. Do you have the obligatory jersey proof to show-off yet?