Fnhon Gust: Drivetrain

The Fnhon Gust is a 16 inch folding bike, which means that it is meant to be a casual bike, not a race bike. A normal front single drivetrain is all that is needed. Some may even prefer the simplicity of a single speed drivetrain.

In this case, a good quality 11 speed drivetrain will be installed, to cater to both low speed climbing and high speed cruising. It will obviously not be a speedy bike like road bikes, but there is nothing stopping us from using top end road bike components on this Fnhon Gust.

Wheelset selection is important, as we need a freehub body that can accommodate a 11 speed cassette. Weight was kept low with a sensible selection of lightweight carbon handlebar and aluminium seat post.

The drivetrain is mainly made up of the crankset, cassette, chain and rear derailleur. For this bike, a Dura-Ace 9000 groupset was supplied, which also matches nicely with the black colour of the frame and fork.

Dura-Ace 9000 rear derailleur, short cage version. Very lightweight at just 160 grams!

Dura-Ace 9000 11-28T cassette, with 5 titanium sprockets. Very lightweight at 195 grams.

Cassette installed on the 16 inch wheelset! Looking good and lightweight.

To match with the rest of the components, a Dura-Ace 9000 crankset was also provided. As it will be a front single drivetrain, only the crankarms will be used, while the original chainrings are not needed.

Dura-Ace 9000 crankarms!

Just 305 grams for the right side, which is really lightweight.

Left side weighs 178 grams, including the crank arm fixing bolt.

A narrow wide front chainring is necessary, to prevent chain drop during shifting. Usually I will use Wolf Tooth chainrings, as they are proven to be very good. In fact, I use them on most of my bikes, such as on the Dahon MuSP, Fnhon DB11, Fabike C3, etc.

However, the Wolf Tooth chainrings are really expensive, so this time, I sourced for lower cost alternatives. I found this Stone branded narrow wide chainrings on Taobao, and they seem to have pretty good reviews. The price is about half of a Wolf tooth chainring, so I think it is worth trying.

Each chainring is machined according to your required size. Comes in many specifications to fit practically all cranksets.

Chainring bolts are included, which I didn't know.

Looks to be of good quality, although the arm design can be quite plain.

With the signature cutout on one of the arms to fit Shimano road cranks. On older Wolf Tooth chainrings I had to cut it out myself.

Narrow wide tooth profile for better chain retention.

Weighs 128 grams, which is pretty heavy as it is a large 52T chainring.

Problem! The chainring bolts provided by Stone does not fit into the holes on the crankset. Just slightly too big.

It was the first time I encountered this issue, where the chainring bolt was too big to fit into the holes on the crankset. After comparison, I found that the Stone chainring bolts were just slightly bigger than the usual Litepro chainring bolts that I used.

Luckily I had already ordered Litepro chainring bolts, so installation could carry on without any delay. The Litepro chainring bolts fitted without any issue, just like the many chainrings that I have installed previously.

Dura-Ace 9000 crankarm with Stone 52T narrow wide chainring

This settles the drivetrain, and in the next post the installation will begin, with more information regarding the brakes.

Fnhon Gust: Wheelset and Tires

The Fnhon Gust will require a 16 inch wheelset, as it is a small folding bike. For 16 inch wheels, there are actually two sizes, 305 and 349. 305 was used by Dahon Curve D3, and it is quite small. 349 is larger, and is also more common. It is used by Bromptons as well.

This bike is designed for 16 inch, 349 wheelsets. This means it will be smaller than 20 inch folding bikes, which are either 406 or 451 sizes. These numbers refer to the rim diameter.

For this bike, the wheelset was bought from AliExpress, and it came surprisingly fast. The cost was around SGD 300.

An all black wheelset was desired, and this wheelset seems to fit the bill perfectly. One more thing to take note, the Fnhon Gust uses rim brakes (caliper or V brakes), so don't get a disc brake wheelset. The OLD of the frame and fork is 74 mm front, 130 mm rear.

All black 16 inch 349 wheelset. 20 spokes for front wheel, 24 spokes for rear wheel.

Double wall rim, with hooked rims.

Black spoke nipples as well. Even the brake track is black, not sure if it will last after some usage.

Inner rim width is a narrow 13 mm, which is really narrow by modern standards.

External rim width is almost 19 mm. Also very narrow by modern standards.

Rim height is only about 18 mm, also very shallow.

With a narrow rim and short rim height, this should keep the weight of the wheelset low. That is the one of the few advantages to having narrow and short rims.

The rims are laced to standard Novatec hubs, which are normally of good quality, are affordable, and relatively lightweight. It is similar to what I used last time, the Novatec A551SB.

Front hub is A211SB, with 74 mm OLD. Straight pull lacing pattern is used for the front wheel.

There is a small gap between the rubber seal and the hub, not sure if this is normal or not.

Rear hub is Novatec F162SB. Straight pull lacing on non-drive side.

Looking pretty good with all black components. Drive side uses cross lacing pattern.

11 speed compatible freehub, important if you want to use a 11 speed road cassette.

The rear freehub has 27 clicks per round, which means 13.3 degrees of engagement angle. This is an unusual number, as a more common value is 18, 24 or 30 clicks per round. I did check a few times so the value is correct.

I forgot to measure the weight of the wheelset, but we can calculate it later, since I did weigh all the parts that go onto the wheels.

Rim tape is provided, 22 grams for a pair.

Quick release axles are included with the Novatec wheelset, 101 grams for the pair.

Next to a full sized 700C wheel (622 mm diameter), the 16 inch wheel (349 mm diameter) looks so small!

Schwalbe Kojak tires are selected for this bike, for a balance of speed and comfort. It was hard to find as it was out of stock nearly everywhere, due to it being a common size with Bromptons.

32-349 Kojak tire. A width of 32 mm is a good width for small wheeled bikes, as narrow tires on small wheels will require high tire pressures, which makes the ride very bumpy.

Each tire weighs 249 grams. These are with wire beads, which will be heavier than those with kevlar beads.

16 inch inner tubes, Schwalbe SV4. It can actually be shared with the slightly larger 18 inch, 355 wheels. This is what was used on the Tyrell IVE.

Inner tube is 84 grams each.

As expected, the tire will bulge out over the narrow rim, but I think it is OK since I have been using this combination for a long time, on the Dahon Boardwalk and Dahon MuEX.

During tire installation, I found that one section of the tire refused to seat on the rim properly, despite inflating and deflating a few times. I had to use the Schwalbe Easy Fit, which is a soapy solution that you apply on the tire bead, to lubricate it as you install the tire. With this, the tire was able to seat on the rim properly.

Schwalbe Easy Fit, with a foam applicator for easy usage.

Schwalbe Kojak tires installed! Managed to achieve the all black look. Size looks normal, until...

...next to a full sized road bike wheel, it looks tiny! The road wheel is from Ascent Bikes.

Front wheel with inner tube and tire and rim tape is 706 grams.

Rear hub with inner tube, tire, rim tape and Dura-Ace 9000 11-28T cassette is 1114 grams.

Front wheel weight with rim tape = 706 - 249 - 84 = 373 grams

Rear wheel weight with rim tape = 1114 - 249 - 84 - 195 = 586 grams

This gives a wheelset weight (inclusive of rim tape) of only 959 grams, which is pretty good. The low weight mainly comes from the small wheel size, and also the narrow and short rims.

Fnhon Gust: Handlebar Setup and Seatpost

Previously, the key components of the Fnhon Gust 16 inch folding bike was shown. The steel frame, steel fork and aluminium handlepost comes together as a frameset. The rest of the parts needs to be sourced individually.

With careful selection, the components that are chosen will be tailored to your specific needs. This bike is targeted to have a selection of high end components, with a full 11 speed drivetrain. At the same time, lightweight components are preferred to minimize the weight, although the frameset itself is already pretty heavy.

Carbon flat handlebars of good quality can be found cheaply on Taobao, such as the Toseek flat handlebar that I have used previously on the Bike Friday Haul-A-Day cargo bike and also the Fnhon DB11 folding bike.

For folding bikes, a handlebar width of around 560 to 580 mm is ideal. If it is too narrow, it will be harder to control the bike. If it is too wide, folding might be affected due to grip and tire interference.

In this case, a 580 mm wide Toseek carbon handlebar was selected. The center clamp portion needs to be of diameter 25.4 mm to match the handlepost clamp.

Toseek flat handlebar, 580 mm wide, weighs exactly 100 grams.

PRO grips, weigh just 81 grams, which is pretty lightweight for lock on grips.

SL-RS700 11 speed road flat handlebar shifter.

Brake levers will be Sora brake levers, which are black colour to match the rest of the bike. I forgot to take a picture of the brake levers, but you can see them later on, in pictures of the full bike.

With that, the handlebar area is settled. Choosing the seat post and saddle is easy, as it is quite standard. On a 16 inch folding bike, although the seat tube is lower than that of a 20 inch bike, the seat post length used is the same, just that it extends out further from the frame. In this case, a standard seat post will do. Instead of the most lightweight version with thin clamps, I chose the type that is slightly heavier but has a much stronger saddle clamp.

Litepro seat post, diameter 33.9 mm, length 600 mm. 

I also got an aluminium seat post shim, as I thought the frameset comes with a plastic seat post shim which does not work well.

After checking, I found that a metal seat post shim is actually included with the frameset, which is good. A good quality seat post clamp with brass bushings is also included.

Saddle is provided by my friend. The grey colour does not match the rest of the bike but that is not an issue for me.

In the next post, we will check out the new wheelset and tires, which is another key part of this bike.

Fnhon Gust: Fork and Handlepost

The Fnhon Gust frameset actually includes the handlepost as well, not just the frame and fork. This is a really good deal as I know that most framesets don't include the handlepost.

In this case, the handlepost needs to be taller than what is usually used for 20 inch folding bikes, as the fork and head tube is lower on a 16 inch bike. On 20 inch folding bikes, I like a handlepost that is relatively short, at around 29 cm in height. It can be quite hard to find.

For this 16 inch frameset, a commonly used handlepost height is either 37 cm or 40 cm. In this case I think a 40 cm handlepost might be too tall if you prefer a sporty riding style over an upright, casual style.

Long handlepost for the Fnhon Gust 16 inch frameset.

Handlepost weighs a pretty hefty 636 grams! This does not even include the compression bolt.

Height is around 37 cm when measured from the base to the center of the clamp.

Quick release lever type. OK for flat handlebars, but not tight enough to prevent rotation if you install drop bars.

Compression bolt and shim weighs 48 grams.

After installation, we shall see if the handlepost height is OK. If not, it is possible to change to a taller or shorter one, as it is just a standard handlepost. Fnhon makes many types of handleposts of various heights, clamp type and inward/outward folding type.

Next, let's take a look at the Fnhon Gust front fork. Same as the frame, it is also made of steel, so we can expect it to weigh quite a bit more than an aluminium fork. Last time, when I changed the front fork on the Dahon Boardwalk from steel to aluminium, the weight was greatly reduced from 800 grams to 440 grams.

16 inch front fork weighs 637 grams, which is heavy. A longer 20 inch aluminium fork would weigh around 200 grams less, while a full sized gravel bike carbon fork weighs around 400 grams.

The steerer tube is also steel, which contributes a lot to the weight.

Nice gold markings on the fork to match the frame. Not sure what MARTAX is.

Gold markings to indicate 4130 chromoly steel.

Possible to install either V brakes or caliper brakes. More details in future posts.

The fork is heavy as it is made of steel, although that is to align with the design intention of this frame. There are other bike models which are made of aluminium, if you prefer a more lightweight 16 inch folding bike.