Are you referring to the bike that is listed on the classified section on slowtwitch? If so, I just took a look at it and something doesn't look right about the stem. I used to have the same model and same size and the bento was perfectly flush with the stem. I wondering if perhaps the TT stem is being used and it was modded to have the bento attached to it (I don't remember if the TT stem had the little bottle piece or not). Then again, I never ran 25mm tires on mine so it could just be a clearance issue. I find it hard to believe it was an xl bottle on a Large frame though, I remember trying to get parts for it was somewhat difficult but could be done. There was a retailer in the UK that had nearly everything and you could most likely get a bottle, but I would imagine it would be a hefty price and I can't imagine someone doing it. I would definitely try to see if it's the right stem as it came from the factory with two stems for the bike.

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Team Zoot 2023

The stem is correct. The bemto box was attached by putting the screws through the slots in the bottom of the box, not through the screw holes. It was a simple mistake that I fixed. Nothing else so far is an issue.

Only the moderate tire rub on the aero bottle.

Any chance it's the aerobrake cover on the front? The thing used to randomly get loose and I lost the bolt several times and had a stash of replacements. When it lost the bolt it did rub a little bit.

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Team Zoot 2023

No chance. I have tested this. It is the bottle. I can lift the bottle an inch from the mount and the rub noise goes away when the wheel turns. The break cover has no effect.

I’ve got a large. If you take some measurements, I’ll compare against mine.
I knew somethingWas up with the bento box. Glad it was an easy fix.
If you want me to take any pics let me know. I’m waiting on a new basebar but it will be here in the next few days.
I’ve never had anything close to rubbing up front.

There's a Plasma 5 owners group on Facebook which might be helpful.

I've got a small frame and whilst the bottle is a close fit, there's no danger of it rubbing. Something doesn't sound quite right. Which piece of rubber has been carved? (i have three parts that connect to the bottle)

Thanks very much.

With the bottle sitting flat on a table, the highest point of the bottle itself is at the back (not talking about the raised lips around the fill port or the straw port. My bottle is 8 1/4" tall at the back.

In the front (again with the bottle on a flat surface), the top of the round lip around the fill port is 8"

Thanks for taking a look at yours when you get a chance. Like the bento box being installed slightly incorrectly, I think this bottle issue will have an easy fix (likely size, but who knows?) I do know the bike's previous owner bought the parts and built it - the frameset was new, so likely included the bottle, but again, I don't know.

Yeah, see, reading you say there is no chance of rub is what I would expect. This is a superbike and I just don't believe even an absolutely microscopic amount of rub would exist. Thank you.

The carved piece is the rubber piece that attaches to the backside of the bottle (not the side rubber).

"Carved" was too strong of a word. The previous owner took off just a tiny amount of rubber from the wheel side of the piece.

The bottom of the bottle is also scraped up or sanded as if to remove a tiny amount of material.

The rub is so minor, that it probably only scrubs one watt or something silly. But it is there, so something isn't right here.

Just now I installed the bottle without that back rubber and confirmed again it is the bottle rubbing. The gap between the wheel and bottle is super tight. I am becoming more and more convinced this is the wrong size bottle.

It does sound like it. I thought there were only two bottle sizes, but Westbrook Cycles in the UK, list 4 different sizes, but annoyingly not the capacity to allow comparison.

Mines 7” and 6.25, not taking the lips into consideration.
Give me an email and I can send over pics with a ruler, to make sure we are measuring the same point but I’m pretty positive we are.
Send me a Dm if you want.

Will DM you, thanks. Seems like we're getting to the bottom of this.