Hey everyone,
Long time listener, first time caller here. I recently built a size 20.5" Ican S8 and found to my great displeasure about 2mm of side-to-side play in all of the pivot bearings on the frame. I disassembled them and found that instead of Loctite, they were secured with c-clip springs.
I've never seen, heard of, or read about c-clips being used to hold suspension pivot bearings into a frame. Unfortunately, the bike is in the shop, so I don't have any pictures. Has anyone ever experienced this with a frame? I've browsed every build thread I can find, but everyone else's bearings seem to be properly installed in their frames.
I decided to go with the S8 based on the geometry and other users' positive experiences with their P8 frames, which seems to be as close to a trail bike as the major Chinese manufacturers produce.
I had my local shop loctite the bearings into the frame, but that has only solved about 75% of the flex in the back end of the bike. It's also interesting that KHS is selling the S8 as a "Team 29 FS."
http://khsbicycles.com/bikes/2018-khs-models/team-29-fs-18/ Other than the weird back end looseness, the bike rides great and absolutely rips downhill. This frame is certainly one of the most progressive XC bikes on the market at the moment.