Sorry for the delay y'all,
I just finished building a desktop computer which was very helpful in sitting through writing this review.
The frame is now riding pretty well, but I'm working on my fit on the bike, and I'm about to re-dish my wheels, carbon grit the seatpost again and lube the rear thru axle to try to get a better alignment for myself, but I'm sure the frame is not bent. I have a history of bending frames - 3 surly Ogre, 1 Niner Sir 9, then the Kinesis I ordered arrived bent by 6mm or so, and I also received a rear triangle replacement for a mondraker dune which arrived bent, and it was outside of warranty so they wouldn't ship another (not original buyer of that one). So I had decided on carbon to avoid all those issues. I also ordered through alibaba using paypal, and in talking with the seller I was able to negotiate ~100 off the price.
There was a small chip of carbon area in the headtube which the upper headset bearing seats on top of which was cracked and fell out of the frame when I received it, but its not a linear crack and seems fine so far, I let them know and they informed me that actually the buyer is responsible for any damage in shipping - its in the contract terms, I did check, so I'd buy this with a VISA rather than Paypal just to be able to make a claim more easily (not entirely sure but I think VISA would be better for this). I forget if VISA was an option for payment now.. maybe go through paypal with VISA or something. It's been a while now so I forget.
I had a few issues with the build - namely the XT non-boost crankset I was hoping to use didn't clear the chainstays, and I was left with SRAM Dub as the best option as they are designed for PF BB and don't increase Q factor to accommodate boost. So I went with XX1 Dub cranks$$$. At this point in the build, the crankset I'm using cost more than the frame. Another issue I noticed is not being able to drop the saddle much without cutting the seatpost down by several inches, but this frame is really not for Trail riding even if I do XC race with it at some point.
The rear brake mount was difficult to accomodate 180mm rotor with flat mount - luckily Cannondale makes an adapter that works perfectly, it just took some time to find it online. No issues with the rear brake setup so far.
The cable routing for the shifting on this frame seems poorly thought out as the adapters that fit into the frame to hold the cable on the headtube where they insert into the frame wasn't designed for full length shifter housing - I just drilled out the adapter before I put it into the frame. If you didn't run them full length what you would end up with is the cable grinding away internally at the bottom bracket curve of the frame.. I then covered the unused holes in the headtube and BB with electrical tape, which keeps mud and water out and looks decent. I do get some cable rattle which is super annoying but there are a number of fixes for that I haven't explored yet.
After I built it up I was getting creaking and was sure it was the PF BB, which I tapped out and pressed back in 3x with loctite, first 609, then 641 and primer 2x, before going to a shop and they pointed out it may be the axle creaking in the rear dropout. Once a little grease went there, the creaking stopped. I think the creaking came from both spots so it was still a good thing to loctite the BB.
One thing that still bothers me about this frame is the reach is a bit short compared to modern geo or forward geo frames, so I'm currently running a 110mm stem.. working on that with different bars. 110mm is really too long for trail riding, but I forgive this bike a lot because of the way it puts down power, and its so light. I ordered a 19" which has a 448mm reach, on paper it looks fine but the numbers I was basing off of (520mm reach + stem combined total) are for Enduro setup with a dual position air fork that I can drop down. I have a 2.25 rear and 2.35 front tire so a larger rear may help slightly.
Another thing I did was wrap the top tube in mastic tape 6x then put a final layer of electrical tape over that, which is to prevent damage if the bars spin, my SRAM shifter doesn't clear the frame and that same event caused some bad TT damage to the Kinesis I was using before this.
I still think this is one of the best options based on the geo numbers, but please let me know if you guys are aware of any similar frames with a longer reach that don't sacrifice head tube angle or use much longer chainstays.
To answer Carbonazza, I didn't paint it and wish I had waited for the unpainted carbon version to see the layup and cracks may be more visible, not sure - mine is UD Matte which looks great anyhow, flat black paint.
Specs:
Novatec D542 rear hub, D641 front hub. Gold Titanium spokes from Danscomp. Alloy nipples with steel nipple washers. No, they dont flex and I love Ti spokes, but tension is crucial.
Rocket Ron rear tire, Continental Mountain King Protection front tire
XTR M9020 brakes - 180mm rear and 200mm front rotor - metallic pads
Salsa seatclamp, Thomson Elite Seatpost, Ergon SMC4-M saddle
Easton Havoc bars, thomson Elite X4 stem, ODI Oury lock on grips
Shimano Saint pedals which I will likely swap for OneUp plastic pedals to save ~150g
Sram Dub XX1 cranks and Dub BB
Sram Eagle X01 shifter, derr, cassette
Topeak alloy WB cages
Surly Krampus fork with mudguard
Stock headset with a cane creek upper cap
Thanks for existing, chinertown, it was very helpful to read these threads in gaining any confidence in ordering one of these frames.
