Hello friends,
I've finally finished assembling the frame (unfortunately I work full time and there has to be a bit of time for the family too
)
Briefly about my background. I work in a rather manual profession (Control cabinet construction and commissioning for fire extinguishing systems for large power plants driven by Siemens gas turbines). So I don't think I have two left hands, but building a roadbike with this frame was a challenge for me.
I had already serviced my bikes myself before and replaced the most necessary parts, but I had never done anything like shortening a fork, installing a headset or an electronic groupset before, etc.
In the end, everything worked pretty well. The Carbonda frame is of very good quality and leaves hardly anything to be desired, especially for the price.
Unfortunately, the rear flat mount was very uneven and had protruding paint (I was prepared for this as I had already read about the problem in this forum). I had to painstakingly sand a lot and partially remove the paint. But in the end I got the brake adjusted.
Thanks to the great documentation from fsa, shimano and other manufacturers, the rest of the assembly was no problem at all.
So far I am also very satisfied with the parts directly from AliExpress like the saddle which is really very comfortable or the wahoo mount (unfortunately it does not fit together with the fsa stem because it is too wide. But my wife uses it and is satisfied). All the tools are also durable and of good quality. Unfortunately the bleed kit doesn't have a clamp for the hose, so I can't bleed the front brake properly (or it's my clumsiness, but I'll have to do it again).
The wheels from elitewheels are a particular highlight for me. Unfortunately, I have the problem that when I tighten the rear thru axle too much (approx. 4nm), grinding noises occur. I am in contact with elitewheels support about this problem.
Pros:
*The paintwork is of good quality and is evenly applied.
* The stripes and the logo are well finished
* Good processing of the carbon from the inside and outside
* The paint color matches the ral color card that I got for color selection
* Cleanly finished holes in the frame
* Flat mount aligned at the front
* Bottom bracket area free of paint and symmetrical and has a good thread
* Accessories make a high-quality impression (bolts, dropouts, seatpost clamp, etc.)
* Dropout straight
* Lightweight for the price
* Good threads for the bottle cages
* Good quality spacers (close to the quality of fsa)
* The quality of the thru axles is good
* The seatpost and clamping are good (a scale on the seatpost was helpful when adjusting the saddle height)
Cons:
* Paint and clear coat is very sensitive compared to more expensive frames
* Rear flat mount not straight and had protruding paint
* headset bearings look cheap
Overall, I am very satisfied with the assembly. There were small pitfalls here and there but nothing that you couldn't get under control with a little skill and research.
I will certainly order from Carbonda again, but this time I would consider having the paintwork done here locally. Yes, that would certainly have been expensive, but the quality of the paint would also have been better. Apart from that, I have nothing to criticize about the frame so far (except for the rear flat mount) and now time will tell how durable all the components and the frame are.
I've uploaded the latest photos to Imgur (Chinertown won't let me upload the post with the photos attached)
https://imgur.com/a/mUi3Ykm
