Carbonda FM909

[RDY]

Received the frame.  Quality seems excellent except for:

They painted it with the bearings in the linkages.  My mechanic recommended not to remove them to grease, since he's sure it will badly damage and crack off chunks of clear.  I'm inclined to agree.  I might expect this of one of the super cheap finishes from from one of the 'cowboy' outfits.  But this finish cost me $250.   It means I can't grease them - and they didn't.  And when they need to be replaced I need to wreck the finish.   Not happy.  They also could have done a much better job with the splatter and appear to have ignored my instructions re: doing the splatter over the green clear and then doing colorless clear over the splatter - but I'm not as bothered about that as the more obvious problem.

Derailleur hanger is a bit odd, but seems to work.

Anyone think using a needle file is likely to work, to remove the clear attached to and around the bearings?  Any other ideas?

[casual_build]

Received the frame.  Quality seems excellent except for:

They painted it with the bearings in the linkages.  My mechanic recommended not to remove them to grease, since he's sure it will badly damage and crack off chunks of clear.  I'm inclined to agree.  I might expect this of one of the super cheap finishes from from one of the 'cowboy' outfits.  But this finish cost me $250.   It means I can't grease them - and they didn't.  And when they need to be replaced I need to wreck the finish.   Not happy.  They also could have done a much better job with the splatter and appear to have ignored my instructions re: doing the splatter over the green clear and then doing colorless clear over the splatter - but I'm not as bothered about that as the more obvious problem.

Derailleur hanger is a bit odd, but seems to work.

Carbonda definitely has at a least one bad painter. My 2+ year old FM936 has far better paint than my 2 month old FM1002. I got a 40$ refund on my 70$ paint. Bring it up to them.

I would recommend using a dremel to sand it off cleanly and carefully.

I super recommend, greasing the bearings.

[endo.alley]

Can't you remove the bolts and dust covers and force some grease in W/O removing the entire bearing?

[RDY]

Can't you remove the bolts and dust covers and force some grease in W/O removing the entire bearing?

Into the inner race, sure?  But not between frame and outer race ... there's no gap, it's sealed by the clearcoat.  Mechanic's going to try with the softer sanding tools with the Dremel next week.  If the clearcoat hasn't penetrated too far into the recess, the Dremel at low speed might be able to take the lip of clear off without cracking the rest, so the bearings can be popped out.

[RDY]

Can someone tell me what the ISCG bolt diameter and length is on the ISCG mounts?  Google not helping. Most saying M6 (some not), lengths varying wildly.

I'm running a 36 oval so likely won't find a guide / guard that will fit, but I need to put some bolts in the holes.

[zeecue]

Can someone tell me what the ISCG bolt diameter and length is on the ISCG mounts?  Google not helping. Most saying M6 (some not), lengths varying wildly.

I'm running a 36 oval so likely won't find a guide / guard that will fit, but I need to put some bolts in the holes.

Most is 6mm and total length with guide is around 10mm. Guides use countersunk bolts, you can use regular allen head bolts if you just need bolts to plug the holes.

[St0mpB0x]

Received the frame.  Quality seems excellent except for:

They painted it with the bearings in the linkages.  My mechanic recommended not to remove them to grease, since he's sure it will badly damage and crack off chunks of clear.  I'm inclined to agree.  I might expect this of one of the super cheap finishes from from one of the 'cowboy' outfits.  But this finish cost me $250.   It means I can't grease them - and they didn't.  And when they need to be replaced I need to wreck the finish.   Not happy.  They also could have done a much better job with the splatter and appear to have ignored my instructions re: doing the splatter over the green clear and then doing colorless clear over the splatter - but I'm not as bothered about that as the more obvious problem.

Derailleur hanger is a bit odd, but seems to work.

I had the same paint issue. I also suspect none of the bearing/frame interfaces were greased because the hanger/frame interface certainly wasn't. Also, as I showed earlier my frame quality was crap.

[Swolie74]

Anyone think using a needle file is likely to work, to remove the clear attached to and around the bearings?  Any other ideas?

Needle file is waaaaay to abrasive to use on a CF frame... personally I would just press them out and fix whatever damage happened... I would also communicate to Carbonda that it's not cool you need to deal with this.

[RDY]

Needle file is waaaaay to abrasive to use on a CF frame... personally I would just press them out and fix whatever damage happened... I would also communicate to Carbonda that it's not cool you need to deal with this.

Don't think it's likely to be possible to fix green transparent clear over raw carbon finish  if you take chunks off it.

They don't care.  Fobbed me off with some bullshit about never expecting customers to remove bearings (they sold me replacement bearing kit hurr durr) and this being how it was always done (no it isn't).

They finally accepted it wasn't ideal and would pass on the advice to the painters for future improvement ... lol.

[Jotegr]

I'd try heating the clear up with a heat gun and then removing the bearing, maybe sanding or breaking the clear with a hobby knife. You're going to get some damage either way but fingers crossed that'll help a bit.

This is why I'm all aboard the DIY paint train.

[RDY]

I'd try heating the clear up with a heat gun and then removing the bearing, maybe sanding or breaking the clear with a hobby knife. You're going to get some damage either way but fingers crossed that'll help a bit.

This is why I'm all aboard the DIY paint train.

That's good advice re: the heat gun.  Thanks.

Oh and I discovered they'd taken all the finish off the right rear chainstay on the underisde near the hanger and even abraded the carbon.   It obviously happened after painting and not during transit (was packed really well and only the box had been opened - packing material untouched).  I can't fathom how they managed this.  They'd have literally had to drag it along the floor or smack it into a wall.  Cosmetically it doesn't matter, but I'll have to put a bit of padding on it to protect the carbon.

One person in this process I certainly can't fault is the person who packed it - great job. 

[Jotegr]

Any chance you could put up a photo? The green might be a somewhat common candy colour or close enough you might be able to fix it? It would be a lot of work though. Typically, a coloured clear over raw goes something like this:

1. clear primer
2. candy intercoat
3. intercoat clear sealer
4. high gloss finish

So it's pretty tough to replicate for a touch-up, but depending on what it looks like, you might be able to get it down to as simple as a two-step paint application for a touch up.

[RDY]

Thanks.  Guess I'll see what the damage is when the time comes.  Build day is gonna be delayed a bit anyway as bike-componentsDE continue to descend from the best bike e-tailer of the 00s and early 10s into the worst bike e-tailer in DE of the 20s ... took them nearly 2 weeks of fuck ups and general SNAFUs to finally dispatch the stuff that I ordered - which was in stock.

[endo.alley]

Received the frame.  Quality seems excellent except for:

They painted it with the bearings in the linkages.  My mechanic recommended not to remove them to grease, since he's sure it will badly damage and crack off chunks of clear.

Why not use an Exacto style knife to carefully separate the paint from the bearings? My Carbonda FM909 came raw carbon fiber. Seems to be OK.

[carbonazza]

...They finally accepted it wasn't ideal and would pass on the advice to the painters for future improvement ... lol.

Do you know how branded frame are mounted with this ?
So we could tell them more precisely what needs to be done.