Author Topic: New to China Carbon - horror stories true, or overblown myths?  (Read 985 times)

Kramerfiely

Hi guys - I’m new to China carbon in general.my question is basic, and I want to tap in on all of your experience - are the horror stories about breaking, poor craftsmanship, low quality, etc. true? Somewhat true? Completely false? Is it buyer beware, or can I jump in full force with no concern whatsoever?



acedeuce802

Re: New to China Carbon - horror stories true, or overblown myths?
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2021, 12:49:57 PM »
From what I've witnessed, the majority of issues with the bikes are things like headset seats not being machined perfectly, BB area needing some smoothing to fit right, these kind of issues take some mechanical competence and being able to identify and fix these types of issues will prevent failure down the road.  I don't see many catastrophic failures very often, like cracked frames, but they do happen.  From reading Chinertown and MTBR everyday, I don't feel that the reports of generic frames cracking are much more frequent than name brand carbon frames.  There are also brands that seem ahead of the curve for quality and customer service, like Carbonada or Ican (many more that you'll find on this site).  They both manufacture frames for name brands, they know what they're doing.

My personal opinion is that a good majority of people who have a bad experience will report it online, and only a small portion of people who have a good experience will report it.  If you go to a thread for a specific frame and find 20 people with good experiences, 1 person with a fitment issue, and 1 person with a crack, then I would be willing to bet that there are 100 more people who had no issues and did not post about it.  I'm also fairly light (160 lbs dry) and don't have much concern riding generic frames and wheels.

Jotegr

Re: New to China Carbon - horror stories true, or overblown myths?
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2021, 01:31:05 PM »
I'll add that the majority of the problems I've experienced is due to crap hardware and bearings, not poor carbon work.