Considering Winspace SLC3, any thoughts?

[Rone69]

SLC3 owners are there?
I would like to find some SLC3 owners who will honestly express their impressions of this frame, perhaps comparing it with others they have ridden.

Also I would love to hear comments on ride quality and comfort of this frame and any problems encountered during assembly and or riding it.

In your opinion, if you have to buy all the components, is it worth it to assemble a bike with a ‘premium’ Chinese frame (Winspace, Workswell, Yoeleo, Hong Fu, etc.), or is it better to buy a complete bike from the usual market leaders (Giant, Merida, Orbea, etc.), relying also on the added value of direct support from your local dealer?

The best alternatives with the same geometry and features would probably be the Orbea Orca OMX and the Giant TCR Pro, both of which I would have dealers close to home.

At the end of the day, with the same components, the Orca and the TCR would cost around 1500 euros more.

Frame weight is not the deciding factor, geometry, ride quality and comfort are.

Thank you in advance.

[Dareios]

Bumping this one because I'm temped to pull the trigger on a fully built SLC 3.
Has anyone here ridden it? Does it feel faster on the flat then say a TCR or Emonda?

[Serge_K]

For me winspace is a chinese brand that executed well on the western influencer strategy. By that i mean they sell bikes at a premium because of the branding and all that marketing. Which means that value wise, you should be able to pay less for a frame without the branding and marketing budget.
Basically, Winspace is some chinese low end version of why Specialized or Trek are so expensive.

And that's fine, it's just not for me. I automatically distrust reviews from people who directly benefit from hyping up the product, it's the most basic form of conflict of interest. Which again, it's fine, some will argue the American ethos of something like "you need marketing to sell something otherwise it wont sell". I'm French, i value craftsmanship, artisans, and so on. I think that if your work speaks for itself, you'll find work, and work will find you. But obviously, that doesnt scale, and now even Time changed hands and is now American. Let's say i'm a dinosaur.

That said, recently there was this: https://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,5729

When you charge premium, the social contract, if not formal contract, is that you stand behind your product. And apparently, they behave worse than the OEMs I deal with.

Most of the feedback you'll find from Workswell here is negative, ironically. Maybe we should refer to them as Doesntworkswell.

If you feel that you could fairly casually and happily spend an extra 1500$ on a given bike, i'd say do that. Support your local bike shop and save yourself the time and mental load of the rabbit hole of chinese carbon.

[Nkearb]

I think the biggest difference between buying a decent value bikeshop bike or building a premium chiner is wheelset. For the same ~3000$ pricetag the chiner would have a great wheelset, while the bike shop bike will have terrible wheelset. Also factor in the crank, handlebar width, tire choice... I built my own because of all the bad components that I would have to replace.

I do have the SLC3 and can say as for ride dynamics, it rides like a bike, it has pedals and when you spin them it goes.

[patliean1]

I have an SLC3. It's fantastic when not being compared to the SL8. Something which Winspace tried to benchmark and market. It's light, very nimble, and feels like a proper climbing bike rather than an all-arounder. Excellent road dynamics. Fit and finish on par with western brands.

Your biggest hurdle is probably the public perception within this forum. While I could mention probably at least 6-7 customers who really love their SLC3, this forum really isn't the place to discuss and validate $2000 frames. No quarrels about this personally. I've tested like 10 different sub-$1000 USD Chiner frames thanks to the recommendations of folks in here. We all have to decide for ourselves end of the day.

One man's purchase does not make him more or less virtuous than the next.

[Takiyaki]

If youre OK with more of a gamble there's the TFSA JH-35

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808318926562.html?spm=a2g0o.tesla.0.0.33d7QQfEQQfEcL&afTraceInfo=1005008505241314__unknown__c_ppc_item_bridge_pc_main__4y6Igwk__1743124542952&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

[Blueberry]

yeah, as @Serge_K shared, I've been having a pretty miserable time dealing with Winspace. In my experience, you get basically nothing for the extra premium that you pay. They even charged me $200 extra, on top of the initial $1380 for having an issue with my frame, despite the fact it was under warranty (planning to contest that charge whenever I receive the replacement, but who knows when that will be). I'm speculating that Winspace is starting to prioritize profits over everything and their customer experiences are about to get much worse.

Definitely proceed with caution when it comes to Winspace. Personally, I strongly recommend against them.

[patliean1]

I'm speculating that Winspace is starting to prioritize profits over everything and their customer experiences are about to get much worse.

If I were to guess...sponsoring that women's conti team while also not exactly innovating on their primary sellers (wheels) has really put them in a bind. The competition especially for wheels has surpassed Winspace. And what was their response? Increase prices LoL. We basically have reached peak carbon spoked wheels for the time being.

Just like with the western brands Winspace was making huge profits coming out of the pandemic. But eventually they were stuck with large amounts of inventory they couldn't move, as the consumer moved on to other brands. You really don't hear much about them anymore like we did back in 2020-22.

[Blueberry]

I've really grown to love my ICAN/Triaero Flyee in the last couple months and that's an Orca "inspired" frameset, if that option interests you. The frame easily fits 35c tires and I love the ICAN FL38max wheels I got for it too (sadly they've raised the price of those wheels by $90 since I bought mine). I checked their truing, dishing and circularity when I received them and everything was within .5mm. I was sick for the whole second half of 2024 so I was not able to actually start riding the Flyee until this year and it's honestly been wonderful. I love the geometry, it's snappy but still has high stack so you don't need a tower of headset spacers under the stem.

For the record though, they did totally strip the thru axle threads on the fork but it was easily fixed with an M12x1.5 tap and ICAN told me they would send a replacement fork if needed. I was the one who chose to tap it rather than get a replacement. I shared more pros and cons in the thread I linked below.

https://icancycling.com/products/flyee-road-bike-frame
https://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,5127.0.html

[BeR]

I've really grown to love my ICAN/Triaero Flyee in the last couple months and that's an Orca "inspired" frameset, if that option interests you. The frame easily fits 35c tires and I love the ICAN FL38max wheels I got for it too (sadly they've raised the price of those wheels by $90 since I bought mine). I checked their truing, dishing and circularity when I received them and everything was within .5mm. I was sick for the whole second half of 2024 so I was not able to actually start riding the Flyee until this year and it's honestly been wonderful. I love the geometry, it's snappy but still has high stack so you don't need a tower of headset spacers under the stem.

For the record though, they did totally strip the thru axle threads on the fork but it was easily fixed with an M12x1.5 tap and ICAN told me they would send a replacement fork if needed. I was the one who chose to tap it rather than get a replacement. I shared more pros and cons in the thread I linked below.

https://icancycling.com/products/flyee-road-bike-frame
https://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,5127.0.html

How is the siffness of the Flyee ? (I know, it is offtopic)

[Blueberry]

How is the siffness of the Flyee ? (I know, it is offtopic)

It's possible I'm not the best person to judge it's stiffness, only because I'm not that strong. I can push 900w for a couple seconds but my FTP is below 200w rn. I did have my boyfriend ride it a couple months ago (he's much stronger than me) and asked him what he thought of the stiffness. He's rode a bijillion different bikes and he was sort of like, "yeah, it's stiff enough, it felt good in the sprint I did." From his tone, I got the impression it's no SL8 but it's solid.

[Nkearb]

If I could go back I probably wouldnt get a slc3. Bikes been flawless and has perfect QC, but the speeder 55 looks like a much better value. The winspace brand promises better quality and aftersale support, and if that turns out to not true then they are not worth it. TBH I was looking at buying the slc2 when it was on deep discount, then I seen the SLC 3 get announced and it was more of a impulse purchase.

I have a "winspace authorized dealer" bikeshop in my town and they said they warranty winspace frames/hyper wheels and they said winspace is great about covering repairs under warrenty on their wheels (theyve never seen a frame come in for repair) so that is reassuring

[Serge_K]

I have a "winspace authorized dealer" bikeshop in my town and they said they warranty winspace frames/hyper wheels and they said winspace is great about covering repairs under warrenty on their wheels (theyve never seen a frame come in for repair) so that is reassuring

I believe that the crowd on this forum that builds their own bikes pays more attention to the inside of frames than most bike shops, because it's not in the interest of bike shops to raise hell with frame manufacturers / brands. In fact it's the opposite. As long as they feel the frame is still safe to ride, their interest is shipping the bike out of the door, hoping it doesn't collapse on itself. If it does collapse on itself, they still aren't liable, the bike manufacturer is.
If bike shops were behaving like Madpec on YT (or how Madpec is advertising themselves to be on YT, to apply extra cynicism), they would 1. sell fewer bikes 2. scare customers 3. annoy brands 4. potentially to achieve nothing but the satisfaction of having a flawless frame internally.

One reason i believe that is Cannondale. The whole silicone grease for bottom bracket rabbit hole i fell into to fix a creaky BB was basically invented by Cannondale, because their BBs used to be absolute dog $hit, and i can confirm, i have a supersix evo hi mid from the Peter Sagan era. Another reason is Peak Torque and his analysis of shimano plastic BB shells for PF BBs, as opposed to metal ones, because plastic allows for much shittier tolerances than metal. And him having to ream the BB on his Tavelo frame because otherwise he'd have cracked the frame, while we heard bike shops being like "nah that's fine, we just pushed the plastic cup hard in there".

So that's quite ironic: on here, I feel we're holding OEMs to a higher standard than western brands. I think that's great for competition & incentivizing OEMs to step up their game, and rewarding those who deserve our money, and penalizing those that try to sell crap / gaslight (workswell and winspace come to mind as recent examples, light carbon with the 17D, but also sellers of fakes, airwolf).

[hugovl]

If I were to guess...sponsoring that women's conti team while also not exactly innovating on their primary sellers (wheels) has really put them in a bind. The competition especially for wheels has surpassed Winspace. And what was their response? Increase prices LoL. We basically have reached peak carbon spoked wheels for the time being.

Just like with the western brands Winspace was making huge profits coming out of the pandemic. But eventually they were stuck with large amounts of inventory they couldn't move, as the consumer moved on to other brands. You really don't hear much about them anymore like we did back in 2020-22.

Also Joe from China Cycling/Panda Podium has left the building, so marketing wise they are not up there anymore...

[KaiDeus]

I have about 4k km on mine and it is an all round great bike. I don't know what I would want more out of a roadbike.
I did the built myself and let me tell you, the build quality is top notch, nothing to complain about. E.g.cable routing through the fork was a breeze and the BB shell I right on the money. I did not want to faff around with shitty tolerances, so the slightly higher price did not bother me at all, mind you, I got it on the black friday deal.