Tavelo Aero Frame

[Takiyaki]

PT's criticisms are fair, but man, does he like anything lol. What's the last generally positive review he gave? Seems like all his reviews are "me smart bike companies dumb"

[toxin]

GC's reply under PT vid.

A lot of bikes come into the shop with issues, every brand. My job as a bike shop is not to sit there and tell the customer how crappy this is or they need to return it. Customers want to ride it. So it's our job to fix it

Take that as you will

[repoman]

This is pretty bad for even $600 dollar frames. The branding has no clothes.

FWIW Both PT and Hambini gave pretty glowing reviews of 9Velo wheelsets so I bought one. The bearings in the front are completely toast after 1000 miles, the rear ones are on the way out. 9Velo has no interest in replacing them since they are "consumables." I'd understand that position if they actually lasted a reasonable distance, but 1000 babied miles for ceramic bearings is complete crap.  I was going to buy another set but now I'm definitely going with some other company.

Hambini also completely shit on Hunt wheels, I have a set of those that I have completely abused and they are still rock solid and the bearings are still fine after probably 3000 miles, a lot of which are use of being on my bad weather bike.

[toxin]

Most bearing on chinese wheels are shit ftom what I'm seeing. 9Velo are H-Works hubs, farsports use those too and same problems have been reported

[Takiyaki]

Yep this is why you have to take reviews with a grain of salt. Ultimately theyre just one opinion from one person. Threads like this are more useful IMO as you get some real world owner feedback. More miles, more skin in the game, less bias, less conflict of interest (even PT needs views and engagement). Not saying they are worthless but a lot of people put way too much faith in reviews

[patliean1]

Hambini also completely shit on Hunt wheels, I have a set of those that I have completely abused and they are still rock solid and the bearings are still fine after probably 3000 miles, a lot of which are use of being on my bad weather bike.

Funny enough, Hunt Wheels are popular locally here. And I've had at least 3-4 buddies message me about the issues they've had with their wheels.

It's reasonable to conclude that all opinions are valid. Even a broken clock is right twice a day 

[Serge_K]

Peak Torque's work is invaluable. We're in the grift economy, and content creators will shill for money, it's just the nature of the business. Huberman makes $18m endorsing green powder, so dont assume that some random ass youtuber reviewing bikes giving you a discount code is going to tell you about the ugly bits.
Also, Alex is an engineer, when many reviewers are much, much less educated.
Anecdotally, i'm a wilful idiot, i have friends who're legit engineers who think i'm insane riding the chinese kit i'm riding.

My take on PT's review is that Tavelo is selling at a very high premium something with a lot of proprietary parts, and they suck at all of these, plus they suck at the basics such as making round holes.
Chinese companies are absolutely looking at YT content, so the fact they're still making BB holes that are the wrong size is simply unacceptable. Ditto on that headset bearing seat where you could freakin wiggle that bearing.
Alex is also a big guy who rides very aggressively, so i like that he's thinking about catastrophic failure. stress(Light people with low FTPs riding on the flat) is a FRACTION of stress(big guys doing big watts on steep gradients). I have a friend who gets 2 rides out of his ice tech rotors before they warp.

[repoman]

I've gone through the Hambini vid of the Hunt and basically he says the main issue with them being poorly engineered and crap is that they use bearings that are 6802 15mm (ID) x 28mm x 7mm, I'm guessing the implication that this is too small for disc hub, yet the 9Velo hubs that he had glowing reviews for (literally saying they are about as good as you can get) have bearings that are  6803 17mm (ID) x 26mm x 5mm. 

To me, it seems like the 15mm ID bearings would be more 'stable' (wider, better ID to OD ratio, larger balls(?)) than the 17mm in their seats and also be able to handle higher loads AKA it's a beefier bearing in the one he deemed as crap.

So yea...starting to chalk that guy up in the BS dept more and more.

[toxin]

Eh there were plenty of negative opinions on hunt quality waaaaaaay before hambini made anything on them.

[Takiyaki]

Peak Torque's work is invaluable. We're in the grift economy, and content creators will shill for money, it's just the nature of the business.

I mean, there's shilling for attention too. PT def benefits from the narrative he pushes of him being the brilliant engineer here to save you from the tyranny of big bike. Might not be as big of a grift as product shilling, but he's still getting free stuff, Youtube money, and all that savior affirmation.

[jfcb]

This topic is deviating a bit from discussing the Tavelo Arow.
It looks like Tavelo have burnt themselves by implementing new technology (like d-shaped steerer) without proper testing.
You may like peak torque or not, but his main point is fair: the quality he received cannot be expected from a high end frameset which the Tavelo Arow is positioned as.
It's a pity because, as a user of the Tavelo Attack, I'm super pleased and even amazed by the quality of that frame. I really hope Tavelo is redoing their homework and can step up to be in line with the standards of a  high end brand they would like to be.

[James dean]

This topic is deviating a bit from discussing the Tavelo Arow.
It looks like Tavelo have burnt themselves by implementing new technology (like d-shaped steerer) without proper testing.
You may like peak torque or not, but his main point is fair: the quality he received cannot be expected from a high end frameset which the Tavelo Arow is positioned as.
It's a pity because, as a user of the Tavelo Attack, I'm super pleased and even amazed by the quality of that frame. I really hope Tavelo is redoing their homework and can step up to be in line with the standards of a  high end brand they would like to be.

I have reached out to Tavelo regarding this. Only because I have a arow on order. From what they tell me and yes they can be blowing smoke up my ass. They say that the frames that pt received were first iteration samples and they worked out all the kinks. Regardless I still love riding bikes that I don’t see on the road all the time. I would never buy a tarmac. That being said I will give a real unbiased review once I receive. And to be fair I bought the bike.

[kubackje]

I have reached out to Tavelo regarding this. Only because I have a arow on order. From what they tell me and yes they can be blowing smoke up my ass. They say that the frames that pt received were first iteration samples and they worked out all the kinks. Regardless I still love riding bikes that I don’t see on the road all the time. I would never buy a tarmac. That being said I will give a real unbiased review once I receive. And to be fair I bought the bike.

I just can't get my head around one simple thing. Why the F those companies keep sending early version of their products to PT without even doing a basic quality check before ?!

[James dean]

I just can't get my head around one simple thing. Why the F those companies keep sending early version of their products to PT without even doing a basic quality check before ?!

I have had so many phone calls with owners of various Chinese brands. They just do biz differently over there. I really don’t think they care about NA yet. Their mentality is very diff from western mentality.

[kubackje]

I have had so many phone calls with owners of various Chinese brands. They just do biz differently over there. I really don’t think they care about NA yet. Their mentality is very diff from western mentality.

Yeah but it's Joe from Panda Podium sending those. He is suppose to do better. Especially that he knows that PT will look for every little shit.