With tape you have two edges which are the only main points of failure and the tape often extends so far from the spoke holes that even minor bubbles or wrinkles etc can’t break the seal.

With plugs you get 28-32 circular points of failure and the plugs can become misaligned during or after installation in ways that aren’t possible with tape.

This isn’t to say that good ones can’t work. It’s saying that it’s an inherently more failure prone system and not by a little, but by a lot.

Anyone else have issue with the separate bar and stem? The holes in the bars are way too small to make the turns needed

Most budget brands from the Far East should be treated as stepping stones rather than final destinations.

It's a great way to gain valuable bike building experience, before naturally progressing to the bike you actually want...

Just finished up building my new GF-002 frame.

To be clear - only the setup woes gave me mixed feelings.  Its pretty solid now and I'll report back after I've put some significant miles.  The build quality is very good for how much I've paid... However I'd be upset if I paid what Cane Creek is asking for full retail.  Seems like they've significantly cut costs saved weight with each generation ever since they bought the rights to the design.  

That being said, I'll probably swap to the unit you are using as soon as these things start malfunctioning... not taking chances with the brakes!

Also, to make the STL work, you still need the sharp metal piece...  maybe ill design something to redistribute that pressure you are speaking of as a second piece to this....


It was a choice between easily designing and printing something overnight for free and getting to ride the very next morning and ordering on AliEx and paying for shipping and waiting like a month.

Also PLA gets a bad rep for the properties you've mentioned but in order to degrade and take UV damage to failure it would take a quite a long time and neglect.  Im not worried about the temperature either as it's also mostly out of direct sunlight/UV, in a mostly occluded area of the bike, and if the weather got anywhere close to the melting point of PLA... lets just say we'd have a bigger environmental disaster to worry about. Besides, if I was really worried about the integrity of the part in question I can swap it out as part of every maintenance cycle like a brake pad as it only takes 5 minutes.  Also the most important consideration when choosing materials for me is I was too lazy to swap the filaments 
I've also purposely overbuilt the parts and printing it at 100% infill should be able to withstand repeated abuse.  I'll also report back on how the part holds up over time as its purely assumptions at this point without actual real world use.

In that case, of the ones you like, my vote goes to x-weave.
Has a nice "edgy" look, that the tradition weaves lack

Yep I stopped at 7 NM Could feel the soft aluminum hex start to give way. So hard to know. I will say the customer service s s from the  alibaba stores are terrible. Pretty sure it’s never a real person and always start off with “friend” “dear” even got “darling” once. I’m learning the product may be fine but ur on your own once it arrives

starting to look like a bike
waiting on OG-Evkin stem and bars to arrive, wasn't happy with the provided bar and stem because of cable routing tightness