Chinese Carbon MTB Forums
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Re: Carbonda frame testing?
Hi How to be sure the info and pictures we see about lightcarbon aren't from another factory ?  As Zomb1e said, trust what you read here, there's plenty of posts about many brands, and for years. August 29, 2022, 09:11:22 AM |
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Tsunami Seaboard GR02 Budget Gravel Build
I haven't seen much discussion about this affordable aluminum gravel frameset, so I decided to buy one and assemble a really budget focused build (ignoring the wheels which I already had on hand). I bought nearly everything on Aliexpress and the total build cost (ignoring wheels) came to just a bit over 1000 CAD including shipping. Everything eventually arrived in good shape, and the frame itself was very well packed. The frame is really decent quality and definitely exceeded my expectations, the fork is also reasonably nice, with no obvious defects. It is a bit strange that the fork required the disc adapter set to 140 mm even though I am using 160 mm rotors, perhaps you could use 180 mm rotors if you wanted? It was a bit confusing to figure out how to route the shift cables and ultimately decided that crossing them inside the downtube performed the best. It was also necessary to use anti vibration foam on the rear brake cable housing to keep it from rattling. I used Kalloy UNO stem and handlebars, which are unbeatable price/performance, and used the L-TWOO RX 12 speed groupset, which also exceeded my expectations. The shifting is nice and crisp with the front shifting being a bit worse than my other bike equipped with Shimano 105 R7020, but overall very comparable. I did have to swap out both cable pinch bolts on the front and rear deraillieurs but other than that no major problems so far. The brakes are Zrace BR-005 and Zrace 160mm rotors and they perform very well, comparable to my R7020 hydraulic brakes using 140 mm rotors on my road bike. I am using Jagwire compressionless housing front and rear. The wheels (which I already owned) are Light Bicycle AR46 laced to DT350 hubs, and are wearing Continental Terra Speed 700x40 tires. Total weight without pedals is a very respectable 8.8 kg. For reference the frame is size 53 (L) and I am 179 cm tall, it fits perfectly. After 100km so far my experience has been overwhelmingly positive! I had to tighten the headset after the first ride, I'm sure that was just the crown race settling a bit and since then it has remained tight with no play. September 02, 2022, 04:51:53 PM |
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Re: Tsunami Seaboard GR02 Budget Gravel Build
Nice build! Whats the clearance like with those 40's mounted? Thanks! Tire clearance is generous, should fit 45 mm no problem. September 05, 2022, 08:12:22 AM |
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Re: Chasing wind-GT20 OR Airwolf YFR045 carbon Gravel frames , any experience ?
After my own build I was asked by a friend to build him one in matching size 52 and color of choice. This time using a full Shimano GRX groupset with Garbaruk cage for an extended gearing of 11-46. The complete build came in at 9kg with 32mm tires and heavy steel casette and chain. The new owner is very happy with the result both in price and quality. Here some pictures:    BR Chris September 06, 2022, 08:43:39 AM |
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Re: Trusted road carbon bar
If you are hesitant to trust cheap carbon but open to light weight 7050 alloy, Kalloy UNO bars are really nice. ~260 grams and very affordable.
September 07, 2022, 06:57:44 PM |
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Re: Epic Evo Clone
I've seen these since few days, there are many vendors of the same frame. Origin is completely unknown to me, looks good anyway but I'm not an expert. I would stick with open mould rather than clones.
September 09, 2022, 04:23:39 PM |
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Re: Groupset News
RX 2x12 carbon hydraulic left brifter weight A L-TWOO employee recently posted a thread sharing some anecdotes on the company's hydraulic development process. It's too long and technical for me to properly translate but you can get a basic idea with machine translation. The gist is that L-TWOO faced some pretty significant patent barriers which limited their design direction. They eventually settled on a Campy style design for reasons practical and legal: the vertical master cylinder layout performed the best and also left the most room for the shifting mechanism. But most importantly, Campy didn't patent their hydraulic implementation! September 14, 2022, 03:11:42 PM |
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For those of you looking at cable disc brakes...
Oh Aliexpress...it's like you're always reading my mind. Look at what I saw earlier today: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256804206370295.html?spm=a2g0o.ppclist.product.14.6a719ofP9ofPRJ&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21USD%21US%20%2445.00%21US%20%2445.00%21%21%21%21%21%402101c84a16633692840361885e4ea8%2112000029019108399%21btf&_t=pvid:35417b01-aae9-49ea-ba7d-8fad668d4c26&afTraceInfo=1005004392685047__pc__pcBridgePPC__xxxxxx__1663369284 I've always wanted to try the Paul Klampers...are they as magical as the tales tell? At $200+ a pop that would be a very expensive experiment. But now that I've found these...oh man. Time to build a new gravel bike?
September 16, 2022, 06:25:43 PM |
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Re: Re: And the winner is....
Hi Sitar_Ned, well done to you for organising this and being as transparent as you have been with the process. Obviously, given my vocal objection to the way the sponsor has treated people on this site re a certain frame, I didn't enter but I do have a question for you if I may. Well, you are correct, anyone could just email Eddy and pretend to be the winner. I didn't put all of the steps out there just for the sake of simplicity but there are steps going on in the background via PM where mwh0169's identity has been verified by me and given to Eddy. As for your reasoning for not entering the contest, I can certainly respect that moral stance, sir. That said, this contest, or any going forward, should not be seen as a backing of the vendor by myself or the board. Any vendor that sponsors a contest has a reputation that is entirely separate from the event and stands alone according to how they treat customers, imo. I see it more as paid advertising where the community is the beneficiary. Also, I'm going to split this topic off into a separate thread. My logic for this is that the winner announcement thread is a paid-for promotional thread (I'm referring to the price of the frame for the giveaway). I didn't want you to feel censored so I didn't want to delete your post so I just split it off. Hopefully, you can respect that. If you think this is faulty logic, please do voice your thoughts as I am still learning how to fairly moderate and manage a community such as this and am certainly open to input. Thanks, Sitar September 21, 2022, 08:10:25 AM |
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Re: And the winner is....
Hi, The very happy and lucky winner here.  It will be my first MTB build. I promise to post updates of the build here. Many thanks to HDL. September 21, 2022, 09:33:22 AM |
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