Looking forward to reading!

Full review here:  https://forums.mtbr.com/29er-bikes/light-carbon-fs937-downcountry-29er-build-1101497.html

Here's a little teaser.  Life happened this week so next week I'll have the first impressions review, hopefully.

Got my frame this morning and built up my bike completely! Was too eager so I called the post office and told them to hold it rather than deliver it and went to pick it up

The frame did not disappoint. It is beautiful! I'm super stoked on the original design, split seat tube, linkage tucked in between the seat tube, and the well-thought-out shock mount cavity on the downtube.

My 20.5" frame (heavily painted) weighed 2580g, the axle weighed a respectable 50g.

I built it up completely this afternoon and it stands at 22.3lbs (10.1kg) trailside weight. I still have to bleed the rear brake and put in a longer shifter cable.  I went with Fox Float 34 SC 120mm travel and a 165*40mm shock.

Installing the shock was tricky. Light Carbon provided some additional machined steel spacers to put on either side of the shock (not the trunnion side). I bought the 8mm x 22.19mm kit for the shock, I might recommend going a tad narrower (maybe the 8mm x 21.8mm version). My spacer setup barely fit inside the linkage, as in I had to give it a few taps with the rubber mallet to get it lined up with the bolt holes. I'll post some pics of this later so it's clear.

I LOVE the threaded bottom bracket. BSA bottom brackets are the best.

While the paint quality does not disappoint, the painter was a bit rough on the lines. Rather than following the contour of the frame lines, the painter just took straight lines making it look a bit abrupt in places. Yes, my powerpoint rendition of the paint job was not 5-star, but painters at TanTan and Pro-Mance have done much better with these images. LightCarbon also made no bother to check my images, create a custom rendition in their paint program of choice, and send it back to me for approval--they just sent it straight to the painter.  But... the orange does match my Fox fork almost perfectly!

Internal routing was quite nicely done, but the ports were a bit interesting design, hard to guide the brake cable through the headtube port.

There will be pics and a first ride review next week   I may just post on MTBR, but I'll post the link here too.

The seatpost tube is very thick, which is reassuring in a way but also meant I couldn't get my 31.6mm carbon clamp around the tube. It also wasn't too tight, an issue I have had with other frames from other vendors, the seatpost slid comfortably right into the tube and the alloy clamp held it tightly.

By the way, this is a big bike. The long reach is immediately noticeable, I'm curious how it will work for my 6'2" self out on the trail.

Emu, I'm not sure. I haven't been sent the final specifications.

Jerry, were you able to visit their booth at the Taipei Cycle Show? Did you have any reason to believe that the Orbea Oiz geometry wasn't going to be modified?  It's really too bad if all this is is a big cloning game.

Quote from: mixlax on March 22, 2019, 05:38:10 AM

Quote from: Sitar_Ned on March 21, 2019, 08:51:15 PM

What are the going prices for these two frames?

And did read correctly that the tire width limit is 2.3 for the 7007 2/boost frame?

Approx 600USD

Okay thanks, there seems to be a pretty wide spread of reported prices for the 7007.. I'm sure due in part to the multiple options / configurations it comes in.

I get the T700 version for $575 and the T800 version for $618. Chances are anyone can get within $50 of that by bargaining with them. If not shoot me a PM and I'll help you out.

Tire clearance on my 27.5+/29 M7007 was 29x2.45, on the normal boost 29er version it's 29x2.35, on the nonboost version I'm not sure.

I'm looking forward to seeing your finished build!

I have a 20.5" on the way, it shipped today



The space between your chainring and the chainstay looks just fine, it looks like you could even go with a bigger chainring if you wanted. You wouldn't want them to make the chainstay any thinner otherwise the tube either gets so thin that routing the derailleur cable gets tricky or you compromise tire clearance.

I've pulled the trigger on this Fox Float Factory DPS 165x40mm trunnion shock:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2018-FOX-Factory-Float-DPS-Shock-Trunnion-165-x-40-Evol-SV-449-Retail/142976801072

The 40mm shock stroke will give me ~115mm of rear travel, which will play nicely with the Fox Float 34 Factory SC fork I'm running up front with 120mm of travel, perfect for technical XC.

I don't believe you need any hardware for mounting the trunnion side of the shock (54*φ10mm) because the trunnion mount is 54mm wide, but you will need hardware for the other shock end (22.2*φ8mm). For a Fox Shock, I got this 22.19*φ8mm kit: https://www.worldwidecyclery.com/products/fox-rear-shock-mounting-hardware-8mm-x-22-19mm-0-874-5-piece-aluminum-1.

I'm also relieved to see rock-solid shock mounting hardware included with your frame. I have been in touch with a previous LCFS937 owner who had his trunnion shock mounting bolt break, allowing the shock to get wedged at an angle which caused an asymmetrical cracking of the linkage and propagated sideways force to the front triangle, cracking it as well on one of the seat tubes. Light Carbon sent him a new frame, and it looks like they have fully addressed this issue with stronger shock mounting hardware.

Pro-Mance will be releasing a 120mm rear travel full-suspension 29er frame, likely by the end of May.  I've been advising on it, not sure how much impact that will have. I won't share details yet, but I've pushed for specific modern geo and flip-chip adjustable geometry, along with a few other minor points.

The suspension configuration is similar to the Rocky Mountain Element and I've seen the kinematics charts, they have it dialed. Rear travel should be adjustable between 105-120mm depending on shock stroke, and the bike should play well with forks between 110-130mm travel.

It will be a great lightweight offering and will look somewhat like the Workswell WCB-M-145.