Review Thread

[Ducky]

Hey guys,

Just discovered this forum, as I'm doing research on a new frame.

I've read through most old topics and can see a lot of you took the plunge but I cant see any long term reviews on how your bike is holding up.

I was hoping for those who did buy a new bike to come back and post a review of your bike after the initial build. If you can post the frame, how many kms you've completed on it, the quality, any issues you faced etc, that would be awesome. Of course photos will be great too.

This would be great for me and anyone else who stumbles into this website.

Cheers!

[carbonazza]

If you look around, you'll find a very little number of people who had a crack in their frame.
As usual in forums, you will only find people presenting their new bike, or complaining when something goes wrong.
Nobody takes time to say, "hey, today my bike is two years old, and everything goes well" 

I've built quite a few bikes for friends and family and there isn't any problem to report.
Except learning mistakes I did when mounting them.

On the opposite side, since I started about 5-6 years ago, I did break 3 frames.
Always in a crash, a 256 falling with all my weight on a seat stay.
A first 041, falling on the side, and breaking the seat tube at a junction ( a clear design issue, the frame is not sold anymore ).
I got it warranty replaced, and after about 3-4 years I did break it again, in a harder crash, but at the same seat tube junction.

And before thinking, direct frames from China are bad.
A did break two Canyon Ultimate frames too( without crashing )
Once the seat tube/derailleur junction and once a seat stay.
In the meantime, some friends did brake Scott, Trek, and Cannondale frames.

The only frame I could not break so far is my gravel Carbonda CFR505 that endured quite hard rides and crashes perfectly.
A reason I stick to them for now for all my new builds.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot my current MTB a Workswell 062, that is now replacing my 041 while waiting for a brand new FM936.
A friend, who destroys everything, borrowed it, but didn't succeed to break it either during about 2 years of hard riding.

[tripleDot]

I personally have 4 Chinese cf frames, but one was a warranty replacement for a 'mysterious' cracked seat stay.

The first one was an unknown model and make. Got it before I actually found this site. Anyway I bought it because it was sold for like $200 or so because the supplier send the wrong size. So instead of spending on shipping back the frame it was just sold cheap. I rode it for some 4,000km over a couple of years and decomissioned it in favor of a 29+ bike. Funny thing about it was after disassembling it, I found out the there was a pretty large crack, actually a hole on the underside of the chainstay (driveside) close to the BB. Looks like bashed in, I'm guessing I must have hit a rock pretty bad at some point. But I honestly don't know how long it has been like that. Just lucky it didn't had a catastrophic fail while I was riding it. The thing is, after watching a lot of 'how to repair cf bike parts' in youtube, I know it can be repaired and plan to... if only I don't procastinate.

Second was a road bike from Carbon Speed. After about a year, I had a mysterious crack on the seatstay. It was under warranty & was promptly replaced. It is currently still in great condition but don't get lot of action as I've gravitated toward my 29+ & gravel bikes. The cracked frame, I actually had it DIY repaired for like $5. Converted it into a single speed and had put another thousand km on it. Like the road bike, it doesn't see a lot of action nowadays but it is still in running condition. So that's second & fourth. I also have a pair of cf road rims from Carbon Speed that have seen over 3 thousand kilometers and are still in great condition.

Third one is a 29+ HT that I set up as a full rigid. Also from Carbon Speed. A Trek Stache copy. It is still running but I've been getting an annoying creaking sound on the BB on every climb. I suspect a hairline crack near the BB. I will decomission it for a while as I'm planning to do some experiment with my new 29er titanium bike that is currently in the building process. Hopefully solve the creaking problem as well. To date, this is my most 'fun' bike.

As an aside, my CS cf frames & rims had outlived Carbon Speed. It is sad to see Peter (owner of Carbon Speed) leaving the bike industry for another business venture.

While I had these cracks and creaks, I can't really complain much, for the price, these bikes have served me well. Better than I expected if I may say so. While I've no plans of ditching carbon fiber bikes I have to say that I am gravitating towards titanium frames. It's more of a personal preference than I have issues with cf. And if all the stars aligned, I can actually rebuild or reactivated them & have 5 bikes today with another on the way. 

Btw, my signature shows a brief history of bikes I owned.

[lRaphl]

My first chinese carbon frame was a Denfu FM-098 road frame that I bought in 2012. This is still my only road bike and I use it for around 2000Km per year (so around 17000Km so far on it). I built it with a pair of carbon wheels from Farsport (24mm profile) and they are still as true as new. They are my only wheels for that bike. I've put a Ultegra Di2 groupset on it and the only problem I faced was the ferule stop at the chainstay that was blocking the Di2 cable from going through. I enlarged it and everything went well after that. No crack, no creak, no problems at all with this bike!

I also have a Iplay IP-036 Mtb bike. It's on its 5th summer and still in one piece. The rocker bolts need to be cleaned and greased a bit too often for my taste but outside of that it's rock solid. I broke a shock bolt 2 years ago and destroyed a rear wheel and derailleur the first year but outside of that I can't seem to find a way to break the frame.


Edit: added crappy pictures!