I meant to post this build earlier, but better late than never, and I can add a full review as well.
I ordered the FM138 in size large and had it painted in Pantone "Red Pear" gloss clearcoat. First bike I've gotten from Hongfu (I've mostly bought LightCarbon and Carbonda), so wasn't sure what kind of quality to expect but the frame quality and paint were as good as anything I've gotten from anywhere else. Everything went together easily, including the headset cable routing (I used a Deda headset) with the exception of the rear brake caliper, like I mentioned above. I did a mix of SRAM Transmission parts and LightCarbon wheels with Conti Cross King tires. I opted for 120mm front and rear with RockShox SID and SIDluxe. At 181 cm tall, I started with a 60mm stem on the size large but ended up swapping to a 70mm and prefer the feel of that more. Came out to 10.85 kg including pedals.
The Good: I've put 1500 km so far, and it's been a great bike. My last XC bike build was the FM936. This bike climbs and covers ground noticeably easier, especially in tight and techy terrain, but feels sharper on the descents, requiring a touch more finesse. In general, it feels like a sharper bike than the 936. It's every bit as capable, but takes a little bit more attention on the descents and requires less attention on the climbs, especially tech climbs. I chose not to do a remote lockout and have not regretted it. The seated climbing manners on the bike are excellent, with the anti-squat being high enough to keep the bike very stable under pedaling, and yet it has had no issue getting into its 120mm of rear travel. All told, it's a very good XC bike, and the frame details are quite good. I've enjoyed being able to carry to two full-size bottles in the frame. I used a little plastic spacer under the top bolt of the seat tube bottle cage and that small angle adjustment has kept the bottle from contacting the frame at any point. The bike is also very quiet. No creaking as long as I keep everything clean.
The Bad: I had ordered SRAM Level 4-piston and the frame didn't leave enough room for the caliper to center on the rotor. I tried 160mm and 180mm rotors and I'd still get a small amount of pad contact on the rotor no matter what. Malissa said it was a SRAM problem as the frame was designed for Shimano brakes (sounds like whatever the brake you choose to run, they're going to say it was designed for something else), but I opted to remove some material from the caliper and that solved the issue. 1,500km later and it has been a non-issue. The seat tube could be shorter to allow for longer droppers, but I was able to fit a 150mm post with room to spare. And it's an XC bike after all. If you want to run 200mm on an XC bike you might be looking at the wrong bike.
The brake is the one issue I've had. I don't want to say it's a minor issue, because it can't be fixed and experimenting with brake calipers is extremely expensive, and machining away material from the caliper clearly voids the warranty. I've been transparent about that with friends, but those who have spent some time on mine have decided that it's a minor enough con that certainly doesn't outweigh all the pros. I've had several friends order the same frame, and even have another one on order at the moment that I'm building up for another friend. Malissa was actually very good to work with and I have no complaints outside of the brake mount.
