British professional team glued fake UCI compliance stickers to bikes purchased

[bremerradkurier]

The UCI approval only covers that the bikes respects the measurements laid out by the UCI regulations. There's no safety testing involved. Costs starts at 5000 CHF I believe. The entire protocol including prices are here:

https://assets.ctfassets.net/761l7gh5x5an/2rAfC3xzdcO3k3KSUOTn6Q/3307965302e74bd65c70790d1274712e/APPROVAL_PROTOCOL_FOR_FRAMESETS.pdf

Almost as if the UCI is a money laundering outfit with a cycling hobby.

[PLA]

+ a frame to be destructively tested.

Lol I don't think this is true.

[Serge_K]

The UCI approval only covers that the bikes respects the measurements laid out by the UCI regulations. There's no safety testing involved. Costs starts at 5000 CHF I believe. The entire protocol including prices are here:

https://assets.ctfassets.net/761l7gh5x5an/2rAfC3xzdcO3k3KSUOTn6Q/3307965302e74bd65c70790d1274712e/APPROVAL_PROTOCOL_FOR_FRAMESETS.pdf

I love this. I too can read a CAD drawing and stamp a letter for 5k. Hell, I'll do it for 4k! And throw in a framed picture of a cute puppy with a hat, to create goodwill, I'm nice like that.
 

[Sakizashi]

Lol I don't think this is true.

I could be wrong since the approval process has changed several times, but I think the full 5KCHF / 6000USD process which is required for carbon monocoque frames (but not custom frames made with lugs or metal custom frames) requires submission of a prototype that they expect to break and cut up for a visual inspection as well as to take measurements. I believe this requirement led custom makers with UCI-approved designs to protest and subsequently have the intermediate process designed.

However, I did write "destructively test," which implies testing to failure, and that's my error. I meant destroyed in testing.

[coffeebreak]

I'm not sure whether people making these stickers are a bit dim and meant xiamen, or if the covid reference is deliberate. Either way, i think having xiamen weapon would be acknowledging Chinese's hegemony in the carbon bike market, while wuhan weapon is rather cringe.

They picked it up from the article in OP. It may be cringe to you but no one outside of this fringe forum knows what Xiamen is w.r.t carbon bike parts and even if they do, no one cares. Wuhan weapon just rolls off the tongue easily v/s Xiamen weapon. Anyway, rather funny this whole incidence.

[Da11as]

This is my frame 
Would be cheaper if they painted it in same way LC does it for boutique brands. Than you probably eligible to slap the sticker on it.

[ausmtb8989]

I believe cycling news has confirmed it is LightCarbon LCR0X-D

Pondering on this frame, but doesn't seem very popular on these forums.  Anyone have experience with this frame?

[repoman]

LOL

FWIW The woman who finished 2nd in the UCI U23 MTB WC is on a Lightcarbon XC bike

[Serge_K]

Pondering on this frame, but doesn't seem very popular on these forums.  Anyone have experience with this frame?

If you forget the cheese frame sent to a Brazilian customer (or Portuguese?), and if it happens to be normal to be able to flex the down tube with your thumb (honestly i'm not sure if it's a feature or a bug), and a few other issues i'm forgetting with the 17D, Lightcarbon on this forum has good reputation, as far as i can tell (I considered the 17D myself until i saw the shape of the down tube, at which point i lost interest & track). Dengfu or Tantan, for example, have a lot of horror stories about them. Much fewer w Lightcarbon.

[WhityWhite]

same frame and UCI-approved.
The UCI certification is simply due to the brand...

https://myvelo.de/products/myvelo-verona-rennrad?variant=44923211972873&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwveK4BhD4ARIsAKy6pMJN5g1ZXT8lwjs9ahZ3eRktAg-53vgYbipRCWLSjohCx4p4kDskoMQaAkeNEALw_wcB


Same frame and not UCI approved.
In Germany, the Leeze factory team still rides with these parts in the amateur and elite amateur classes and nobody has ever been interested.

https://leezebikestore.de/products/leeze-aero-one

[Ahodesu05]

I wonder how much such a certification costs. Given that carbon layup know how and the entire industry is basically in Xiamen now, where any western manufacturer is a very niche, very fringe player, i really think the relevance of a UCI certification is eroding. I can see that an OEM frame would need to be UCI compliant in its measurements (the one aspect of UCI that keeps bikes looking like bikes, unlike triathlon bikes that tend to look like design student wet dreams), but UCI certified...
If i were racing and paying for my frame, or if my team were small, i'd absolutely consider slapping a UCI logo on it if it saves me signficant money, or allows me to buy better / more modern kit for a given budget.
I think enough people on this forum are riding enough bikes hard enough to know that an OEM frame can be raced on. It assumes common sense and caution, like not buying uber light fakes that apparently do break under load, but OEM has nothing to do with fakes.
In fact, if UCI stickers are preventing even one team from being created, or forcing it to shut down, i think it's bad. The world's moved on, and i know enough about the murky world of certifications to be suspicious of it anyway.

Btw, Paul Milder's book "what's wrong with china" talks about certifications in china. Nice book. Poorly made in china, same author, also a nice book.

The UCI itself is corrupt and has never been about the best interest of the sport, from looking the other way during the EPO era to the most recent debacle around Muriel Furrer's tragic death at the UCI World Championships (where she lay for over an hour in the forest after she crashed before they found her, because the UCI couldn't be bothered to give GPS units to U23 women).

I have no doubt this certification process is more about UCI getting some additional revenue and protecting the interests of big brands.

[Da11as]

Pondering on this frame, but doesn't seem very popular on these forums.  Anyone have experience with this frame?

I've been riding this frame (branded as Allebike) for over 2 years now, racing, training, audax. From the frame quality perspective it is good - brake mounts, bottom bracket, headtube are all faced and round as it supposed to be. The ride is rather stiff on both front and rear end of the bike, which is expected from such tube shapes. For shorter races it is absolutely okay, but my butt was beaten to death on race-paced audax on really shitty roads. Steering is confident but more on a slow side.
The issue I had with it is the crack which emerged on the top side of the top tube. Seatpost clamp started to push on the tube which caused the damage. My local carbon expert is fixing it now. He has seen such issue twice (on Colnagos) and he mentioned it due to insufficient amount of carbon layers in the area.
On the other (smaller) notes:
- Seatpost allows for tremendous fore/aft adjustment but ugly as hell. I believe such thing belongs to TT bikes only. The saddleclamp is very stiff to lateral movement of the rails and if you want to make small adjustment on the go you have to disassemble the whole clamping system. It is easier to move the whole clamp for for/aft adjustment, but then to reach the bolts (which are located underneath the saddle body) you need very short (if a saddle has no cutoff) or very long hex key (if saddle has cutoff).
- The seatpost clamp bolt is located VERY deep in the top tube. It is not possible to reach it with a regular multitool. Same applies to the torque wrench.
- The frame has thin (to modern standards) down tube and is not optimised for regular bottle. You may consider aero bottles if it bothers you.
- Derailleur hanger is not a perfect fit for the frame, it has some play with only two mounting bolts, but once you clamp the axle it is fine, no issues with the shifting perfomance.

if it happens to be normal to be able to flex the down tube with your thumb (honestly i'm not sure if it's a feature or a bug)

Flexing tubes, especially on not stressed areas, is fine. I have owned several top end branded bikes and they all have very thin carbon in some places, you can flex it with your tumb quite easily.

[ausmtb8989]

I've been riding this frame (branded as Allebike) for over 2 years now, racing, training, audax. From the frame quality perspective it is good - brake mounts, bottom bracket, headtube are all faced and round as it supposed to be. The ride is rather stiff on both front and rear end of the bike, which is expected from such tube shapes. For shorter races it is absolutely okay, but my butt was beaten to death on race-paced audax on really shitty roads. Steering is confident but more on a slow side.
The issue I had with it is the crack which emerged on the top side of the top tube. Seatpost clamp started to push on the tube which caused the damage. My local carbon expert is fixing it now. He has seen such issue twice (on Colnagos) and he mentioned it due to insufficient amount of carbon layers in the area.
On the other (smaller) notes:
- Seatpost allows for tremendous fore/aft adjustment but ugly as hell. I believe such thing belongs to TT bikes only. The saddleclamp is very stiff to lateral movement of the rails and if you want to make small adjustment on the go you have to disassemble the whole clamping system. It is easier to move the whole clamp for for/aft adjustment, but then to reach the bolts (which are located underneath the saddle body) you need very short (if a saddle has no cutoff) or very long hex key (if saddle has cutoff).
- The seatpost clamp bolt is located VERY deep in the top tube. It is not possible to reach it with a regular multitool. Same applies to the torque wrench.
- The frame has thin (to modern standards) down tube and is not optimised for regular bottle. You may consider aero bottles if it bothers you.
- Derailleur hanger is not a perfect fit for the frame, it has some play with only two mounting bolts, but once you clamp the axle it is fine, no issues with the shifting perfomance.
Flexing tubes, especially on not stressed areas, is fine. I have owned several top end branded bikes and they all have very thin carbon in some places, you can flex it with your tumb quite easily.

Thanks looks like some quality issues with the seatpost and I dont like the look of the seatpost either.