So, my time for a review of the 368, or the Aerotrace that I still like to call it!
Ordered in early autumn, received the fram late December. Ordered an 55 frame, so that took some time to go into production, and also took some time to solve the derailleur problem, di2 fastening and so on. No worries for my part since I live in the north of Sweden and expected snow until end of april 😅
The communication with Chris was smooth through the entire process. They offered me compensation for the long waiting time without me asking for it.
The assembly was mostly straight forward, no issues with the headset or the BB. I went for the handlebar option with aluminium spacers. Had to sand down the inside of one of them to get it to fit around the steerer tube, it had some residue on the inside. The cable routing was pretty easy as well. The seatpost slipped once during one of the first test rides but not after that. Mounted with carbon paste and greased the inside of the "expander" and it has not slipped since. The expander for the steerer tube was trickier, it slipped numerous times. Tried dry and with carbon paste. Tried different grease on the inside the let the expander run smoothly when tightening. Tried 6-8 nm and it still slipped after some riding. Buy after some fiddling and tightening to 10nm with the stem bolts tighetened on the outside of the steerer tube it seemed to get the expansion it needed.
One issue was with the delivery was however that the rear axle that came along was to short. It was not threaded in at delivery and some one must have picked the wrong one. A mail to Chris and he sent a new one, took a spare from another bike in the meantime. Also the back brake mount would probably benefit from a facing, but by some mindful assembly I get it to run without rubbing. Experienced much worse on more expensive frames.
Then the riding, by now I have put in some 900+ kilometers. Cold and windy early spring conditions. The bike feels really planted, stable like a freight train when cruising. Not uncomfortable at all, at least not compared to the Rose Xeon that I came from. Been riding it with a pair of 60 mm Serenade steel spoke wheels, and 28 mm Vittoria Corsa. Despite being "planted" when riding along at 30 km/h, it really excels when pushing and going fast. It holds speed very well, feels equally as planted and predictable going fast through corners. It does catch some crosswinds, but when im pushing hard I have a tendency to hold onto my handlebars, so its nothing major. Have not felt any kind of flex when doing sprints. Im 83 kg and push some 1200 watts for 10-15 second sprints. Also hade no issues with the derailleur (running Sram Force Axs). It sits at 8.3 kg with Assioma duo pedals, computer mount, bottle cages. The wheels are just below 1400 g and running ridenow tubes.
Overall: Super happy with what I got for that money. It works fine, performs where I expected it to and dont know where I would have liked to pay some hundreds euros more on performance. Sure, it is not light, it is not aerotested, but for a complete bike that will smoke a lot of s-works for some 2000euros, I will not complain 😅
So, for anyone that wants something that at least look and feels very fast, does not want to spend money for the sake of spending money, is not afraid of solving minor issues, and does not look for a superlight complete build, I would recommend this frame. My honest unsponsored opinion 🥳
