So, I finally received mine after quite a bit of back and forth with mondince after having a custom paint that went not to plan. After a fair bit of negotiation I paid a bit extra to go for the UL version (basically to make sure i was getting a fresh frame) in raw carbon (the frame weight with hard ware (no headset) and thru axle still in came to 950g for a 54 considering this is a raw carbon gloss finish claimed weights are just not representative but this is still reasonably light all the same) and I did get the mondince branding which honestly looks much better than expected in person.
I received both seat posts and most hard ware in black as well as gold which is great as I have loads of spares. Headset bearings the crown race didn't present an issue on my frame at all (so that appears corrected for me too as well as others). The frame appeared to be well made from what i could see shining a torch in there and construction all round pretty solid. I used the 8mm bearing on the top and the 7mm on the bottom, the fits of the headset bearings in the seats were reasonably tight so not super easy to remove by hand, this is good a sloppy headset bearing fit can lead to issues down the line. I did end up facing both front and rear brake mounts however they really both only needed a touch up and would have been able to get a good brake set up without. Same goes for the t47 threads that I chased but honestly i picked up so little material that a BB would've gone in fine without.
The build itself was really straight forward with the fork routing fully guided chich made life really easy. The di2 mount for the seatpost worked great and wasn't particularly fiddly to install. NB for those this eurostyle brake orientation. The entry hole in the steerer is firmly on the right hand side and depending what kind of set up you have if you have to cross the hoses inside the frame rather than in the bars or stem, like I had to since I was using the PRO headset and stem system youll likely getting biased steering. As a result for this build I went back to a UK orientation (left hand lever rear brake)
Only big comment I have is that currently I have is that on 52t rings im quite close to the top of what the fd allows - I want to move to bigger rings asap but I may need to do a bit of thinking about what will actually work for me considering this limitation.
Like other people have noticed that bottom bracket area does flex, I think theres two problems theres a huge amount of material above the bb this kind of does nothing and i youre looking at the bb it is not encased by that shape (I hope that makes sense) I think as a result the bb area is not as stiff due to this and a really narrow down tube i think if they had effectively moved that large area above the bb down and were willing to widen the down tube as it meets the bb it wouldn't be so bad. The chain stays whilst quite tall are really thin. Head tube is actually quite a bit more hourglass shaped than pictures suggest, I don't think the super narrow down tube is necessarily a bad design choice either. I know a lot of people here want more tyre clearance but I would've like to have seen tyres tun closer to the down tube and the back of the seat tube. There's far too much daylight in those areas for my liking oif were wanting to make a "fast" bike.
Honestly the bike felt fast, on my old 2018 scott foil i had a really fast set up and this will be my reference point. On open flat sections and down hills the bike really did feel like it wanted to pick up speed and hold it nicely. Geo wise just going off the charts i think these should've been fairly similar bikes the mondince is 5mm shorter 3.5mm lower. That being said head and seat angles are quite different. This bike felt short in comparison to the foil and i'll likely bump up to a 130mm stem at some point, I probably should've gone for the 56 (i'm a real 54/56 straddler) on this one. Despite the stiffness concerns people have the bike so far after three rides handles really well i'm super happy to take risks in corners on this thing without second guessing myself. Which I think brings me on to the stiffness thing, I honestly dont think its as bad as people say it is (NB im about 75kg and riding the 54 i suspect it might be worse for taller, heavier riders). It honestly feels fine - buut not excellent whilst it doesn't bother me my foil was really stiff and I loved it, that bike felt alive out the saddle and up hill. By comparison this bike doesn't feel quite as lively, but im not about to condemn it either. People still waiting on one, its likely to not be anywhere near as bad as you might think, people thinking of pulling the trigger honestly so far its a good bike I'm really enjoying it and I dont think id necessarily discourage anyone. Herein lies the issue though, with the Velobuild Aerotrace having just been put on a diet and Light Carbon about to release the LCR 020 D I think this becomes super hard to recommend considering those options exist, and honestly if I wasn't desperate to get my hands on a new frame after selling my foil I may well have waited for either of those. In all I paid i think if i recall £630 for the UL frame and shipping for that kind of money i do think it's worth a shot.
