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Re: Any chinese frames using high modulus carbon like the real Specialized frames? The upcoming Elilee Blize will have an ultralight 680g variant constructed from a mixture of Toray T1100 and M40X. You also have the Dizo Epic Pro which is constructed from Mitsubishi MR70 and Dyneema. These two won't be cheap and they certainly won't they sit at that 2-3K US sweetspot. According to Elilee, T1100 costs 5x of T800 and M40X costs 10x of T800...you do the math. For reference Elilee's top level EVO XXE triathlon frame retailed at around 4.5K US in China. Finally you have the not-as-high-end Pardus Robin Evo that employs a mixture of T1100, T800 and M40 for its carbon layup.

Do note that carbon supply is massively constrained worldwide which means that there is next to no excess material left for no name brands. Since imported material is hard to come by and there are actually export restrictions placed on top level T1100 due to military applications, most open mould makers source their material from Sinofibers who produce T1000 and T800 domestically in China. Sinofibers has small batch T1100 & M40X equivalent material (ZT9 & ZM40X) on top of their recently commercialised T1000 but currently only T800 (ZT8) is mass produced and readily available. Besides Sinofibers, Tianshun produce T800 equivalent material (TS800) and are also working on their own T1000.

March 05, 2022, 12:30:47 AM
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Re: Fake eeBrakes G4
I decided to give the center mount version of these G4 counterfeits a try.  I was pleasantly surprised with their looks but these are not the bees knees. 

Compared to R8000 brakes (tested on two bikes with similar setups, differing only by their brake calipers) the springs are firmer and require more grip strength but I imagine this would benefit frames with serpentine cable routing.  With Shimano pads, the braking is not quite as good but it's close.  Also unlike R8000, there is a little slop in the right side pivot, the side with the cable pinch bolt.  Somehow, this results in no squeal even with zero toe, but maybe this is more a result of the Shimano pads. 

I happen to have them set up with spacers for narrow, 22mm rims but I can confirm that they will accommodate rims up to 30mm by rearranging or removing the four 2mm spacers these come with. 

These will not fit on frames with dropped seat stays because of the amount of space required by the linkage and cable routing.  By my measurement, there needs to be at least 53mm of clearance between the brake mount and the seat tube.

There is one really weird thing about these brakes and that's the centering mechanism.  It's tool free, which is quite nice, but because of its design, only one arm spreads when opening the quick release.  This could be a problem with tires that balloon much wider than the rims.  See the second photo.

These weigh 101g for the front and 96g for the rear, without pads (that didn't arrive -- not the first time missing items from an Ali seller).  I paid $178.11 with tax and shipping to the US from a seller called F1Z BIKE SHOP, and they took 20 days to arrive.

If the real ee brakes are identical except for the badge and shoe fixing bolts, I have to assume that they have all the same characteristics.  Thus, other than the looks and weight savings, they're not better than R8000.

Thank you for sharing your experience. The user krooj in the TPL thread reported that the fakes are less stiff compared to the real thing. Overall I think some corners were definitely cut in terms of assembly workmanship and material quality of certain parts. I hope they can fix these issues and advertise an unbranded option up front instead of having to message them to arrange it.



March 05, 2022, 12:53:48 AM
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Re: Velobuild VB-R-168 Frame
Has anybody tried one of the SL7 direct mount mech hangers?

Something like this?

https://www.pedaleur.nl/product/specialized-tarmac-derailleurhanger-my18-my19/

This is such an oversight by Velobuild tbh. The 168 and 177 are clearly homages to Specalized designs so why not make the forks, seatposts and hangers the same as their name brand counterparts? it'll save a lot of hassle in the future when they're no longer produced and you need to find spare parts.

March 05, 2022, 01:17:25 AM
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Re: Any chinese frames using high modulus carbon like the real Specialized frames?
UHM or high % of HM / UHM fibers generally isn't desirable anyway, as it produces an incredibly stiff, brittle frame.  The really lightweight stuff usually uses less material and a mix of T700 & T800 or equivalents, but because they use less material they're often rather noodly and flexy, like the Aethos or worse the O2 VAM.

Dizo is interesting due to the dyneema ... It should make steerer failures much less likely, as well as shock absorption properties. 

Also I'd never heard of Dizo ... They seem to be operating in Japan but made and designed in TW.  Any more info about them? The Epic Pro is also the only frame I've seen where they show a visual representation of how Geo differs on all the sizes.

Dizo is the in-house brand of Advanced International Multitech Co., Ltd. The Epic Pro has been shown for a while now but there is no indication as to when exactly it'll be available. Ultimately there is still next to no production capacity because factories are preoccupied with fulfilling orders for big brands. For example, BLKTEC is basically dormant because their factory is Trigon who produce components for Pinarello's MOST and Shimano's PRO.

And you're right on the stiffness aspect. The point of using stiffer material is not to create a stiffer frame but rather to meet the same stiffness targets while using less material.

March 05, 2022, 09:55:09 AM
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Re: IIIPRO Hydro/Mech Calipers The new BR-05 was jointly developed between Onirii and IIIPRO (also sold as the ZRACE BR-005). Do not buy the ones in your link, they are some kind of older iteration that won't work as well. Neither brand are related to Juin btw, you have the Zoom HB105 which is a copy of the Juin F1 but is definitely not the real thing.
March 06, 2022, 03:01:18 AM
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Re: Juin Tech GT-F brake calipers (dual piston)
Sigh. True, but it stretches my already poor Chinese to its limit. 
Die Taobao have a good English based app now? (I suppose I could Google that…)

IIRC Taobao doesn't ship to addresses outside of Greater China

March 06, 2022, 08:25:07 AM
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Re: Chinese hydraulic brake hose I've never tried these 3rd party hoses before but make sure you use BH90 even in applications that call for BH59. I used BH90 hoses on an old RS505 build and braking power was massively improved compared to the stock BH59 hoses it came with.
March 06, 2022, 05:03:27 PM
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Re: L-TWOO RX 2x12 road groupset Here's a new video showing the Wheel Top 1x12 wireless electronic MTB groupset in action. Rumors are pointing to Wheel Top revealing their road groupset this year.

And L-TWOO just dropped the companion app for their upcoming 1x wireless electromechanical MTB shifter. Not that exciting since it's just another Archer D1x/Cell NXS/XShifter-style implementation.

News on Sensah's electronic groupset and hydraulic brakes will come "after the Shanghai bike show" according to the comments section on this video

March 21, 2022, 11:40:53 AM
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Re: Carbonda Cfr 1056 It appears that the Quick Zeit Pro is a rebranded version of this Carbonda CFR 1056

This is absolutely huge for me because Quick also offers the Zeit Pro SL which is an 880g lightweight version of the frame thanks to a special T800+30TON layup.

I've always wondered if there were layup differences between various open mould frames and this is proof that yes, you can have a lighter layup to go with your generic frame. Now I just need to find out if Carbonda are the OEM factory themselves (Flybike?) or just another middleman agent. If that special layup version can be bought direct from Carbonda, we may have ourselves another Speeder/Winspace or Miracle/Yoeleo situation.

Quick also recently released their new Blade frame. Perhaps Carbonda will offer it too as the CFR 1036?

March 22, 2022, 02:59:46 AM
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Re: Pulled the trigger on the Elite Wheel DRIVE wheelset At first I didn't pay much attention to this company because I never heard of them before but now they're really growing on me.

The weights are competitive with the best Chinese carbon spoke wheels on the market from Farsports & Vortex who themselves are not far behind the current market leaders in Lightweight and Mavic. Of course I'm not expecting world-beating stiffness and general performance from Elitewheels but the cost/gram value proposition is undeniable.

Elitewheels as a company are also becoming more credible to me since they're sponsoring the China Glory continental team. Clearly there's some money behind them.

Here's my rudimentary working list of carbon spoke wheelsets (40-50mm range depth, disc tubeless) if anyone's interested:
Cadex
   42 / 1327g, 42mm depth, 23mm external
Unaas
   50 Supreme / 1344g, 51mm depth, 26.2mm external
Winspace
   Lun Hyper / 1455g, 50mm depth, 26mm external
Speeder
   SLP / 1400g, 45mm depth, 28mm external
Elitewheels
   DRIVE 40D / 1260g, 40mm depth, 28mm external
   DRIVE 50D / 1300g, 50mm depth, 28mm external
Magene
   EXAR DB45 Pro / 1400g, 45mm depth, 27mm external
Vortex
   No Compromise / 1280g, 40mm depth. 26mm external
Farsports
   Ventoux S4 EVO / 1295g, 45mm depth, 26mm external
HUNT
   Aerodynamicist / 1352g, 44mm depth, 29mm external
Scribe
   Elan Wide+ 42 / 1370g, 42mm depth, 30mm external
   Elan Wide+ 50 / 1415g, 50mm depth, 30mm external
Mavic
   Cosmic Ultimate UST Disc / 1225g, 45mm depth, 27mm external
Lightweight
   Obermayer Evo Schwarz Ed / 1230g, 48mm depth, 24mm external
   Meilenstein Evo Schwarz Ed / 1380g, 48mm depth, 24mm external

March 25, 2022, 03:32:35 AM
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