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Re: Lightcarbon LCG071-D Build
I’ve been riding it, mostly on singletrack, but I’ve also gotten a bit of grass in there. Haven’t raced it yet, that’s coming this weekend. For the most part, I have a hard time distinguishing it from my 2016 Crux—the geometry is really close to that bike, bar the longer chainstays. On paper the stack is quite different, but if you overlay the models, the front end is actually very similar. So take anything I say with a grain of salt, it probably mostly in my head/confirmation bias of what I’m expecting it to feel. I think the handling feels like my Crux, but with a little “edge” taken off the handling characteristic—at times it feels more stable in corners. The handling also just feels stiffer and more predictable, maybe because of the thru-axles/142 rear spacing. I think mainly the effect of the long chainstays is it makes this bike feel less prone to snap-oversteer/has a slightly more progressive feel to the rear end grip, but also a bit less peak grip at the rear. I do feel i can push this bike harder/closer to the grip limit through corners on flat ground. Does this bike feel less nimble/agile? Sure, slightly. But I also think there’s a worthwhile tradeoff—this bike holds its line better and more confidently than a similar bike with shorter chainstays. I also feel like this bike corners better under trail-braking, where dabbing a bit more rear brake will help you swing the front-end into corners. I do feel the front-center isn’t as long as I want. The steering starts to feel a little vague/susceptible to redirection, and requires a lot of commitment when going downhill. In understeer-heavy situations, like when turning-in at high speed, on the brakes, into a downhill, tight corner, it feels hard to predict if the front will bite. Once you’re bitten-in the front end traction feels good, it just feels a little hard to predict the edge of traction on turn-in. My old crux also had a bit of this, which makes sense—both bikes’ horizontal F-C is within 2mm of each other. I don’t really get the sense that it is slower, more sluggish, or less stiff than my old crux, like some others have commented. Interestingly, it also doesn’t feel particularly more plush to me. But that’s comparing to an older Crux with QRs. Again, I acknowledge subjectivity here, I think I was expecting noodle-y and plush, and what I felt didn’t line up with that expectation. So—does this make a serviceable amateur cross bike? Absolutely! It does not feel like a yacht, or anything radically different than a typical cross bike. Maybe if you’re a super-enthusiast/semi-pro or have very traditional (or ultra-progressive) values about CX geometry, this bike will bother you—but you’d know if you fall into those categories just by looking at the geo chart. How about the gestalt? How does this bike perform according to its goals of being not just a cross bike? I think if you want to have one all-road machine—a bike that can do gravel, CX, bike packing, and even road riding, this is a solid pick. It’s light, has nods to aero, can do 1x or 2x, has a wide range of tire clearances, and the geometry is well-suited to a broad range of tire sizes. Albeit, the geometry is quite behind the times compared to most modern gravel race bikes. How do I feel about my choice? Something I also regret not considering when ordering this bike is that it’s pretty standard these days to ride 38mm tires if you’re not complying with UCI rules. With that in mind, I probably would have gone for the airwolf YFR68—my only hang up with that bike was the BB height, but it wouldn’t be a concern with larger tires. Thankfully, I have the rest of my life to buy more bikes. October 10, 2023, 07:46:10 AM |
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Re: Lightcarbon: New LCR017-D (or Yishun R1058-D)
It's all about the QC. The more you pay the more QC will be performed. On a retail level there's no leverage so it's all buyer beware. I'm not sure about that. There are a lot of OEM / chinese people reading this forum (Xiamen Carbon Speed, Yuanan, Winow, Velobuild, LightCarbon, SPCycle & quite a few more), and I think they know / are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of avoiding reputation damage. The reputation damage that ONE bad frame or product can do is material if it gets amplified. On LTWOO for example, given how many problems i've had with the 5 er9 i installed, i stopped counting the number of people who WROTE on the forum they gave up on buying an erx / er9. So how many more gave up without actually writing about it? That's a personal example, but i can say that i'm not buying an airwolf frame because of the feedback on this forum. Ditto with worskwell, tantan, dengfu, and more. As peak torque says, it's kind of the job of the customer to complain. if you pay good money for something, it shouldn't be shit. A frame full of holes is shit. A BB hole undersized so you crack the frame when you install the BB is shit. And so on. It's also a benefit of competition: we get to vote with our money. Also, I'm French. Complaining may be what i do best 
September 17, 2024, 08:58:32 AM |
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Re: Chainline help - Light Carbon LCG-071 and Sram Apex axs
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but Lightcarbon's specification doesn't mean you must have a crankset with ~49 mm chainline. It is merely the reference value for determining clearance. If you have a crankset with a smaller chainline value (i.e. more inboard), you probably will run into clearance issues with the specified max of 42T. The ideal chainline for a 12x142 through axle back wheel is around 46 mm, but cranksets, especially gravel specific ones, sometimes compromise and are a bit more outboard to gain more clearance between chain/crank/front derailleur and tire. Or they might compromise to be more inboard to work better on "classic" 10x130 mm QR where the ideal chainline is 43.5 mm (e.g. 44.5 mm on Shimano road cranks). Around 49 mm is the ideal chainline with boost (148 mm) axle standards, but those are almost exclusively used on MTBs. November 15, 2024, 10:20:04 AM |
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Re: Lightcarbon: New LCR017-D (or Yishun R1058-D)
I'm mostly done with my build now, it went much quicker than I expected. I had to order a replacement front derailleur, for some reason the first one didn't work properly. Even after holding it side-by-side with the new one, I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Next steps are to adjust & bleed the brakes, have a quick shakedown drive and put on the handlebar tape. After that give it a good cleaning and add some protection on the chainstays, etc.. Quick summary of the setup:
Weight is around 8.2kg in the current setup (incl. pedals), which is more than good enough for my purposes. December 18, 2024, 05:06:49 PM |
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