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Patty's Long Rant and Guide To Affordable Frames
I’m going to be honest here: I very much miss the glory days of this forum during the pandemic years. It was a perfect storm. People were stuck at home with extra discretionary income and free-time, while major bike brands were dealing with fulfillment delays. The rise of Chinese alternatives during this time brought so much excitement to this forum. Forum members were passionate about helping each other, and the overall vibe felt like a positive community of budget-minded enthusiasts. You could easily spend hours each day reading pages upon pages of new posts. The forum was basically a party everyday. I’m lucky to have joined during COVID. Now I don’t proclaim to be perfect or infallible to constructive criticism. Quite frankly, the support of this forum is a large reason why my YouTube platform even exists. I cannot thank you all enough. Sadly, a lot of the super experienced members don’t come here as often anymore. Perhaps the negative vibes these past 12 months ran them away or just simply their needs changed. Who knows… What I do know is I plan to keep supporting the forum as long as it makes sense. I’ve started to review more mainstream bikes, but my heart will always have a place for affordable Chinese frames/wheels. It’s how I got my start (Yoeleo R6). I wanted to write up a quick guide for anyone looking to jump into the world of “cheap” Chinese bikes. While I made a video on this very topic over a year ago, a reminder never hurt anyone. PLEASE feel free to add your insight and guidance below. Step 1: Passion Project vs Functionality As a cycling reviewer, I obviously don’t have any emotional attachments to my bikes. Except for my believed T1500. To me it’s about being functional and fast. If the “best” frame for (my) price range and riding style only offers matte black…I’ll take it every time. Custom paint means nothing to me if the frame is either a noodle or destroys my back. But I’m a performance-first person. Step 2: Riding Style and Geometry Can you slam your stem? Cool for you. Do you prefer an endurance style bike? Also very cool. Geometry is critical obviously. I cannot stress seeking a professional bike fit enough. Or just comparing your current bike to your target bikes using something like Geometry Geeks. Step 3: Budget vs “True” Budget If your budget is “only $600” for a frame, ask yourself if an extra $300 will be significant to you a year from now. How about an extra $500? How about two years from now? Buy nice or buy twice. Might be worth spending the extra money if you plan to keep your bike for longer than two years. But be warned: cheap bikes are addicting. Step 4: What is your “pain” threshold for cheap bikes? Cheap bikes are cheap bikes for a reason. Sort of. The value-add for these types of bikes is you are willing to put in the work yourself to troubleshoot, should bike build problems arise. If you do however find yourself frustrated, fear not! The forum is here to help. Typically the more you spend, the less potential for problems to arise. Or the brand will be faster to rectify. Unless you’re Yoeleo…  Patty’s Brand Picks $500 - VeloBuild - Custom paint, decent customer service, and solid provided hardware. Both the VB-177 and CX002 are very solid frames for the price. Won’t be the best performing frames ever, but they are “good enough.” You won’t get dropped from a race or fast group ride due to these frames. $1000 or less - Yishun/Light Carbon - No question one of the best affordable brands/frames you can buy without spending money on a Winspace. Sadly…paint options and frame availability may be questionable since (Yishun) is setup for B2B. But the quality and performance is all there. Fit and finish is really good, except for the plastic headset dust cover on my particular application. $1600 or less - Winspace - The T1500 has been talked about to death now for 4 years so there really isn’t anything left to cover. If you have the budget for it…buy it. Proven race bike. Fit and finish on par with the major brands. Wheel Brand Recognition - Elite Wheels, Winspace, and Magene - All 3 brands are great at what they do. The main thing these brands all have in common is they offer solid customer service. Each of them secretly lurk these forums, which means they are making an effort to listen to what customers want. Despite the fact Yoeleo makes solid bikes too, their customer service has been awful (again) based on customer feedback sent my way. Unfortunately my dealings with these brands for reviews does not translate to me being able to escalate customer complaints. Always remember the forum is here to help. There are no stupid questions if you’ve taken a little bit of time to research previous threads and watch a few YouTube videos. The more honest and transparent we all are with our questions, the quicker and meaningful the responses will come. Spend the love! January 25, 2024, 04:12:15 PM |
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Re: Ali express disc brake pads, recommendations
I've used gold, pink and silver Coomas. My definitive favorite is the gold version. They are simply put very, very good and compete with the best metallic pads out there. The pink version is good as long as they do not overheat. But if they do overheat, they will abruptly glaze over and permanently loose power. The silver version is flat out garbage and is not worth buying. March 31, 2024, 03:45:03 AM |
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Re: X-LAB AD9
When you could learn everything in 5 mins with a google search but post a question on a forum cause you couldn't be bothered, I don't really feel much simpathy Username checks out. LOL January 20, 2025, 01:58:55 PM |
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Re: Magene C606 Bike Computer
I have a rant punctuated with slurs somewhere out there. Granted half of it was towards seller (tradeinn) but the C606 was/is still a piece of shit The TLDR is that it's extremely frustrating because the hardware is basically perfect, it's fast and responsive, screen is the best I've used by lightyears, but the software isn't there at all. Very limited customization, awful map layer that you can't swap, and the android app is so buggy and bad it warrants the capital punishment for the devs imo. I'm using the IGS630 as a daily driver but I still haven't sold my C606. I sometimes check if they update the firmware, which has pretty much never happened in 6 months. I used the C606 just last week for a 2 hour ride and it's in still in the same state. My firmware version is v1.214, I don't know when the update introducing climbpro will drop to the public but I will try it once it drops It can absolutely become an everything-else killer, but until they purge the dev team PLEASE avoid it. January 24, 2025, 04:26:59 AM |
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New gravel build - Lightcarbon LCG087-D, Wheeltop, Elitewheels
My gravel bike is finally done. Here it is and specs are: Frame: Lightcarbon LCG087-D Groupset: Wheeltop GRX, 93mm cage, carbon shifters Cassette: Spedao 11-50 12-speed Crankset: Racework N1 carbon cranks Chain: KMC X12 Pedals: Racework MTB SPD Seat: Ryet 3D printed carbon saddle Wheels: Elitewheels Drive G45 CS carbon wheels with carbon spokes Tires: Gravelking X1 R Mudguards: Ass Savers gravel Basic bar tape, carbon bottle cages Feels pretty good after the first small test drive! Still need to fiddle around with the gear adjustments, they seem to work slightly differently in actual riding to how I was setting them up on the stand. March 15, 2025, 09:06:14 AM |
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Re: New gravel build - Lightcarbon LCG087-D, Wheeltop, Elitewheels
What do you think of the "suspension"? Difficult to say anything conclusive after such a short amount of testing and especially since I don’t have a similar bike to compare to but to me so far it seems to do about the same as the suspension block on my Bromptons. So it takes up chatter from the road and based on gut feeling alone the back feels more supple than the front. I am considering a suspension fork or a stem for the front… March 17, 2025, 04:44:08 AM |
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Re: Ali express disc brake pads, recommendations
So looking on the Cooma store page, and their pink pads, which model do I need for my Shimano ultegra and 105 disk brakes (link please). Would love to give these a go. This should be what you are looking for: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803550174669.html?pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%21US%20%248.26%21US%20%247.62%21%21%218.26%217.62%21%402101c80217437187752994558e23d1%2112000026982673439%21sh%21US%216115268129%21X&spm=a2g0o.store_pc_allItems_or_groupList.new_all_items_2007447399578.1005003736489421&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa April 03, 2025, 05:23:17 PM |
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Re: Magene C606 Bike Computer
Dusted it off this week for the bimonthly chance at redemption because I just got a L508 radar (which I'm still unsure about too). I've done 4 rides, all between 1 and 2 hours: -Might be just luck, but I found the android app to be much less buggy. Paired fast, synced fast, no timeouts. Just an issue syncing to strava but they're not really to blame because strava handles email changes very poorly. Still a nice surprise, the app works. -Their "climbpro" is a joke. It first needed to be activated somewhere deep in the app. I imported a route from their inapp route planner, which is no komoot but it works on par with the builtin garmin/igpsport/wahoo route planners. I got climb alerts for ghost climbs that didn't exist eg. 400m@7% when the road was fairly flat 1-2% up or down, some climbs were mysteriously split in 2, eg. 0-30% of a consistent 6% climb, then later the last half of it when there was no flat section, climbs that started way too late when I was well into it, and some climbs that kept going when I was actually done climbing. The "average grade remaining" is also pathetic. It will correctly identify 4km remaining and 250m remaining, but the calculation will be way off and fluctuating. It should be third grader math but it might say 3%, 14%, 6% etc. RNG. How can they fuck this up? -With four connected sensors, auto brightness (fairly sunny week) and a route loaded, it drains ~8% per hour, but I had one 1h20 ride go from 58 to 19%! In similar conditions, my IGS630 drains 3 or 4% per hour max, despite being older and used a lot more often. -I still think the hardware is flawless. It's crazy responsive, very readable. It's just the software that sucks. If ALL you need to do is stare at data fields and the occasional turn by turn, it's great, but for the money I expect a lot more. I hope the next IGPSport binavi will be good April 04, 2025, 11:42:53 AM |
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Re: Ali express disc brake pads, recommendations
I tried pink cooma and after a couple of decent rides they were glazed and useless. The slightest amount of moisture and they would howl loudly. I donated a big bag of them to the local community bike shop. I don't understand why they are so popular aside from price. I'm not that particular about modulation or wear. I just want them to stop and be reliably silent in mixed conditions. I will try some Kingstop next. April 17, 2025, 09:55:04 AM |
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Re: Frame req? (Aero, dropped SS, high stack, short reach)
This is looking really good Peter, this is a production version already? Can you share pictures of the whole frame and profile of the handlebar?Here they are. May 01, 2025, 06:31:42 AM |
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