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Re: New Light Carbon LCSF980 XC bike
The best quality is to not see any resin inside the handlebar. The high quality we pursue is that the resin does not leak out at all, but is all inside the carbon fiber layers. Regarding BB, I'm sorry. The bottom bracket is pre-embedded into the carbon fiber frame. Resin may overflow during high-temperature molding, or one or two threads in the purchased BB are not deep enough (usually we will check before using these aluminum alloy accessories, but they may be missed), resulting in the need to manually deepen the threads again. We will improve quality inspection standards in the future. In addition, we have added an inspection step. During packaging, workers will use tools to try installation again to confirm that the threads are correct. September 27, 2024, 02:06:48 AM |
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Re: Affordable lightweight frameset (not Winspace SLC 3)
Brands command a premium, for what benefit? With Giant being the exception (a brand that owns / is the factories), you have factories that make frames for brands, and brands distribute and sell. Each layer needs to eat. The further away from China, the more expensive the layer, and the less relevant (carbon bike market is now so commoditized with all frames looking the same and within 5w of each other). Therefore, the closer to the factory, the better the value & the less bullsh1t. It is telling that Pinarello has frames made in china and they paint them in Italy. You can get real custom... because of the paint. Factor is the same: their frame looks open mould, but you get to really tune... the paint. There's something to be said about where the expertise really lies. Take carbon layup. Is it Specialized that's really the expert, or Specialized suppliers? I dont have the answer, but it's important when thinking about light frames: as of now, T700 is ghetto. T800 is the gold standard, most legit carbon things are made with it. And then you go into fancy territory, with T1000, T1100, and increasingly, you see exotic things like M30, M40, and others. As brands brand (ie differentiate), there's also the question of how much a brand is making shit up (what does specialized's Fact carbon actually mean? Ditto with Pinarello's different carbon tiers). T1000 is "known" (rumoured?) to cost about 2x T800, so you will NOT see a frame made with T1000 for $500. If T1000 and $500 are seen on the same page, it means they (at best) INCLUDE T1000 in the frame, but it could be 1% - obviously, that's unregulated, Chinese are known to basically lie, and, maybe most importantly, you can't test it yourself -. The biggest benefit of higher tiers is you can use less of it for the same strength, so frames get lighter. And so, you're left with the usual questions: - Do you want to pay extra for a brand? The Chinese market now has brands, including Specialized equivalent brands (ie social media fluff fest). As a westerner, i'd say buying a Chinese brand is the worst choice possible: you pay a premium, but you're not in China, so you can't flex at the cafe your branded bigcock frame that nobody knows, and you can't lean on the bigcock bike shop for help / maintenance / support / warranty / i spent money here please be make me feel important and refer to me as your lordship. - If you buy a western brand, (1) you (usually) get to rely on your local LBS, (2) you get a frame that's been QCed (questionable truth), (3) and if you buy something high end, you buy a vibe around layup technology, ride properties, the secret sauce that makes it so that when you jump on a specialized, your hair grows back, your biceps get more defined, and the ladies look at you like "ooh myyyy". (3) goes back to my point above on who actually has the layup know how. So, a rational actor will wonder: how much more over an equivalent spec (features & weight) OEM frame am i willing to spend to benefit from 1-2-3? - If you buy an OEM frame, you have to trust that (A) the factory / broker actually exists (people on this forum still using paypal insurance scheme to send money to Farsports is money down the drain, as far as i'm concerned), (B) they will ship you what you ordered (when Airwolf on Aliexpress sells you a frame for 12 dollars made of full T1100, spoiler alert, they're lying), (C) they will ship you a frame that's not a dog, and that's been QCed enough (Light carbon shipping cheese, Tavelo with undersized BBs whose shells crack during install, and all the horror stories you can find on here with Airwolf, tantan, workswell, and so on). - On (C), because a seller will usually tell you not to worry, then ship you swiss cheese anyway, you have to factor in an element of risk: more often than not, seller A (after careful consideration on your part to choose that seller) will ship good frames, but occasionally, they will fuck up, at which point you need to be qualified enough to understand where they fucked up, and complain. Also, let's be honest, in many instances, people complaining about frames is USER ERROR, or such trivial niggles that the factory should indeed ignore the noises you make. And you have to complain loud enough, to a seller that is honest enough / has enough of an incentive to listen and help. And so, this forum is invaluable in helping identify (a) where the value is, (b) good sellers, (c) and bad ones. For light frames, it depends on what you deem light (and what tyre clearance you need). A lot of 2024 frames are around or below 1000g in Medium (starting with the Velobuild 268, which really is the standard of value). SP Cycle claims a 880g frame (30C, R025-SL), Yishun has an endurance frame at 900g, Long Teng claims their chonky boy 301 is 980g. I havent mapped out the lighter side of the market, because i'm over 80kg myself, but i would say: reach out to OEM with a good reputation on this forum, ideally order 2 frames and build 1 for a friend (or more), as you will command better care and attention, ask questions, accept the risk that no matter what you do, you may have problems to solve, but deal with someone who will more likely than not agree to help you rather than ghost you, and have fun. Or buy a Giant TCR, ofc, once you've swallowed the upfront cost, rarely do people regret buying a branded frame. Notes: - on light carbon, recent precedents make them look bad (1 example of awful cheese carbon, 1 example of a down tube you could deform by hand, off the top of my head, but they generally have great reputation, and they're linked to Yishun (if i'm not mistaken), which also has great reputation. - on tantan, plenty of people report horror stories, but they also OEM for big brands, and they are huge (assuming a constant error rate, the bigger you are, the more errors). As such, and because perfection is an ideal, nor a reality, they're probably still a good counterpart. - Airwolf has an error rate so high it makes errors part of who they are, so you probably dont want to buy frames from them. But i've been buying cockpits from them, and i love their cockpits. So even that is more nuanced than just "avoid airwolf" What do i know? I've been riding bikes for a long time, most of my friends ride bikes and many of them are champions, and i've built 9 chinese bikes in the last 2y. These opinions are my own and as a matter of course, i tend to agree with what i say, which doesn't make it truth. October 01, 2024, 03:02:53 AM |
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Re: Affordable lightweight frameset (not Winspace SLC 3)
If weight is your goal and you don’t mind exposed cabling, for $2k-$2.2K you should be able to find an Aethos or even a 2024 TCR Advanced SL. I think both of these would build up lighter than any of the Chinese brand or open mold frames except for the BigRock Sothea Team, which according, to Panda Podium, about the same weight as the Aethos in a size 56 as well as similar priced—though you would get internal cable routing. I think stepping down to something like the ICAN FL1 could make sense too as it would add 150-200g? But would save over $1K USD. If I had the money, I probably would get one of the branded frames, unless the difference freed up budget for nicer wheels. The wheels I have my eye on are the Light Bicycle Ar25 built with Nonplus Hubs and Alpine Hyperlight Aero spokes. For ~$1600 its a 900g wheelset, so probably a better place to spend money to save weight than the frame. If you also look carefully you should be able to find an Ekar group relatively cheap. Shifters and RD were going for ~$200 during the pros closet sale and some of those are bound to be flipped on ebay soon, so that could be a cost effective way to save some weight as those are pretty light groups, only ~100g heavier than the lightest group i know of, 11spd DA Di2. Edit: I just realized that it looks like some of the text from ciclisti.cc is copy and pasted from Panda Podium. Ugh. October 01, 2024, 10:42:33 PM |
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Re: Affordable lightweight frameset (not Winspace SLC 3)
You dont need a super light frame to get a build under 15lb. That's almost like a regular midrange build these days. I had a 6kg rim brake build around a ~950g frame a few years ago. And that's with everything- pedals, bottle cages, computer mount. It was heavily compromised though- carbon saddle, garden hose Tufo tubular tires- it was kind of awful to ride. It's all about picking the right components. My suggestions? - Frame- something with a round seatpost so you have cheaper options there. Rim brake is getting tough as there are less and less options. The innovation/investment is in disc. - Wheels- not hard at all to find sub 1200g wheelsets these days. You don't even have to compromise much on width/depth. You can prob find sub 1000g wheels if you're willing to compromise on performance (I wouldn't) - Tires- I might just not have known about better options when I did my build but I don't think you have to compromise here. BRR has the info to let you find the best compromise of weight, rolling resistance and puncture protection: https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/road-bike-reviews?orderby=weight Shouldn't be an issue for you to find 23c tires under 200g/axle that aren't complete trash. - Cranks- not hard to find ~400g crank arms. I have Extralite chainrings and they are OK. If you can go 1x, even better. - Groupset- mixed bag; mechanical rim is the lightest but eh. Carbon rim brake surfaces just suck and turn your wheels into wear items. I would def look into disc, not sure if hydro or cable is lighter. Again go 1x if you can Etc. You can def get under 15lb without sacrificing much of anything; I'd wager you can even get under 14lb if you are very careful. I will say it is very nice to have a bike that "holds speed" so I would also factor aero in...... aero & rolling resistance take over pretty early so I think it's worth eating a few grams for stuff like rim depth, faster tires etc will make for a more enjoyable experience. My bike is prob 1kg heavier now but it is so much faster and nicer to ride. My next build splits the difference with the best of both worlds. October 02, 2024, 07:05:15 AM |
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Re: New Light Carbon LCSF980 XC bike
Hey repoman, I like this post and love your detailed build report. I'm building an XC bike myself. Question for you: I went with this frame primarily because I have a Lightcarbon Gravel frame that I think is pretty good, I don't know much about MTBing, I built this one up to basically learn how to ride technical stuff easier for gravel rides/races that incorporate tech so I figured a short-ish rear travel would be good. I have no interest in bike park/shredding gnar/tail whips sort of stuff. Bike weighs 25 lbs right now, the 2.4" Purgatories are 1kg each, so with some legit XC tires IE Race Kings/Fast Tracks/Renegades/Ground Controls, a light saddle, and a weight weenie cassette I think this would be a sub 23lbs bike. The post is a Transfer SL so it's super light for a dropper, the rear shock is a Float DPS so its sort of light but not the weight weenie one, the fork is a 2022 Stepcast which is pretty light. You can't really trust published weights for any of these frames tbh. A lot of them weigh a lot more than what the sellers claim, sometimes they weigh a bit less. October 18, 2024, 03:04:03 PM |
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Re: new road bike frame
If I bought a road frame tomorrow, it could well be the speeder 55 something. Looks a lot like Rose Xlite something, and it's lovely looking. It's light, it looks like a good do it all somewhat aero machine, tralala tralala. For less, the vb268. If you want lots of clearance, long teng 301. For a very clean endurance bike, yishun has a nice model, monocoque very light with a round seat post. Off the top of my head. October 22, 2024, 01:35:37 PM |
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Re: Deep wheels below 1300gr without breaking the bank?
I placed the order last night for a set of wheels. It was a tough decision because we are seeing really light T1000 and T1100 layups, but many of the suppliers are releasing them only for narrower models—like those in the 28mm EW range. In other cases, they just don't want to sell them outside of Asia due to a high potential for returns. My 0011 rep sort of left me a lurch, too, so the business went to a very patient and responsive rep from a different company. The build should come out under 1300g and I am very curious to see how they perform. Here are the specs:
These are not cheap wheels at around $1150 (shipped), and I know I left 30g-40g on the table by not waiting for a lighter wheel layup that may be coming, but these are narrow enough IW for me to run GP5000 TT TR tires and wide enough that I think they should work pretty well aero-wise with those tires. Those tires, along with 6-bolt Galfer rotors, should make for a pretty light setup, while the internal nipples should help a bit to narrow the aero gap with my current setup. The 28mm wide (hooks) and 21mm IW options were too narrow for my preference, and without a way to validate this would lead to an aero loss, I figured it would drive me to purchase another set sooner than having these built with the rim dimensions I wanted, even if they were heavier. I will A/B test these wheels on a flat loop vs. my current wheels (Ascent Polaris 69mm) and see how they fare. November 12, 2024, 12:58:18 PM |
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