What did you end up doing for a headset. I just ordered hers from Meinier but it seems they need their bars too.

I started surfing this site around Thanksgiving, thanks for all of your help. I settled on the Meinier Snake for my wife. I stripped a Niner Air 9 that I wasn't using and sold the frame, most of the components ended up on this bike.

Cost of the order from Meinier was $569, including paint, headset, bars and shipping. I sold the Niner frame for $150, and bought a 165mm crank and Wheels mfg BB. The BB was the unexpected thing, as I was expecting to just order a dub off of Amazon for $40 or so, but it turns out sram doesn't make a T47 BB for MTB that I could see.  So I ordered the one from Wheels because I didn't want to wait and I was well below what I expected to spend. 

Only issues were the cables going through the headset being a tremendous pain in the ass and the odd exit point for the shift cable. Notna huge thing but I had to do a little loop before the derailleur.

GX group, level TL brakes, spesh XC wheelset w/DT350 hubs Fox dropper, Bomber Z2 fork

EDIT - also, I was very pleased with the communications from Meinier.

Haha. Sorry, here's what I have so far. I went ahead and ordered the headset and bars from them as well.  She is very happy with how the paint turned out.

FWIW, I went with the Meinier.  I ordered it a couple of days after posting this and received it before Christmas. That's with a custom paint for my wife. Their customer service seemed excellent, communicating with me almost every day until it shipped. 

Wow, thanks so much, I think that's the one.... Every question answered I come up with another one. I don't remember being this confused the last time (which was also the first time) I bought a fork and headset to fit a frame.

The website says 1.5 upper and lower, that can't be right can it? I have a Marzochi Bomber z2 tapered steerer that I am hoping to use.

Edit - I think I figured it out. Need an IS52/28.6 – IS52/40 headset correct?

Thanks much!

So what other frames would you be looking at? Where would I look to find those? I think you mentioned a couple, but keep in mind I have zero vocabulary when it comes to Chinese frames.

Hello,

Short question - Any opinions on this frame? Context below:

I'm hoping to get a thumbs up/thumbs down (or some alternatives) on this frame. I'm new to the world of Chinese carbon, but not to bike building. I'm looking to build a bike to get my wife out on the trails. Nothing fancy, but reasonably good quality. I've done some scrolling on these forums, clicked on a lot of vendor links and what not and the frame linked below is what I am looking at for three reasons. 1. It looks like what I want for her 2. Their website was reasonably easy to navigate and find what I want for her and 3. She loves the turquoise color (woman gonna woman, I could talk her into something else if this is crap).

I've got most everything else I need in my parts bin or on bikes that I don't ride so much. GX group (might need shorter cranks), level TL brakes, spesh XC wheelset (27mm IW I think) w/DT350 hubs and XD driver, and a Fox dropper that I think will fit (not the end of the world if it doesn't), Bomber Z2 fork

So thoughts? alternatives? anything I'm not thinking of?

https://bxtbikes.com/products/bxt-2025-new-29er-t1000-carbon-mtb-hardtail-frame-mtb-066-d-color-boost-148x12mm-udh-bsa-73mm-max-2-35-tire-internal-cable-routing?variant=49496248451319

Greetings! I stumbled across this forum while banging my head against the wall trying to find information about what's good and what's not on the non name brand carbon. My immediate need is that I am building a bike to get my wife out on the trails.. I've got most everything from a component standpoint and just need an affordable frame. If that goes well I am sure that I'll spend a lot of time here in the future looking to upgrade the rest of my fleet!