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Messages - Woutervd

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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: August 07, 2026, 07:09:27 AM »
Little bit of an update on the frameset. Haven't been riding as much as I would have liked due to busy life recently, but racked up a bit more than 1000 km on my size L/530 Gascycle Nitrogen frame. Geometry works quite well for me, I guess it's really similar to my size 54 CAAD12 which works quite well for me. 162.5 cranks instead of 172.5 make up for the difference in stack height. Rides well and I have not yet eaten any pavement or wore out any headset bearings ;)

Really simple build, wheelset doubles the price of the whole thing lol.

Size L/530 Gascycle Nitrogen in raw alu (version two, with UDH)
Sram rival1 mechanical shifters/derailleur
ZTTO hybrid hydraulic brakes
9Velo CC TI 45/55 carbon wheelset
25 mm GP 5000 until they wear out
STONEDW 162.5 mm crankset (very nice) w/50t chainring
10-42 SRAM XG-1195 cassette
Ultegra pedals (not using the XT pedals pictured)

I think it's quite a clean looking frameset all in all. I expect it to be basically the same as the lower spec Standert aluminium road bikes. Ride feel is quite similar to my CAAD12 but with a bit more road buzz I guess. I didn't go for a low weight build, but it comes in sub 8 kg with pedals, cages, and computer mount. Clearance probably for a little over a 35 mm WAM, but it's limited by tire height at the seat tube. Front you can go >40 mm.

Quite funny how the bike kind of has rack mounts at the back, I picked up a second hand ortlieb quick rack + panniers which also makes the bike a perfect commuter. Single pannier fits all the stuff I need.

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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: April 19, 2026, 10:19:46 AM »
Quote from: ClSV on April 19, 2026, 09:42:31 AM
Yeah tough to tell from pictures if it's safe or not. Have a local shop or carbon repair shop make a judgement in person if you want to be sure.

Technically, the bearing should be fully supported on the chamfer, and therefore the 52 inner diameter being slightly oversized shouldn't matter from a functional point of view. Now if the chamfered part is oversized you'll indeed have preload problems.

If you can't get a 52mm bearing to fully seat, you could pop a 51.8 bearing in there to see if the chamfer is correct(fit full headset, fork, stem, add preload. No play = correct seating), and then make decision to either have it reamed or just use a 51.8 bearing.

You have a picture of the full frame? Curious how it looks. Also what's the fork axle to crown? That's some wild tire clearance you mentioned.

I can get the 52 mm in there, but I'd need to put in a fork with shorter head tube to be able to add preload or perhaps put on like 4 stems lol. I'll do that tonight actually.

Added some pictures, side view of the frame w/fork, bars, wheels (21 mm internal). GP 5000 25 mm, around 27.5 mm width as measured. Pictures of tyre clearance with 10 mm hex key for scale. Basically, there's >10 mm clearance around the ~28mm tyres. This frame makes the GP 5000s look like 21 mm's.

Axle to crown I'm honestly not completely sure how to measure accurately. See pictures. Roughly 365 - 6 mm (bottom of axle to bottom of crown measurement minus axle radius).

Hopefully the pictures make it obvious why I think it's a really cool frame. If, with preload, there is no play & the bearings turn smoothly, I'd probably be fine with a partial refund and accept possibly shorter bearing life. The fork scares me more, but I guess I could again see about that refund and just pick up a replacement fork with similar ATC and clearance.

EDIT: I was probably a bit too pessimistic about the headset bearing seat. Under preload spins freely and no play. Guess possibly shorter bearing life is the only real problem there.

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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: April 19, 2026, 09:16:21 AM »
Quote from: ClSV on April 19, 2026, 08:58:13 AM
Not saying it looks pretty, but I've seen big brand forks with similar.

As for the headset, if it's a IS52 bearing seat a proper bikeshop should be able to ream that correctly for you. Also here, you'd expect that to be done from the factory, but at least that would make it rideable.

Do you have some pictures of the frame?

The fissure in the fork is more like 2 mm deep than 1 mm, wall thickness of the steerer is 3 mm. There's some loose bits/fibers that I could scratch off if I wanted to. Steerer to crown transition, not the best place to have a failure as it's a guaranteed faceplant. I've held 3 other carbon forks and all of them didn't have a hole in the carbon (canyon ultimate, CAAD12, LightCarbon gravel bike). I'm not sure what I checks I would need to do to feel comfortable riding this fork.

As for reaming the bearing seat, guess it could be improved but I'm not sure if the extra 0.5 mm would still allow some play. The bottom bearing seat is completely fine. See attached pictures.

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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: April 19, 2026, 07:22:30 AM »
Quote from: jonathanf2 on April 17, 2026, 12:38:11 PM
That sucks about the head tube being oval. I'm surprised though considering it's just a round alloy tube. I'd think oval'ized head tubes to be more of a carbon frame issue. Did you try greasing up the bearing and seating it properly inside the head tube cups? On my frame the bearings were snug with no play once properly seated.

Grabbed my calipers and measured the top bearing seat to be 51.5 / 52.5 mm across. It makes sense that the chamfered bearing seat then does not support the outer race properly either, hence the rocking. No real purpose to add any picture here to discuss this problem. Very weird though indeed. You would expect a CNC'd headtube to be less likely to warp.

I added some pictures of the defect in the fork, to get the forum's opinion. Looking at it again, it does not look very great, with defects in the same spot on both sides of the steerer tube where it attaches to the fork crown. One side is clearly much worse than the other, with a roughly ~1 mm deep fissure (not sure what word to use here).

EDIT: I don't think the fork is safe to ride. The crack/fissure is at least 1 mm deep, which is a significant fraction of the wall thickness of the steerer. Don't think any real QC at all went into this frameset.

It is kind of sad, the frameset looks great in every other way really. Think it could even fit a 650b x 47/50 mm tire lol. Just over 50 mm of clearance in the fork, tire stay clearance is limited by chainstay length for a 700c tire.


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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: April 17, 2026, 09:15:06 AM »
I've received the frame just before having to leave for a weekend trip to the Amstel Gold Race.

Bad news first. Top headset seat is oval so the bearing is hard to get in, and the seat is not flat, i.e. the bearing rocks a little. Also, there are some defects/cavities in the steerer tube around where it attached to the fork crown.

Good news then. With 28 mm tyres there's more than 10 mm clearance on all sides. I think you can almost fit a 42 or 45 in there. Fork weight 420.8 g uncut, frame weight 1420 g, both excluding any hardware. Headset, seat clamp, udh hanger, and they axles add about 250 g. The welds look quite decent and the raw alloy is really quite cool.

When I get back I can add some pictures. Sadly I do think the headset bearing problem makes it unrideable as of now. Let's see what the seller has to say about it.

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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: March 24, 2026, 04:04:46 PM »
Quote from: jonathanf2 on March 24, 2026, 11:12:06 AM
Congratulations! My frame took about a month to arrive. They sent mine on a boat, which was a first for me! I'm curious about the new geometry. If you're on Chinese social media (specifically Red Note), Gas Cycle is quite active on that platform and have a group chat for customers to talk directly with them. They said the new design is stiffer, though my version is already stiff. They also made specific accommodations for Di2 while adding UDH. The older version was closer to Tarmac geometry, but also had a taller head tube.

I checked out the posts on rednote and was actually very pleasantly surprised by the information provided in them. They really do seem like a passionate small frame manufacturer. Also, the O2 gravel bike looks very nice on there, much nicer than just on the Ali listings. I've already got a nice gravel bike, which fits 2.1 mtb tyres instead of 45 mm, but still kind of fancy the O2 now too.

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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: March 24, 2026, 01:32:21 PM »
I'm not on any social media, but cool to hear that they've got a decent presence at least somewhere. I imagine that customer service will be quite limited, although if something is really wrong with the frame I believe AliExpress will mediate. Anyway, indeed, for this price I'm not too fussed as long as the bike is structurally sound.

There's a lot about the frame I'm not too sure on from the listing on Ali, there's basically no information there outside of the geometry and claimed weight. It looks like everything about it is quite standard though. Your R088 seems to have a slightly shorter wheelbase and steeper head angle than the dropped stay model, so it should feel a bit more twitchy and responsive I guess.

My gravel bike is a bit taller than my CAAD12 and I really do like the extra height I get there. I got the CAAD12 second hand and its fully slammed with cut fork tube, which can also feel nice, but I for the riding I do mostly now it's a bit too racy really. This Gascycle frame on paper should have the same handling but slightly more upright, which honestly sounds perfect.

Getting quite hyped with ideas for the paintjob, which is probably not too good since also first-time frame painter, but for now I believe I should be able to pull off something nice. One way or another it will be a unique bike. ;p

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Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Gas Cycle Nitrogen 6069 alloy budget road frameset
« on: March 24, 2026, 04:33:10 AM »
First time poster. Found the new version of the frameset on Ali with the high seat stays and UDH. Got really excited and finding this thread gave me the confidence to send it. Ordered yesterday, with coupons about 240 euros. Shipping I'm told will take 20-45 days. Expecting roughly 80 euros tax.

Got the size L bike, geometry is almost exactly the same as my CAAD12 except for a slightly higher front end (566 mm stack vs 552 mm) and .1 or 0.2 degrees on the seat tube and head tube angles. Planning on building it up quite simple with parts I've already got to keep the cost down while testing. 1x11 Sram rival, cable discs, finishing kit I've got lying around. Should still be quite light without really trying. Will probably strip the frame again and paint the bike if I like the ride feel.

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