Whose frame bolts came with loctite pre-applied? All my pivotsl bolts came with blue loctitepre-appplied, but were very under torqued. I torqued them all to 1nm below max indicated. Hopefully no one else loses any more bolts!

Also, I got the Bomber CR shock installed. 185x52.5 trunnion It's a perfect match for this frame's leverage curve. Ultra plush with a good pedalling platform at the sag point - no bob. With the 500lb spring installed the shock is almost 1kg! For the performance, the weight is easily worth it.

Other than receiving the wrong rear spacing (142 instead of 148) I'm really digging the bike on the light trails around my home. I plan to take it for a proper ride this weekend.

I purchased on DHGate and they are tripling down that they sent the right frame. It is pretty clear that they are wrong. Photo attached.

They keep saying the same thing: that the axle wouldn't fit if it was a 142x12 frame. The ignorance is strong. I would have expected that they would know the basics of bikes and bike frames.

It's a 185x50 Fox DPX2 trunnion mount. Once I got the shock into position, it fit perfectly between the frame mounts atthe trunnion end. It was just a matter of sanding the material around the mount.

The other end required no modification and worked perfectly with my 40mm M8 hardware installed on the shock.

My frame finally arrived. I had a couple of hours to work on it last night.

I've attached a couple photos. Overall, quality seems OK. The rubber downtube guard is the one available off AliEx - it installed nicely. My fork is only at 130mm in the photo. I need to adjust it to 140mm travel still.

The bad:

- I had to sand down some excess paint / material on the inside of the shock mount to slide my trunnion mount shock into place.

- fair bit of frayed fibers on the inside where post-drilling had been done. I've not worked with a carbon frame from a big manufacturer so I don't know if this is normal. My wife has a flyxii carbon cyclocross bike and it was relatively smooth inside.

- The chainstays had to flex out about 5mm to accommodate my wheel. I hope they sent me the boost version as ordered. Doesn't seem like a big deal, only a couple mm per side. Could have been some excess paint / material similar to my shock issue.

- The provided rear axle was very tight through my hub. There is some noticeable drag through one of the seals on the drive side.

The good:

- The exterior finish is almost flawless. There are a couple visible rough spots around some of the pivots. Probably some minor chipping fron drilling. Very minor and only visible upon close inspection.

- The price. This cost me $777 CAD, plus $16.30 in taxes. That's like $640 USD all in for you folks down south.

- Availability. Yes, I had to wait a couple months, but I was actually able to buy this.

- The sizing / geo. I picked this frame based on my desired reach, HTA, and travel. I currently measure this at a 335mm bottom bracket height. This will be about 338mm once I increase my fork to 140mm. This is a similar height to my previous bike, 2018 Occam TR. While I loved that bike, it was a size medium (too small) and 120mm/130mm R/F travel was not quite enough for my riding. My size large FM10 will have an extra 30mm reach and be 135mm/140mm R/F travel with a slightly slacker HTA.

Anyway, more photos to come. Hopefully finish it up and test ride within the next week. Any technical questions, just send me a DM.

I'm confident these are the same as the Clarks M4 that kind of made it to market. I got these Meroca brakes to go on a budget trail hardtail, $60ish CAD off AliEx. They arrived with one of the levers very gouged up. The seller only gave me a couple bucks discount. I hit the gouged lever with some black paint and it looks better, but can still see the deep gouges.

The pads are the same size as the shimano 4-piston brakes. The original pads were pure trash - the backing plate and pad material were rusty. I tried them out after sanding and IPA cleaning, proper bed-in, etc ... total suckage. Popped in the Kingstop Taiwan semi-metallic pads (comparable to Shimano resin pads) and they are good now. I shortened the rear hose and used a shimano olive and barb just fine. I also had to swap levers right to left. I'm confident these are the same as the Clarks brakes and will use that bleed procedure. The lever feel is a bit meh but usable, i think the lever swap introduced some air so I will need to bleed them and see if they improve.

Basically after some screwing around, they're pretty good. Decent 1-finger braking. The calipers actually look very nice in terms of quality, finish, etc. The levers ... look kinda budget and a but clunky. I will say, the lever ergonomics are actually pretty good.

For the price, I would buy them again. Shame about the damage to mine, but it doesn't affect performance.

PS - for good brake pads and hydraulic fittings at half the cost of Shimano, I've had great luck with the Kingstop store on AliEx.

Hey guys,

I'm currently waiting on this frame, should arrive in a week or two as it shipped about a week ago. Just wanted to post and let you know I'll be adding my experience to the thread soon.

I actually DM'd a couple users here to ask a couple questions - thanks for the input guys!

I picked up a 185x50 dpx2 trunnion mount and will use my current Aion 35 fork with the RC2 damper. My current bike (2018 Occam TR size M) was a bit too XC and a bit too small for my riding and size (5'-11" with a 6'-2" wingspan). Planning a 135mm rear travel and 140mm front travel 29er for this frame. Due to some posts here about the included shock hardware and rear axle breakage I've picked up a low-friction 8x40mm mounting set from S4 suspension and I also ordered a spare axle from TanTan. Once I find out the length and thread pitch of the axle I may pick up a Rockshox brand rear axle as they have a good selection of sizes.

Anyway, once this is built up it will get a weekly thrashing on rocky, rooty, PNW black trails. Technical climbing is super important to me (sometimes we session the uphills) so I'll comment on how it climbs.

I'm also an experienced home mechanic & wheel builder with the Park Tool course, years of maintenance, and a few builds under my belt.

Anyway, if some of the others came back and gave an update on their experience riding this frame that would be great!