I was waiting for my new my bike to show up (3 month back order on the new Trek Fuel), so I decided to build a china carbon gravel bike.  I picked the ICAN Gravel X frame.  The order process was super easy.  I think it delivered in about 3-4 weeks.  The frame quality was great, no issues on any bolt holes or cable runs.  My only regret was not getting a custom paint job; I think the matte black turned out nice with the leather seat/bar combo, but some color would be pretty sweet. 

I also bought the ICAN carbon wheels. They arrived a week or so after the frame.  They apologized for not being able to ship a set with decals, but honestly I preferred the blank wheels.  Everything from ICAN was packed super bomb proof, I don’t think anyone could have damaged my shipment. 

The general setup:
SRAM rival axs xplr group set, 1x12. 
SRAM force cranks. 
Brookes saddle and bar tape
45mm wheels, tubeless

I don’t own a scale so I have no idea how much it weighs.  I did a lift comparison between this build and my road bike (2008 specialized roubaix) and it feels about the same.  If I ditched the Brooke’s saddle I bet I could tell the difference. 

Went on my first ride today on some mixed road and gravel;  bike performed great, no issues.  Need to dial in some seat positions but otherwise it’s going to be a nice bike.  I wasn’t really going for the cheapest option or the lightest weight, so I didn’t really keep track of any of that info during the build. 

13/10 on dealing with ICAN, would repeat again. 

Shipment 1 week, price Frame allin in was 1000$, full Build 2700$ wirh 105
Di2 and carbon Rims. Frame is great, first ride was fast!

Awesome looking bike!  What color scheme is that?  Almost looks like a chameleon color effect.
How was the build quality?  Any issues?  I was considering the Carbondale FM1056 but recently started to look at the aero frames instead. 

The bike is complete!  The bike shop did the last few tweaks; hooked up the rear brake cable that I had to cut so it could route internally, and fixed my derailleur issue.  The guy who did the work wasnt there when I picked up the bike, so I dont know what the fix was.  But its running like a champ (for now).  Its only been on the driveway so far due to rain, but I hope to have it on the inaugural ride very soon.  I added the completed bike pictures to the album. 

https://imgur.com/a/Gb60c7h

@carbonazza, thanks for the feedback.  Ill double check this, but I dont think the deraileur lines up even if I remove the chain.  After some googling this morning, I saw that another forum had a similar problem, they accidentally had a extra spacer ring on the hub/cassette.  I havent checked that yet.  Im sure I installed something wrong...I see a visit to the bike shop in my future.

Here are some pictures to show clearances, let me know if you have specific frame questions.  Im a newbie, but will try my best to send feedback on the frame:

https://imgur.com/a/Gb60c7h

The read tire clearance seems pretty good.  It has just over 1/2 inch on the sides, and more than an inch on the top. 

I am super unprepared to build a bike, but it should be up and running after my next amazon delivery.

Since I bought all my parts randomly, I knew some parts were not going to work.  The frame's bottom bracket was a press fit (diameter was like 46mm).  The spindle on my Sram groupset was 24mm.  My LBS talked me out of an adapter; they helped me install a Wheels Mfg bottom bracket that fit my 46mm frame and 24mm spindle. 

I also bought some cheap pre-assembled hydraulic brakes on ebay...but I have internal routing for the cables!  So I had to cut my rear brake cable to thread it through the frame.  Im waiting on the kit to re-assemble my brakes.  The cable routing on the brakes were nice though; there is a tube installed inside the frame, so you can easily push the cable through.

My Sram groupset had the shifter and wire cable...but no cable housing!  wtf.  I didnt even notice that one until a couple days ago when I tried to put my derailleur on.   Amazon to the rescue...but for the first time in my Prime experience, they mixed up my order and I ended with 2 fancy measuring tapes instead of cable housing. 

I have a Manitou fork, from what I can tell, its nice.  plenty of clearance.  I like that the connecting arch thing is on the rear side of the fork...I think it looks nicer. 

So far, my bike is all black...except the seat post clamp and unavoidable logos on components.  My wife makes vinyl decals, so I will be putting black on black lettering on my down tube. 

Aside from the bottom bracket, pre-assembled brakes, and shifting cable housing, everything went together pretty easy.  So far so good.  Hopefully next week I will add the finished bike to the folder.

Edit:  I just realized the frame also has a routing for a dropper seat.  Just to get rolling, I have a solid carbon seat tube so Im not using this one.  The dropper cable route does not have a helpful tube through the frame...It most likely requires the removal of the bottom bracket to route the cable up the seat post.   The Derailleur cable route came pre-loaded with placeholders, so it should be easier to fish the cables through. 

I just had an email exchange with Peter from Carbonspeed this week, he is no longer making the CS-496.  He said the newer model is the CS-299 SL T800; its not on the website yet.  He sent me the geometry cut sheets, its basically a normal looking hardtail frame for 27.5/29x3.  I was looking to build a Stache copy bike, 27.5x3...I just liked the look of that offset chainstay.  I ended up going with Velobuild for the stache-like frame; Ill be posting the build results when all my parts arrive.  Hopefully Velobuild has standards similar to Carbonspeed

Are bike rack questions allowed here?  I’m building a CS-496 bike, with 27.5x3.0 tires. Has anyone used a Yakima frontloader with 3.0 tires?  Preliminary google results were pretty sparse. Just curious if I need to keep an eye out for a used high roller rack or I my front loader will work.

I’m doing some research to build a bike, most likely a cs-496.  Lots of great info on this site. However, I’m thinking about paying the extra 60 bucks to add some color. How is the paint quality from carbonspeed?  Did the color match what you asked for?  Any examples of bright colors?