How long have these been on the market? May be too new for their to be any real feedback on them yet. I knew we would eventually be seeing some sram 1x11 replicas but this is the first time I'm seeing them. Can't wait til we start getting some user reviews on for them

Hey I really liked all of these, especially the Chariot one and the Josh Weathers one. Crazy some of those notes that dude is hitting. Thanks for the share.

I've owned bikes from Ribble, On One and Planet X. These UK brands sell their frames direct to the customer, after having sourced them from China. I don't see what we're doing, in buying direct from the chinese suppliers, as being much different to what these companies are doing. The trick id finding a good company to deal with.

This. There's no difference at all in those frames and the ones we're all buying direct from China. Now you start talking about a 3000 dollar S Works frame and okay, I'm sure there are serious improvements to be had with the S Works. We all know that, It's just not worth the extra thousand or two bucks! And so they resort to what people always resort to when trying to control something they have no control over: fear. Like Sitar said, can't blame bike companies for trying to stop the sale of frames that are using name brand stickers and potentially fooling consumers into thinking they're getting the real thing (although you'd have to be pretty naive to think that imo) other than that, this is a disruption in their business model that will only grow in scope.

You know, a few years ago I was convinced the MTB market was going to settle on one main wheel size that became mostly standard. Guess not though. I wonder if it will just continue fragmenting into different sizes or what? 26, 29er, 27.5, Fat bike, 29+... Is this just going to keep going or is one going to prove to be the king of the mountain? That said, 29+ seems like it might be a good mix of all of them and I could definitely building one up instead of a fat bike or 29er. I had written fat bikes off almost entirely until reading rvc's NASA themed build thread found in the Fat Bike section of Chinertown.

I'm definitely rambling at this point. Sorry, just some random thoughts 

One interesting thing is that the frame remained strong around that junction of the two seat stays that I've seen a few guys concerned about. The impact was just a few inches from that area.

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Wow, awesome write-up and build, man. Reading that actually got me considering a fat bike build for the first time since I got over my initial "oh I want this cool new thing" phase. I think it helps a lot that you've got some pretty sweet wheels on that thing.

Do you happen to have much experience with full suspension bikes? If so, in your opinion, do think that tire size or suspension is the more effective at smoothing out the trail?