Did you use the expander plug that came with the frameset? You might need to make some adjustments to make it fit like I did. I didn't use any carbon paste, also no torque wrench.

Did you shape the expander top-cap a little? It sits really tight in the stem. Unfortunally I can‘t find any other D-Shape Expander here in Germany - Cervelo and/or Factor should fit, but seems to be very expansive and not available in aftermarket…

I think getting SL7 is better choice than SL8 - it should be cheaper, no major difference between the frames and most importantly SL7 doesn't have the Buttsniffer™

I totally agree, but I am in the nice position to get a frame much cheaper because a friend of mine is working in the bike industry. Of course „cheap“ is the wrong word here. I am really unsure about my decision, but in the end I am trying to whitewash it with selling it later for nearly the price I will pay now…

I really like the shape of the 268, but the uncertainty of getting the roval cockpit work is a huge obstacle for my idea of building it up.

Is there any chance to get a sl7-stem or another handlebar/stem work on the top cap?

I also vote for getting a new fork from Airwolf.

"This is really paint here. If there are carbon fiber cracks, I will repair a  fork"

--> This is the answer to my bid for a new fork...

Very satisfying :-)

Hello Gentlemen,

sorry for not posting for a long time - I think I started the discussion here about the frontend. But time flew so fast the last months (birth of 2nd child, job change, road racing, etc), that I did not ride much with my Chinarelo.
After all Airwolf sent a spacer for the lower headset bearing, which seemed a quite good solution. I rode nearly 300km with it in training and now wanted to change my bar to another one - so I disassembled the frontend once again and found a deep edge at my forktube.

I am a really big fan of chinese products, but my believe in good products got a huge bend - At the moment I believe this section will be a intended breaking point after more time with the bike so I am not going to ride this any more and will claim for warranty.

In my oppinion the edge is caused by the spacer and will cut deeper into the fork. What do you think about this?

It‘s 49.5…

So, here I am again - thanks for your thoughts.
It's really hard for me to discribe my problems in english, but I think you can see what I meant.
The upper and lower bearings are the same size - I think it is 49,5mm x 38,5mm x 6mm. So I ordered the only one that I could find with such a measurement about 49,5mm x 40mm x 7mm. The height might work, but because of the bigger innerring the bearing slips deeper on the fork, so that I have not one anything with this try. 49mm bearings are more common, but would it slip in the steerer tube?

Airwolf wrote today, that their mechanics think a microspace would work and they would send it to me soon. But again, I can't imagine where to place this because of the angles on the bearing and fork/frame. On the upper bearing placing a microspacer is no problem between Cap and ring...