Yea those are the Mana cages I was curious about! Have you ever had a bottle eject from them? How are they on the frame?

I’ve been riding it, mostly on singletrack, but I’ve also gotten a bit of grass in there. Haven’t raced it yet, that’s coming this weekend.

For the most part, I have a hard time distinguishing it from my 2016 Crux—the geometry is really close to that bike, bar the longer chainstays. On paper the stack is quite different, but if you overlay the models, the front end is actually very similar. So take anything I say with a grain of salt, it probably mostly in my head/confirmation bias of what I’m expecting it to feel.

I think the handling feels like my Crux, but with a little “edge” taken off the handling characteristic—at times it feels more stable in corners. The handling also just feels stiffer and more predictable, maybe because of the thru-axles/142 rear spacing. I think mainly the effect of the long chainstays is it makes this bike feel less prone to snap-oversteer/has a slightly more progressive feel to the rear end grip, but also a bit less peak grip at the rear. I do feel i can push this bike harder/closer to the grip limit through corners on flat ground. Does this bike feel less nimble/agile? Sure, slightly. But I also think there’s a worthwhile tradeoff—this bike holds its line better and more confidently than a similar bike with shorter chainstays. I also feel like this bike corners better under trail-braking, where dabbing a bit more rear brake will help you swing the front-end into corners.

I do feel the front-center isn’t as long as I want. The steering starts to feel a little vague/susceptible to redirection, and requires a lot of commitment when going downhill. In understeer-heavy situations, like when turning-in at high speed, on the brakes, into a downhill, tight corner, it feels hard to predict if the front will bite. Once you’re bitten-in the front end traction feels good, it just feels a little hard to predict the edge of traction on turn-in. My old crux also had a bit of this, which makes sense—both bikes’ horizontal F-C is within 2mm of each other. 

I don’t really get the sense that it is slower, more sluggish, or less stiff than my old crux, like some others have commented. Interestingly, it also doesn’t feel particularly more plush to me. But that’s comparing to an older Crux with QRs. Again, I acknowledge subjectivity here, I think I was expecting noodle-y and plush, and what I felt didn’t line up with that expectation.

So—does this make a serviceable amateur cross bike? Absolutely! It does not feel like a yacht, or anything radically different than a typical cross bike. Maybe if you’re a super-enthusiast/semi-pro or have very traditional (or ultra-progressive) values about CX geometry, this bike will bother you—but you’d know if you fall into those categories just by looking at the geo chart.

How about the gestalt? How does this bike perform according to its goals of being not just a cross bike? I think if you want to have one all-road machine—a bike that can do gravel, CX, bike packing, and even road riding, this is a solid pick. It’s light, has nods to aero, can do 1x or 2x, has a wide range of tire clearances, and the geometry is well-suited to a broad range of tire sizes. Albeit, the geometry is quite behind the times compared to most modern gravel race bikes.

How do I feel about my choice? Something I also regret not considering when ordering this bike is that it’s pretty standard these days to ride 38mm tires if you’re not complying with UCI rules. With that in mind, I probably would have gone for the airwolf YFR68—my only hang up with that bike was the BB height, but it wouldn’t be a concern with larger tires. Thankfully, I have the rest of my life to buy more bikes.

Yeah I agree for $660 it’s quite good. All the complaints I have, have solutions. I really just present my review of the build to provide some contrast to the overly-rosy reviews from the YouTubers. I chose this frame because I was led to believe this frame was exceptionally high quality despite the price. And while it’s not bad, (especially compared to some of the competition) it has significant flaws I hadn’t expected that need attention in the workshop.

I’ve taken the bike out for its first ride, it’s a fine bike! Crank is no longer binding so much, hopefully I start feeling better about it as a whole.

Oh and for the record, the mallet was not used on my bearings, I just desperately need to clean up in my workshop