I was surprised at how low they seem to be pricing their framesets. I thought they would be Elves type range.
Fork on that new aero frame looks very inspired by the deep Stork fork. Wonder how close it would get in the tour magazine wind tunnel.

Looks like Pardus has opened a D2C shop for US/Japan at least: https://www.pardus-bikes.com/
Also possibly a new version of their aero road frame? https://www.pardus-bikes.com/products/bike-frame-pd-fb-73

Anyone got any experience with them?
They sponsor a team on this side of the world, and the Spark EVO looks good. Seems to hold up to racing demands.

Quote from: Yunglord on February 09, 2025, 01:30:36 AM
They release a few new garments every year you might be looking at unofficial storefronts.

Recently purchased bib tights with Elastic Interface chamois from them that had 2024 in the title of the product.

For some reason the official store isn't showing in search results for me either: https://spexcel.aliexpress.com/store/1101206109

I recently bought their '23 bibs: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005343407124.html
The leg length is great, no more mid-thigh action, but weirdly the material feels way too taut.
It's like they've gone too far the other way in trying to make the bibs feel quality by making the material thicker.

Quote from: lazywalrus on October 03, 2024, 04:22:58 PM
Anyone tried this Kocevlo stem that's a ripoff of the Deda SMR stems?
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mt866kY

I've had endless trouble with stems on my velobuild. This one is so cheap it seems worth a shot.

Alright, I ordered one of these stems to check it out.
The tolerances seem questionable, there's a big gap between the alloy stem and the nylon cover/spacer. I feel like this is going to lead to stress concentrations and either slipping or cracking.

It also don't have the cuts at the back of the spacers that the deda stem has which makes it much less convenient to use.

I don't think I'll bother installing.

Anyone tried this Kocevlo stem that's a ripoff of the Deda SMR stems?
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mt866kY

I've had endless trouble with stems on my velobuild. This one is so cheap it seems worth a shot.

Got a set of these Spexcel winter bibs recently, highly recommend them. They fit really nice, good for shoulder seasons with a nice fleece lining.

I also ordered the newer bib designs hoping for a longer leg length than my other spexcel bibs. These new ones are much better in that regard, good option to consider. They seem to fit much smaller than the other bibs from them I have though, I'm not sure if the cut is smaller or the fabric is less elastic.


Winter bibs: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005089454677.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.396e18021miX57
Short bibs: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005776859405.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.4.396e18021miX57

Quote from: anzolin on February 08, 2024, 06:45:21 AM
I have a friend who is using the GR9 with a Shimano HG-601 chain and Deore M5100 11-51 cassette and everything is fine with this configuration, it was a matter of making fine adjustments. Follow the video in PT-BR:

In my case, I use the GR9 with two 46/30 chainrings and an 11-34 cassette and on heavy gravel sometimes the chain jumps a little hitting the frame, what I did was adjust the cage to be more taut, tightening the screw of image:

Thanks for the tip, maybe it's a skill issue on my end. Or possibly made worse by a slightly draggy freehub.
In any case I got an ok deal on a grx812 and that's completely fixed the issue.
Maybe I'll try with the gr9 again in the future when I have time to play have a closer look at it.

Edit:
Actually looking at photos of the gr9 a bit more closely, I'm wondering if there's an two versions?
I've got the first one with no cylindrical part. The second one has it, which looks a lot like some form of clutch/damping.

Anyone running a GR9 groupset with a large cassette?

I'm running one with a 46T cassette. It seems like the tension is too low in the smaller cogs, and when you freewheel the weight/inertia of the cassette keeps pushing the chain round causing a lot of slack and dropped chains.

Something to keep in mind if anyone is eyeing this groupset up.
I'm going to put a GRX derailleur on and see if it resolves it.

Quote from: coffeebreak on December 23, 2022, 02:47:38 AM
I'm relieved I'm not the only one who had these problems. Just 8 hours for routing though? I spent probably 4 days lol. I probably routed and pulled out cables and routed again about 20 times and in the end couldn't get compressionless housing work. It was frustrating to say the least. I also filed all the edges of the stem and handlebar where ever the cables were rubbing.

Same for the saddle bolt. It was almost impossible to tighten it.

But, all is well that ends well. Your build looks cool, I wish you many happy miles on it!

Edit - that seat post is ridiculously tall. Mine is pushed way below lowest marker. That's the only way I could make it work. Strange, I never had such issue on any bike.

Haha yes you're definitely not alone. That was 8 hours spread across multiple days after I had to give up several times, traumatic.
I also filed the sharp edges a bit, only after they had removed a lot of housing coating though.

I assume VB uses the same seat post for all frame sizes, so maybe it's the right length for really large frames? Odd though.

Yours looks fantastic too, happy riding

My build is finally complete.
Might be of interest to some as it's a full Aliexpress/China build: GF-002, Elite wheels, Sensah SRX groupset, Juin Tech F1 brakes.

I've been interested in building up an open mould frame for a while, so with the price of new bikes and the second hand market getting a bit crazy (at least when I started ordering) this seemed like a good time to try.

Positives:


• Production & shipping was way faster than I expected, I think just over 2 weeks from payment including custom paint job. I could have built the bike much sooner had my separate BB not got lost in customs.
• The frame feels great, seems to ride like any premium carbon gravel frame, and the custom paint looks rad.
• The overall finishing seems good, with no paint in threads, bearing races pretty clean etc.
• I couldn't see any obvious voids or terrible wrinkles in the carbon - but will report back if it snaps in half jumping off a curb.
• I'm quite impressed but he SRX groupset, shifting is crisp and levers feel decent.
• Elite wheels seem fantastic on the short rides I've done so far. Tubeless ready tyres popped right on with a track pump.
• The Juin Tech brakes, now set up and bedded in are solid. Not quite hydro feeling, but much much better than BB7s I've previously used. They could probably be made better if my cabling wasn't such a mess too, or just external routing.

Negatives

• Threading compressionless housing through the bars+ stem + frame is ridiculously difficult. Compressionless housing is too stiff to get round the corners and it gets wedged in hidden corners of the bars. I'd estimate I've spent over 8 hours trying to get it set up right here, although that's largely because I screwed up the first run. I'm also running 1x here, doing a mechanical 2x setup + compressionless housing would be extremely difficult.
• Seat clamp: the front bolt can't be accessed with an Allen key unless you have a cut-out saddle, so fine-tuning the angle is a bit of a pain
• The bottom bracket pressed in worryingly easy. I could tighten the press-fit tool by hand, without a wrench. It's not creaking yet, but I'm expecting that I might have to add Loctite retainer in the future. This is a Rotor BB not a VB one.
• Minor gripes: Wasn't supplied enough bolts for all the bosses, the seat post doesn't slide that far down so I had to cut a lot off it to get it to the right height, where the cables exit the frame and attach to the brakes/derailleur causes quite sharp angles.

The headset

• I got the separate bar and stem as I wanted the option to swap out the bars to attach aerobars for really long distance rides. I also wasn't 100% on the geometry, I just matched it to my road bike. In retrospect with the integrated cables swapping the bars out is something I'm going to try and avoid.


• I got the updated headset that Chris has mentioned in previous threads, this seems to resolve the issues others were having of not being able to preload the bearing. However, it definitely has not been perfect. I've battled it slipping and coming loose, not being able to preload sufficiently for several days now.


• Possibly the issue lies in the way is presses the C clip/dustcover into the bearing, it looks uneven and I'm assuming this then causes it to slip slightly under hard braking. If I'm careful with aligning the C pointed exactly straight ahead, arrange the cables to sit evenly spaced, and add a little carbon paste on the stem it seems to work.


• I've also got a 1-2mm gap like coffeebreak mentioned above. I think I'll just cover it with silicon as removing the dust cover is an ordeal.
  I think long-term the solution is probably still to go with the FSA headset.

Overall, very happy with it so far - but haven't put enough miles on it to give it a proper review.
Total cost about $2.7k AUD/$1.8kUSD.