Guys, can I change the integrated handlebars to some other brand if I find VB's not good fit? Can I buy whatever brand from aliex, or do I need to match the spacers beneath stem... I'm not kinda getting this.

Yeah, I don't really understand why many (?) people here are going for those 26 mm inner width rims for road use with narrow tires. ETRTO recommendations don't exist for nothing. You can usually go a bit further than recommended, but it's a bit of a gamble.

Unless you want to to exclusively run 32+ mm tires, don't get those rims!

That said, it would be great to see something between 21 mm and 26 mm rim width. Something like 23 or 24 mm would be pretty versatile.

Well, it's hard not to see the direction of the industry. With Enve ses line, their 25/33 width, they recommend 27c as a minimum and they literally state "aero optimized tr tyre size". With the trend towards wider tyres, and having 105% aero "rule" (and it really does mean something), it's really hard to ignore that.

Kudos to Serge_K for introducing me this trend, and recommending to go wider. I went initially with 28 ow, but told Peter if it's ok to change to wider option, and thankfully he approved. Cost difference is about 20$ per rim, even less.

On the same tangent, but a bit different topic. Chinese industry follows the trend. After all, all major brands ship their blueprints long before the product arrives to market. And they ship them blueprints to manufacturing plants, guess where? Well, China ...And don't you think that once they have their eyes on those blueprints, they won't use the opportunity to jump ahead of the rest? Meaning they'll have the similar product ready to be manufactured as soon it gets the hype from that major brand?

I bought my carbonda fm936 xc full-sus 2y ago. The frame was from 2019. And the geometry is still SPOT ON with the trend. If you go to 2019. and see the geo numbers on all xc bikes, you see huge difference with some noname chinese oem's that somehow made so progressive frame years before it was the "thing".

They follow the trends, and use simple logic to get advantage every way they can. It may be not so moral from some perspective, but damn, we can get up-to-date products with decent enough quality for a really good bargain. Take my money.

im still undecided between d50cu-33  t800 or t1100 version, but im planning to put michelin powercup 28, as theyre wider than average 28's

If you wanna some reference: I went with t800, d50cu33, inhouse hubs, cxray and brass nips - 1420g.

I ordered on 27.10. Yesterday Chris sent me a picture when I asked. Said it will be shipped tomorrow or saturday. Could've been a bit sooner (he said it would), but it's ok I guess. When I ordered from Carbonda my xc frame, they shipped it really fast (but it was without painting).

Wheels should be shipped today, Peter said. Got a picture. They sit at 1420grams (D50CU-33 T800, cx-ray, inhouse hubs, brass nipples). Would've been under 1400 if I went alu nipples, but I detest them.

Everything else arrived. I went with 105di2, but ordered lighter rotors, riro carbon cranks and ztto 32t cassette (around 230g). So i hope build would land below 8kgs. Will go with xtr pedals atm. And another thing, Chris appologized for delays and sent me par of bottle cages and spare rd hanger. I was just about to buy the cages on ali, good thing I didn't

Everything arrived, groupset, tools, bb, Riro carbon crankset... except the frame and wheels.

Chris was responsive. Initially told me it'll take 2 weeks for the paint, still not done. Will send pictures 2morrow. As for the wheels, should be shipped by this friday, as Peter said. Hoping I'll get this done by the end of this month.

Few questions about the frameset, still deciding what frameset to go for in my build. I skipped through the whole thread, but obviously didn't read all and every post, so bear with me if this was discussed already.

Do we have any geometry info on the integrated handlebar that VB provides? CAD drawing or something? Ideally I want a compact bar with just a bit of flare, i.e. drops maybe 2 cm wider than hoods.

My understanding is that the geometry isn't as aggressive (only 536 mm stack in size 54) as it seems, as there is a special mandatory spacer that is around 15 mm in height that comes on top of the frame stack. Is that correct? OTOH, on some photos it still did look super aggressive, but maybe that was due to individual sizing decisions. I'm 176 cm and I need around 73 cm saddle height and considered size 54 so far. Goal is 8-9 cm saddle to bar drop.

Is there any verdict on saddles with 7x9 rails? Supposedly there were issues with the clamps, and VeloBuild knew about it. Have they fixed it?

What kinds of accessories do you typically want in addition to what VB ships? From what I've read it should be 1. grommets for cables, 2. Di2 battery holder and 3. maybe a better expander plug.

Edit: another thing... how stiff are the integrated bars? I think I read they are quite wiggly. Is that (still) true?

Bar geometry is here: https://www.velobuild.com/products/carbon-fiber-road-bike-integrated-handlebar-with-spacers-for-hidden-cables-routing
Seems there's just a tad bit of flare.
I bought additional seatpost (30$ or smtng); you just pay for the seatpost that's listed on their site, and tell Chris you want the seatpost for VB268 as a reserve. - if you want one, ofc.
I also bought another set of spacers (buy headset from their site and again, tell Chris that's for spacers). And there's a link for a seatpost di2 battery holder, on Ali for 20 some $.

And since you kinda helped me realise that 15mm spacer that's painted with the frame should also count as a stack height... I could go without another set of spacers I thought I could use. But, why did they list stack without the spacer in the first place? Do other brands do the same? Cause I compared geos with other brand bikes and VB seemed a bit too much agressive... Now, if others measure stack WITH that top HT cover, that would make a lot of sense, and would mean I won't need additional spacers under the stem. Happy days.

I took 56 on my 184 height. 42/110 bars, and I really hope I won't need to change the bars/need longer stem.

First shipment for the build just arrived. Some tools, bar tape, BB from ZTTO that threads into itself (hope that would be ok). Di2, frame and wheels yet to come. Im hoping I'll finish the build this month.

Thanks! Chris just replied they'll finish paint job this week. Now waiting game. Imma go out on my Carbonda MTB till then

I was wondering about that as well. Haven't found exact answer. I wish someone here tried some other handlebar and has first hand experience on compatibility.