Quote from: BIFO17 on January 06, 2026, 11:44:55 AM
You need to take a size 56 !
you have too much spacer under your stem

Saddle to hb drop is really not that high. And those spacers, sure, maybe a bit taller side, but also not THAT tall. I would say he's in between sizes, chose smaller and adjusted with spacers. He could use larger size, but it's not a "must" imo.

Any of you guys ride that frame yet, specifically one from Tom? Wanna know how it feels and what do you think about it.

Hi guys! I'm scoping on this frame some time now, not sure if I should go for it. Currently on VB268, pretty satisfied, only paint job seems pretty weak here with velobuild. Anyways, I wonder if there's anyone here my size proportions so I can get some reference on sizing. In short, anyone with around 183-187 height who bought this frame, what size did you choose? Another reference, my VB268 is L, and my inseam is 86, saddle to bb is 78.5cm.

386 is 46mm wide shell that handles both 30 and 24mm spindles/bbs well. My advice would be choose a good crankset, either 24mm or 29/30mm spindle, and then appropriate bb. I always used 24mm spindles and haven't got any problems with them. I even use/d 24mm alloy spindle on riro carbon cranks and they still run pretty good, but I ended up with crankside powermeter so I'm back on my 105 cranks.

Other important part is using the right bb. So you need 386bb with right spindle diameter, and then look for some decent brands. I was using cheap as.s ztto bb86/92 threadtogether bb's for a year, and changed 3 of them. They're cheap, yes, but they last really short. I ended up ordering token ninja chinese version and just pressed them in (also thread-together). ZTTO pressed easier cause of the alloy and rubber ring, so I allowed myself to put a bit of grease before pressing them. Ninja one pressed a bit harder cause they're plastic where they press into the shell, but boy do they run smooth. Spindle spins for ages really. So yea, brand is "driveline" on aliex and I suppose they have 386 version.

here's the video of it i just recorded... i was really fascinated by it

https://youtube.com/shorts/sbtq3aHuYA0

Looks pretty good to me. I belive it's eps molded - no wrinkles inside. Dropouts are what I've seen on mine chiners. Happy building and riding!

Quote from: gandalf on December 05, 2025, 12:49:57 PM
I am about to switch to di2. How do you hang the battery in the seatpost? Any tip?

Find tarmac sl7 seatpost holder on aliex. Fits on mine.

Managed to grab a x-cadey powermeter for shimano interface for 185€ before taxes/customs. Wonder if I will get a customs notification upon arrival

If not, 185€ for a spider pm is a good deal 

Im using riro 24mm cranks for around 5k kms. No issues so far. I hope they last another year or two. Don't want to use 29mm spindle in bb86 pf. Bb is ztto thread together pf. Doesn't last as my Shimano MTB bb, but it's good fit and no unwanted sound. Spins rather freely, whereas on Shimano pf cranks wouldn't spin good. I'm guessing velo build had a bit tighter bb shell.

Let me give props to these wheels from Peter, on recommendations of our dear Serge

Couple of months ago I was riding my bike on a slight uphill (2-3%) and was going relatively fast, around 37km/h and I noticed a construction line/tear across the whole road (the cut-out in asphalt to put cables and stuff across), but was completely assured it's only around 20-30cm wide, so I decided to jump it, only too late to notice the thing was at least 60-80cm wide, so I SLAAAAMEEED my rear wheel so hard on the mere edge of that gap, thinking it will CERTAINLY be some problem, broke spoke, frame, rim... Pulled up right away, and was amazed it survived without a single scratch, crack or anything else.

tldr... I'm 85kgs, riding at 35+km/h slamed a "cheap chinese wheels" and they survived. One personal experience I will remember when ordering another wheelset for another bike.

wheels are 50mm/26/33 T800 rims, sapim cxray, xmcs hubs. 24spokes. 1400ish grams.

Quote from: Serge_K on February 22, 2025, 01:13:57 AM
...It's rather clearly me that can't do the bike justice.

It's so true. I once tought "they with all that carbon bling are faster than me because of those 10kg bikes", until on one race random 65yo dude with some old crappy bike and a belly under his belt went past me on a steep uphill... And I was in solid form at that time. That was a reality check that haunts me to this day

I will just give a brief report on my 268 after 1600+km. It's my first road bike and I'm satisfied as I can get. Honestly don't know what more would I want from a frame as cheap as this one. I swapped my handlebars to 38/90 from 42/110, and it suits me better.

Seatpost doesn't slip but I did have a couple of instances where my saddle tilted a bit. I cleaned the interface with brake cleaner and tightened it to around 10-12nm and it's rock solid under my 85kg ass.

Headset did go loose from time to time, but I fixed it with some random aliex plug that seemes a bit rougher than the one I've put previously. Interestingly, the longer plug slipped often, but this rougher and smaller endures firmly so far.

Only gripe is the paint finish. I wish it was a bit tougher. It chips pretty fast and easy. And it's too bad considering the painjob itself is really nice.

That's pretty much all. I'm enjoying the road bike after years of mtb, and jumping on my (pretty lightweight) xc machince, I'm feeling so slugish XD... But the first time I jumped on the road bike I thought It would brake, how thin everything is. 

I've put some protection after the fact... I mean, the damage to the pain 

Yes, 25$ for a spare seatpost. Just tell Chris it's for 268, and buy the seatpost from the website accessories page. I'm loving my 268 so far. Only gripe I have with it is the paint quality. It's really frail. Some frame protection on the chainstays and around bb should be done while building it. Other than that, I'm enjoying the ride. It's dead silent with no creaks to be heard.

Quote from: pavlo.k on December 15, 2024, 09:54:05 AM
I had to return the crankset. The problem metioned earlier about the cranks seizing up the bb was happening on 3 different bikes with 3 different bbs. ztto threaded pressfit and token ninja would seize up completely even without the preload ring installed. On shimano bb92 pressfit bb the crank was still moving but was very tight, definitely overloading the bearing.
I think it's either the axle that's too short or the actual material of the axle is too soft so when it's toruqed correctly, the driveside crankarm sits deeper on the splines that it should.

Here's my experience: shimano bb was too tight on my 268 bb shell. Or probably, and most likely, vb 268 bb shell was a bit too tight for plastic bb, so the bearings got squeezed more then they should. I then installed ztto threaded bb and when I torqued the riro cranks, they would seeze and not spin well. I then noticed that I could tighten the bb cups a bit more. They were pretty close to the frame shell, but still had just tiny bit of room left to sit really fluish to the frame. So I tightened them just a bit more...

then, I could tighten the cranks pretty tight without seezing. So they really need to be on the point with the bb width in order to be tightened to the specd torque. I've been rinding them, now about 500kms, they work pretty darn well.

However, I have one question. The bolt that's on the drive side, one that had the torque specs written on it, I would like to buy one spare cause I think I saw trace velo said on one of his videos that it failed on him, but I don't know what video was that... Is it same as ordinary DUB crank bolt?

Little update on my fm936 situation. So after I got my warranty claim rejected cold by Wing from Carbonda I stumbled upon fm918 thread, and this post: https://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,3106.msg54478.html#msg54478

If you check my post here, on a previous page, you can see literally the same crack location and even same position of the crack lines on the dropout. This user got new triangle, and that makes me really happy for him, but at the same time makes me really f*ing angry because I got rejected cold with doubious statements.

I contacted Wing, and his answers were non sequitur bs, if I'm honest. I'm a grown ass man, I can handle if he tells me to fk off. But when I'm met with some BS explanations, it's irritating.