Anyone ordered the frame with the handlebars?

Quote from: DavidG on September 13, 2025, 01:18:41 AM
Anyone ordered the frame with the handlebars?

I did, the bars are nothing special but are stiff enough, ended up swapping them for the T4 Ultra https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008543319770.html.

Quote from: havox07 on September 13, 2025, 09:25:50 AM
I did, the bars are nothing special but are stiff enough, ended up swapping them for the T4 Ultra https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008543319770.html.

Do you have a pic of the bike with the handlebar? Curious to see the result

Quote from: durianbae on September 12, 2025, 07:06:53 PM
Sharing some photos of my frame, which I received a few days ago. Shipping was pretty fast – under two weeks to the USA. Looking forward to building this up!

How are you liking the color in person? I was thinking about going for the same option.

Anyone tried installing a mechanical groupset? How bad is the routing?

Quote from: durianbae on September 12, 2025, 07:06:53 PM
Sharing some photos of my frame, which I received a few days ago. Shipping was pretty fast – under two weeks to the USA. Looking forward to building this up!

Is that chameleon blue? or purple? It's beautiful !

Quote from: jcr on September 14, 2025, 11:50:12 PM
Anyone tried installing a mechanical groupset? How bad is the routing?

I did, it is possible but tricky, the worst part is the Handlebars.

Quote from: jcr on September 14, 2025, 11:50:12 PM
Anyone tried installing a mechanical groupset? How bad is the routing?

I did 1x11 mechanical, which was super straight forward. The 'issue' that some have identified, there are people that have built mechanical 2x, is the tightness/lack of space around the BB and potentially running 4 cables into the handlebar. The handlebar 'issue' can be mitigated depending on handlebar choice and whether you choose separate stem and handlebar and use the stock headset cover with holes in to avoid running cables directly up through the stem into the bar (which granted looks neater, but is an additional complexity/consideration especially with 4 cables).

Quote from: loheiman on September 15, 2025, 01:32:43 AM
Is that chameleon blue? or purple? It's beautiful !

It's chameleon blue! But it definitely leans purple depending on the light.

Quote from: HarryFunmaker on September 14, 2025, 03:47:58 PM
How are you liking the color in person? I was thinking about going for the same option.

I like it, it's quite striking. I still kinda wish I'd gotten a different color, though. I always have a hard time making my mind up about these kinds of things.

My other bikes are all black or plain brushed ti so it's a step forward to finally explore some color 😂

Quote from: durianbae on September 15, 2025, 05:34:05 AM
It's chameleon blue! But it definitely leans purple depending on the light.

Nice, I ordered the same color! I agree it looks quite purple so I wonder what Chameleo Purple actually looks like!

where did people order their from? Aliexpress or direct contact ?

Quote from: jcr on September 15, 2025, 09:20:55 PM
where did people order their from? Aliexpress or direct contact ?

I ordered mine through AliExpress. I think it's quite a bit cheaper because I was able to use a $120 off coupon.

I just ordered mine through AliExpress in Chameleon Blue. I almost went with black to save a few dollars and grams, but my current bike has a boring paint job and I'm ready for something a little more colorful. I haven't had an interesting paint job since I owned a Klein MTB back in the day.

Now it's time to get started gathering parts. I'm going to do a SRAM build with a mixture of Force and Rival, plus some AliExpress stuff like handlebars, crank, and saddle. I already have a cheap 3D printed saddle that I'm happy with, so I'll just move that over and put one of my old saddles on my current bike.

The main decision I need to make is which wheels I'm going to get.  I'm thinking about something in the 40-50mm depth range, as light as possible. I have barely done any research on wheels at all yet, so I have a lot of work to do. I hope to decide on the wheels, bar/stem, and crank by the end of this week so I can order everything and hope that it arrives within a reasonable timeframe.

Main goal is to keep the budget under $5,000 and get as close to 7kg as possible. We'll see how that goes. I'm probably too cheap to spend that full amount when it comes down to it, so I might end up closer to 7.5kg.

what handlebars are you considering?