Welcome to Chinertown - Introduce Yourself!

[Sitar_Ned]

Hi all...

In my quest to build myself the ultimate carbon hardtail mountain bike on a budget, I found myself drowning in information overload! Mainly due to the fact that pretty much all of the information about these direct from China carbon frames is all buried in one huge thread over at mtbr.com. If you're here, I assume you're probably familiar with the threads I'm referring to, but I'll link 'em anyways for reference:

Here's the 4 year old, over 200 hundred page long hardtail thread: http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-bikes/chinese-carbon-29er-640919.html
And here's the quickly growing dual-suspension Chinese carbon thread: http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-bikes/dual-suspension-chinese-carbon-29er-737952.html

It seems pretty apparent that there's enough demand for these products that discussion shouldn't be relegated to a handful of threads. So.. The birth of Chinertown.com came about. Hopefully, it can grow into an organized and plentiful information resource for anyone that may be interested in building a top of the line carbon bike... without the big name brand price tag.

So, welcome to Chinertown!

Thanks for reading,
Sitar_Ned

[Carbon_Dude]

Thanks for starting this up, I think there is much to be discussed in the realm of Chinese direct to market bicycle products.  Look forward to seeing more members come over from MTBR to post and find more information that is setup in a thread and folder structure that is way more orgainzed.

[Sitar_Ned]

No problem CD.. And yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to getting more people in on the discussion. I cringe every time I have to go digging through the hundreds of pages of the carbon Chinese 29er thread.. I literally have bookmarks in my browser set for about 10-20 different pages of that thread.

[Andy]

Glad you built this site and glad to be part of it! 

I found your link over in mtbr.com and headed this way.

I am currently awaiting delivery of an IP-036 from Peter over at XMIPLAY and their 650b hard tail.  I placed the order March 27 and with custom painting it takes 40 days so I should have them by May 6.  I am very excited and can't wait.  I ordered them with extra hangars, handlebars and headsets.  I already have everything else waiting in boxes to be installed. 

it will be a 1 x 10 X9 build with marz fork, Spinergy wheels, elixir brakes and carbon cockpit.  Trying to build light but keep it on a budget.  Using the race face narrow wide chainring, Geax Mezcals and Ergon grips. 

Can you tell I'm excited?!  Will post pics in a few weeks when I get it built. 
Thanks again for the forum!
Andy.

[Sitar_Ned]

Hey Andy. Welcome to Chinertown.. Good to have you!

The 036 is a sweet frame.. good reason to be excited. Can't wait to try one for myself. It is kinda funny how just plain damn giddy I get over a mountain bike. I mean.. I've had cool stuff before (motorcycles, cars) but wasn't excited as I am about this bike build! Lol.  I think something about bikes just taps into the kid left inside all of us. Either way.. tons of fun and can't wait to see your build.

Be sure to check out CD's 036 build thread if you haven't already.. You'll be even more excited.

[Andy]

Thanks SN!  Like you I get very excited about these bikes.  They are just so cool and so affordable.  I currently ride a LTK 023 from LT bikes that I just love.  Killer bike and I built it for so reasonable it's ridiculous.  I even work in a bike shop selling big brands but it's the chiner bikes That I just love. 

I was on the start line of a local mtb race last weekend and the guy next to me was on a $7900 hard tail.  I think I'd rather have my bike AND a nice car. 

Don't know why people are still paying the big bucks for the big names.  I really just don't understand.  But to each his own and I say live and let live. 

Thanks again for this forum, it's gonna be just great!
Andy.

[Carbon_Dude]

Andy, it's interesting to me that you work in a bike shop.  While I was shopping around deciding what FS bike I wanted, I looked seriously at the Specialized EPIC Expert Carbon but I could not see $7k for a new bike that didn't have the XT brakes, carbon bars, or carbon seat post.  To be equivalent to my IP-036 build I would need to spend another $500 and I would have paid tax on the EPIC so I'd be in for $8k.  I built the IP-036 for half that.  Granted I don't have a Brain shock front and rear but the last review from Bike Magazine was not all that favorable and they decided the bike worked best with the rear suspension locked out the whole ride.

Admittedly the big name brands do have high quality frames, probably use better bearings in the pivots, nice paint jobs with lots of  graphics with letters and numbers but they don't ride twice as good. 

[Andy]

Yes been working there for 6 yrs and I've ridden many nice bikes.  The Chinese bikes are right up there with them.  Our local big race team is all on Chinese road bikes custom painted to their team colors and get great results. Some of our local top level mtn bike races have been won on the Chinese frames.  my buddy just built a Carbonal Titan that weighs 22 lbs and doing real well in his new Cat 1 class.  He rode a Hong Fu hard tail the last 2 seasons and took 2nd place in cat 3 and 2nd place car 2 for those seasons.

I know ALOT of this is the legs on these guys but still these bikes are not holding them back and they are very competitive with them at a fraction of the cost. 

Your bikes are sic.  As good looking and as well specced as any mtn bike I've ever seen.  And I'm sure they rides excellent.  A few more weeks and I will know for myself.    And we will have all saved a ton of money.  Good times!
Andy.

[Sitar_Ned]

Our local big race team is all on Chinese road bikes custom painted to their team colors and get great results. Some of our local top level mtn bike races have been won on the Chinese frames.  my buddy just built a Carbonal Titan that weighs 22 lbs and doing real well in his new Cat 1 class.  He rode a Hong Fu hard tail the last 2 seasons and took 2nd place in cat 3 and 2nd place car 2 for those seasons.

I gotta be honest.. I'm pretty surprised by how prevalent these seem to be, especially by guys that compete.

[Carbon_Dude]

If I owned a bike shop you better believe I'd have a Chinese Carbon HT and FS bike on the sales floor with my company name on the frame.  I"d offer a decent warranty and of course free tune-ups. However, I would bet the big name brands would not be happy seeing their product compete against an IP-057 & Ip-036 and would want to pull their brand out of the dealership.

[Sitar_Ned]

If I owned a bike shop you better believe I'd have a Chinese Carbon HT and FS bike on the sales floor with my company name on the frame.  I"d offer a decent warranty and of course free tune-ups. However, I would bet the big name brands would not be happy seeing their product compete against an IP-057 & Ip-036 and would want to pull their brand out of the dealership.

Agree 100%.. I gotta think that I'd even go so far as to say that I wouldn't pull out the house brand carbon bikes even if the big names decided to do so. The trend will inevitably continue. People forget that we are just starting to see the effects of a fully connected, digital world and we aren't going backwards anytime soon. In fact, it will increase exponentially.

To be clear.. I am not saying that I am at all happy about the trend. If I had my choice, I'd much rather buy a US made carbon frame from a small time local fabricator for $500 - But the economics just aren't there to make such a thing possible, and the burden simply cannot be placed on the consumer to buy American when the price disparity is so significant. Simply doesn't work that way.. Never has.

[Izzy]

I gotta agree with most of the above sentiment. The global economy is upon us, like it or not.

Whoever's idea it was to start this forum hit the nail on the head. Great idea, and I'll be hanging around to see how it progresses. Also, the name cracks me up! Good luck!

[Carbon_Dude]

Whoever's idea it was to start this forum hit the nail on the head. Great idea, and I'll be hanging around to see how it progresses. Also, the name cracks me up! Good luck!

That would be Sitar_Ned, I'm just an invited guest .  I agree, he's doing a great job with the website.

[Sitar_Ned]

Thanks CD, I appreciate that.. but I'd say it's pretty much 50/50 at this point.

The whole reason I even had the idea to start this forum was due to one of your posts on mtbr.. Someone had posted suggesting that the Chinese carbon 29er thread needed to be organized into separate threads.. I think you replied back saying something along the lines of "If I had mod status, then I would"..

I only gave you the mod status and added a bit of online marketing experience to the mix. A forum is nothing without knowledgeable and helpful members that have a passion for the topic at hand, and that you are.

Thanks for hanging around and contributing CD.. hopefully we can build something cool here 

[Carbon_Dude]

SN, thanks and your welcome.  I am not crazy about the free-for-all that is on MTBR, people post all kinds of questions in the wrong forums, I've yet to see a topic moved over there.  Seems the only thing the people that run MTBR care about is advertising.  I'm sure that website takes in lots of advertising revenue.