First bike build, Carbonda CFR 505 SL

[demeaux]

All pictures greatly appreciated of all 505SL builds as I'm considering one.

[Lapskaus]

I will definitively order one. Just not sure if with or without a paintjob. The salesteam told me that they will check if they are able to do such a paintjob after their new year holidays, as they never done anything like that before. The cost for the paintjob  would be 265$. So my build wont be ready for at least a couple of months

[ArchM87]

Yeah, same here. I ordered a frame (an ICAN GRA04) with a custom paint job over a week ago. Its not as complex as yours,
but it will be ready early march to be shiped to Germany My hope was to get it earlier. But I wanted my first build to be the
color of my choice so I have to be patient (not one of my greatest characteristics)

[jfcb]

I requested clearcoat with the top being translucent blue fading into the raw carbon. It's light and still adds a special element to it. The attached video gives a better representation than the picture

[demeaux]

Have you built it?
How was that?

What's it like to ride?

[Lapskaus]

I requested clearcoat with the top being translucent blue fading into the raw carbon. It's light and still adds a special element to it. The attached video gives a better representation than the picture

I do like the fade and the overall look of it, expecially the translucent blue/carbon part. It's not my cup of tea though, I guess mainly because I don't find the clearcoated carbonfiber look very appealing in glossy. But that's totally subjective. It looks incredibly well done.

[jfcb]

I've been riding this bike for about a year now. It's good enough to place in the top 20 in a gravel world series with the elites, so I guess it gets the job done. 
I chose the frame mainly for the specs – it was, and still is, the best performing race gravel bike in China. It's lightweight, made with T1000 carbon, and features modern components like the T47 bottom bracket and UDH (Universal Derailleur Hanger). There might be more modern-looking bikes out there, but I doubt they're any faster. I love the lack of unnecessary bolts almost every gravel frames seem to have. Only a minority uses fork bolts and they just make the frame heavy.

As I mentioned earlier, the bike rides like a road bike. The bottom bracket stiffness feels on par with my road bike when I use road wheels and it smoothens the terrain when needed. For comparison, my Tideace winter gravel bike is unforgiving on every bump. With a 73-degree steering angle, the bike is also very agile and great at cornering.

Regarding the cockpit: Last year, I used it with the Ritchey Logic-E 1.5" Integrated IS headset solution to run a regular stem. Due to the high stack of this headset, I needed a -17-degree stem. This winter, I've installed a Roval cockpit and printed a custom spacer to make it compatible with the ACR headset top cap. I haven't had a chance to ride it yet, but I'm excited to see how it performs.

Concerning paintjobs: we all have our own taste, I just wanted to demonstrate carbonda has some paintjob knowledge inhouse and easily accomodates to your desires. They delivered exactely what I wanted.

[Lapskaus]

What material did you use to print the spacers? Is PLA sufficiently strong or would you need to print PETG/ABS? I thought of printing some stuff too, e.g.handlebar end caps and spacers.

[jfcb]

 I'm using SLS Nylon PA12.  In case you want to be really secure for headset spacer, you could make them purely cosmetic by using a normal round spacer and using the outer diameter of that one as inner diameter of your custom spacer. Not that I've done that, because I'm confident its structurally sufficient for its purpose.

[Lapskaus]

I'm using SLS Nylon PA12.  In case you want to be really secure for headset spacer, you could make them purely cosmetic by using a normal round spacer and using the outer diameter of that one as inner diameter of your custom spacer. Not that I've done that, because I'm confident its structurally sufficient for its purpose.

Thanks. Taking round spacers and printing a cosmetic cover sounds interesting. Will check it out when I get the frame.

[demeaux]

Can you give me an idea of what your set up here is? Less interested in wheels, but am interested in components and how it was getting it built up.
Were there any problems with internal routing etc etc. Or did you make it someone else's problem and get the shop to build it?

[jfcb]

[quote author=jfcb link=topic=5633.msg73449#msg73449 date=1737747981 They delivered exactely what I wanted.

Can you give me an idea of what your set up here is? Less interested in wheels, but am interested in components and how it was getting it built up.
Were there any problems with internal routing etc etc. Or did you make it someone else's problem and get the shop to build it?

The build up was very smooth, no issues to notice actually.

• Internal cable routing (especially with SRAM wireless shifting) is easy with the frame, no fiddling. I did use foam hose protection to avoid rattling inside the frame.
• The brake mounts were faced, no issues
• with Sram 1X, installing a groupset goes very fast

Apart from the groupset and pedals, it's quiet a chinabuild:

• T47 BB install, as al my BB's I buy them on Alixpress and replace the bearings with NTN/SKF once the original ones wear down. Afterwards they last very long.
• Crankset: now (different from the picture), I'm running a SRAM RED DUB crank with sigey PM, 50T Stone oval chainring. For training periods and climbing races, I will go back to 46T. I also mounted a ZTTO chain catcher. I've ridden a period without chainring cachter which went smooth, but rather don't take the risk in races.
• Drivetrain: force XPLR derailleur and (Goldix?) 10-44T cassette. They are very long lasting cassettes and work with Shimano 12sp chains.
• Cockpit: originally I ran an UNO stem with carbon handlebar (ali, similar shape as 3T ergonova) using the ritchey headset. This is a super light yet sturdy combination. As mentioned earlier, I replaced it this winter with a roval cockpit which I could buy from a friend for which it was too short.
• Furthermore: seatpost (ali), carbon bottle cages (ali, arundel style), farsports 40mm gravel wheels (1300gr), some helicopter tape on the downtube to protect it from the gravel impacts. I also replaced the bolts on the downtube with Nylon bolts

[Lapskaus]

[...] 50T Stone oval chainring. For training periods and climbing races, I will go back to 46T. [...]

Did you need to hack anything in order to run a 50t oval/46t Chainring? According to carbonda 42t is max in 1x.

farsports 40mm gravel wheels (1300gr)

I am currently torn between Lightbicycle and Farsports/Wheelsfar. Farsports seem to be ~200$ cheaper for similar setups, plus I read in some post that they basically manufacture in the same building. Lightbicycle seems to be a tad more popular/reputable though. The specific models I am looking at are

• LB AR 46 either with the LB pace hub as the budget friendliest option (770€, ~1400g)
• LB WR40 with DT Swiss 350, Pillar 1420 Spokes (1100€, 1480g)
• Wheelsfar Hyper Disc 45 deep, DT Swiss 240, CX Ray (1080€, 1357g)

(prices include shipping/tax)

I highly doubt that I - as a recreational cyclist, who does no racing and only rides for fun - would need anything more than the AR46. Would the difference even be noticable for me? I mostly ride flat tarmac / very light gravel. The only concern here would be the pace hubs. I can find very little information about these.
The WR40/Hyper45 bring me pretty much dead on budget, but seem to be overkill. Any thoughts on this?

[demeaux]

thanks @jfcb


How much was the frameset?

[Lapskaus]

The prices I got quotet 1-2 weeks ago were:

660$ Frameset including seatpost, clamp and fork, (2 UDH, 1 mounted)
820$ Frameset + CGB02 Handlebar with Spacers
+8$ per extra UDH
+26$ per R+F axle
+15$ per headset
+195$ shipping to EU (265$ if you get 2 frames, no tax/duties on top)
+265$ paintjob

+4.5% PayPall fee