Road Cycling

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daveski said:
Thinking about this one - http://www.velobuildmall.com/vb-r-025-aero-carbon-fiber-road-bike-frame-set-on-sale-now/
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I've heard quite bad stories about Velobuild to be honest. Their post-sales support is meant to be kind of dodgy. Flyxii, Deng-fu/Hong-fu and a few of the other big names are meant to be good as long as you buy directly from them (i.e. not via Aliexpress or the like).

This is all just info I've read rather than personal experience, but I have spent the last few months reading tons of forum and blog posts whilst I was trying to decide whether or not going Chinese carbon was the right choice for me.
 
daveski said:
I need a new frame for my summer 'best' bike but have no idea what to get.

I'm tempted by chinese carbon but also wary of potential issues.

I don't know whether to buy a full bike and sell the bits I don't need or try and buy a frame.

I'd like something like this - http://www.wheelies.co.uk/p73925/Giant-Propel-Advanced-1-2015-Road-Bike.aspx

Happy to buy second hand. Anyone have any ideas?
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Planet X are doing bundle deals on their carbon framesets. The RT-58 frameset used to cost £700; it's now £400 for the bundle which is the frame plus a fair bit of finishing kit.
 
Not a fan of the RT-58, sure it's a perfectly decent frame but I want something more racey.

PX have a Nanolight frame only for £399, when I rang them it doesn't include forks and they don't sell the Nanolight forks separately.

It seems buying a whole bike and trying to sell some stuff is the way to go.
 
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FrenchTart said:
I've heard quite bad stories about Velobuild to be honest. Their post-sales support is meant to be kind of dodgy. Flyxii, Deng-fu/Hong-fu and a few of the other big names are meant to be good as long as you buy directly from them (i.e. not via Aliexpress or the like).

This is all just info I've read rather than personal experience, but I have spent the last few months reading tons of forum and blog posts whilst I was trying to decide whether or not going Chinese carbon was the right choice for me.
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Where did you buy yours from? It doesn't seem to be easy to buy from Deng-Fu direct, out of their frames I like the 206 but that has hidden front brakes which I've read can be a bit of a pain to set up properly.

There's the 098 which is a bit more conventional - http://www.dengfubikes.com/product/detail.php?id=119
 
Too nice a day to miss so just popped a little ride in this morning. Bloomin' felt like a headwind all the way :p

Got a cheeky KOM for this year too.

In my saddlebag atm is :-

2 tubes
multitool
patches
spare money/local map
packet of haribo :D

pump on frame
 
sHo0sH said:
I ordered something through velobuild, they just act as a middleman between you and some suppliers on alibaba/express. May as well go straight to the source.

I bought the Look986 frame from these guys, and its really decent. They do some road frames too:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/MCipollini-RB1000-Frame/106197_211996521.html
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Yeah. That's my understanding of them too - and the CS is actually worse than going direct :/

daveski said:
Where did you buy yours from? It doesn't seem to be easy to buy from Deng-Fu direct, out of their frames I like the 206 but that has hidden front brakes which I've read can be a bit of a pain to set up properly.

There's the 098 which is a bit more conventional - http://www.dengfubikes.com/product/detail.php?id=119
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I'm a disc junkie and I'm also a bit weird in that I prefer to have one do-it-all bike so mudguards are a requirement (last two years of trying to bodge mudguards on to CX bikes has annoyed the hell out of me) so despite wanting something with racing geometry I went for a CX frame that quite a few people have built with:

http://flyxii.com/en/products/flx-fr-602-matt.html

Unfortunately I made the decision to buy right in the middle of Chinese New Year so all the companies (including FLYXII) were extremely hard to get hold of. Once that period had passed communications improved a lot. I found the best results were obtained by adding the sales reps on Skype and discussing what I wanted with them. They were a bit slow in their responses (I presume using translation tools or dealing with lots of customers at once) but it wasn't too painful waiting 5 minutes or so for an answer to each question.

Once I'd sorted out the exact order I wanted they sent me an invoice via Paypal which I paid (obviously you should avoid Paypal gifts and all that) and the frame was sent out within a couple of days. Annoyingly it has been stuck in customs since the 3rd of March but I should finally have it with me by next week from the looks of things.

A few things you should make sure of getting/add to your order: Seatpost + clamp (best bet to make sure that you have no issues with things being a weird size/whatever), a spare derailleur hanger or two, spacers if you need them, probably other things that I've forgotten.

There are a few guides I found really useful for knowing what to expect from the process too. They're disc-bike guides but I imagine they'd still be quite applicable to anything you ordered.

http://snakesthatbite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/disc-brake-road-bike-part-1-frame.html?m=1

http://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/16ydvb/new_bike_week_continues_my_notsoinexpensive/

http://velolounge.com.au/forums/topic/the-hulk-disc-carbon-roadie-build

http://thegamingcyclist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/are-cheap-chinese-carbon-frames-worth.html

edit: I did have another better guide but I seem to have lost the link sorry.
 
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Regretting making today my rest day now :/ beautiful outside! I knew I was going to want to go for a ride after eating lunch, so made sure I had food that took an age to eat, to use up my full lunch hour.
Tonight is going to be awful, going to take the commute mega slow, and then have an early night.

Charge Spoon got dispatched today :) Unfortunately, won't be here for the weekend. Also ordered a couple more pairs of cheap sports direct shorts, they'll no doubt go up in price soon. I need cheap shorts for commuting everyday, so these are perfect :)
Now onto sourcing some more High 5 tabs.
 
FrenchTart said:
I went for a CX frame that quite a few people have built with:
http://flyxii.com/en/products/flx-fr-602-matt.html
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Looks similar (but not exactly the same, i dont think?) as an On-One dirty disco.
The On-One is £450 just now as well, which is going to be very similar price to the Flyxii when you add on postage, import duty and customs charges. Doesnt have mudguard mounts though but, considering they are the same price, I'd go for the Dirty Disco + p-clips if you want mudguards just for the peace of mind in using a reputable(ish?) UK company with faster postage.
 
Anyone know if you can actually pay in euros on the Rose Bikes uk site? I know canyon don't allow this for example.
 
touch said:
Looks similar (but not exactly the same, i dont think?) as an On-One dirty disco.
The On-One is £450 just now as well, which is going to be very similar price to the Flyxii when you add on postage, import duty and customs charges. Doesnt have mudguard mounts though but, considering they are the same price, I'd go for the Dirty Disco + p-clips if you want mudguards just for the peace of mind in using a reputable(ish?) UK company with faster postage.
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I've already ordered the frame and as I said above, I'm done with messing about with pclips. My current bike is a PX XLS so the frame isn't a million miles from the DD. Iirc, the DD is pretty heavy for a carbon frame too.

The fact that mudguards are such an important requirement for me is one of the things that drove me to order a Chinese carbon frame.

edit: DD frame isn't that heavy but the rest of my points still stand. I also don't remember it being on sale at the time I ordered my frame :p Also, external routing, ew.
 
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lukext said:
Anyone know if you can actually pay in euros on the Rose Bikes uk site? I know canyon don't allow this for example.
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Yes, I think you have to pay in euros.

I ordered some stuff from them 2 weeks ago. I had the website set in GBP so all the prices displayed were in £ and my order details still shows in £ but my paypal account shows that it was paid in EUR and paypal did the currency conversion.
 
touch said:
Yes, I think you have to pay in euros.

I ordered some stuff from them 2 weeks ago. I had the website set in GBP so all the prices displayed were in £ and my order details still shows in £ but my paypal account shows that it was paid in EUR and paypal did the currency conversion.
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I bought my bike through them about a year or so ago - priced everything on the site in £s and my order confirmation etc was all also in £s. That was all paid via a debit card.
 
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