chinese carbon frame

[winstonw]

gee you'd think these chinese CF manufacturers would sort these cable housing issues out. It isn't rocket science.
It's like they've never tried to assemble all the parts before.

[AndrewBurns]

To be fair to them I don't think that these problems are exclusive to no-name chinese frames. When looking up solutions to my problem I saw a few people with name-brand carbon bikes with internal routing that suffer from noise/friction, I also noticed that at least one Shimano instruction manual specifically says that Shimano strongly discourages the use of frames with internal cable routing (I'd imagine because of these issues).

Got both shifters installed and working and installed the chain last night, everything's almost ready to go except the bar tape really. My front derailleur isn't properly adjusted though, it's supposed to take 3 clicks of the shifter to go from small to big and then one to go from big to small but mine takes 4 and 2 clicks. Pretty sure this is because I have no micro-adjustment of cable tension, again because of the internal cable routing there are no barrel adjusters for me to use to fine-tune the shifting, I'll need to buy some in-line adjusters.

[jules21]

you can always zip-tie full length cable outers to the frame tubes

[AndrewBurns]

Bike complete! A few guys at work rode it around and spoke quite favorably about it. I took it for a test ride around some local streets this afternoon and I had a great time, it's incredibly fast compared to what I'm used to (weighing in at 8.5kg, less than half the weight of my commuter).







The only problem is that I'm scared to ride it Being my first road bike (first proper bike really) it's far lighter, faster and more agile than anything I'm used to. I'm also bent over a lot more which will take some getting used to. On my ride this afternoon I was surprised at the level of feedback I got from the road surface, smooth new roads were silky but cracked older roads made me a bit worried about traction (they weren't uncomfortable however). I need to get a computer on there to see how fast I'm actually going but I'm sure with time I'll gain some confidence riding it.

[AndrewBurns]

Update:

Just got back from a ~14km round trip ride on the local cycleway and I'm extremely happy! The bike (I need to give it a name, anyone got any ideas ) absolutely flies, it would be effortless if I didn't put all that spare effort back into going faster

Definitely getting some confidence with it, plenty of moderately fast corners, bumps, road detritus and the like passed today without any problems. Spent most of my time on the hoods but got down into the drops for some fast road sections of the track and I didn't feel at all uncomfortable. My hands did get fairly sore on the hoods though, particularly I found it a bit of a stretch to keep a finger over the brake lever the whole time. I'm going to get some gloves and see how that feels but I suppose when I get more used to the bike I'll not try to keep the brakes constantly covered and I won't need to keep a finger stretched out there.

So far very pleased with my purchase the bike rides wonderfully and I think it has a bit more character, having built it myself (not to mention the money I saved getting the carbon frame direct from china). Also nice to know that having built it myself I shouldn't have any problem maintaining and repairing it myself too.

[Mulger bill]

She scrubbed up really well Andrew, the bare alloy gruppo sets off the raw carbon nicely. 11/10 so far.

I've got to tell yer tho', the bar tape subtracts at least four points. Not the colour BTW, like the gruppo, it adds a really nice contrast to the frame. It's the wrap mate, it doesn't look too even, there's a gap near the brifter and the bulges near the stem are just wrong. I know getting it right is a pain, it usually takes me two or three tries a side to be happy with but it does stand out like the proverbials..

Shaun

[AndrewBurns]

Shaun, thanks and duly noted. Chalk it up to my first attempt at wrapping some bars I guess, I wasn't quite sure how to finish the wrap at the stem and so I just kinda doubled back but I agree I hate the bulge so I'll have a go at re-doing that section. As for the gap near the brifters, I had to get the wrap past them, not sure how I could fill in those gaps unless I cut little sections of tape to fit in there?

[booge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=durBi7yjdT0

This clip gave me all i needed to know about wrapping bar tape. Change it to black or white Fizik or Lizard skin tape....blue is poo!

[Mulger bill]

...not sure how I could fill in those gaps unless I cut little sections of tape to fit in there?

Spot on. Many brands will supply these with the rolls.