Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Crawf
Posts: 2004
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:20 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby Crawf » Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:45 am

Only just received, so not built yet. But have intended spokes and hubs all ready to rock :/
Toing and froing at the moment whether to sell them and look at the 25mm, if of course they genuinely have a decent internal width.
These were supposed to be race wheels so I really wanted wider for better cornering.

User avatar
Gassy
Posts: 234
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2010 5:20 pm
Location: Olinda, Mt D.

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby Gassy » Wed Apr 17, 2013 11:01 am

I bought a pair of FSC50-CM-25 's. 'U' shaped, light, super comfy and fast. Really happy with them. Didn't measure them internally but they were quite wide. I'm running 23 front, 25 rear tyres.
Image

User avatar
YouAgainstMe
Posts: 83
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:33 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby YouAgainstMe » Sat Apr 27, 2013 3:58 pm

Im going to bite the bullet and get the new fsc50's with DT hubs. Can you still fit 25mm tyres on the new lighter 20.5mm rim? What lacing should I get, standard?
Image

User avatar
rheicel
Posts: 2303
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:01 pm
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby rheicel » Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:28 pm

masa wrote:I am thinking to get a frame either in 3k matte or UD matte finish. I prefer the UD but the patches of carbon, see the fork and top tube below, have made me hard to pull the trigger. Any past experience that can be shared ?

Image
Where are you planning to buy this? I want one too!
Image

User avatar
biker jk
Posts: 6998
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:18 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby biker jk » Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:43 pm

YouAgainstMe wrote:Im going to bite the bullet and get the new fsc50's with DT hubs. Can you still fit 25mm tyres on the new lighter 20.5mm rim? What lacing should I get, standard?
Fitting 25mm tyres to a 20.5mm wide rim will cost you much of the aero benefits of the deeper rim since it will exacerbate the light bulb shape of the tyre on the rim.

clydesmcdale
Posts: 364
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:43 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby clydesmcdale » Wed May 01, 2013 2:02 pm

So after about 3000k of riding the BladeX 50mm Carbon clinchers, i'm going to rebuild the wheels with new spokes and nipples. It's got to the point I can't go 100km with out popping a nipple and hence breaking a spoke. done about 5 rear spokes since Christmas. The hubs and the carbon itself are as fine as ever, but with the constant breaking and replacement of spokes, it's proving more and more difficult to true and get rid of any pulsing in the brake surface.

So a new set of DT swiss comp spokes and Prolock nipples have been ordered.

RomanTheCube
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 8:48 am

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby RomanTheCube » Wed May 01, 2013 2:47 pm

Nothing worse than popping nipples :)

User avatar
biker jk
Posts: 6998
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:18 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby biker jk » Wed May 01, 2013 3:25 pm

RomanTheCube wrote:Nothing worse than popping nipples :)
My nipple driver would take care of that problem. :D

clydesmcdale
Posts: 364
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:43 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby clydesmcdale » Tue May 14, 2013 7:55 am

Anyone know what's going on with Velobuild?

I go to their page and see this;

"VB Mall
The VeloBuild Mall is suspended. We will make a formal announcement about the future of VeloBuild on Tuesday May 14th. If you have an order in process you are about to receive your products or a refund. We will update you via email. (Check your spam folders also) We will also update here on the forum."

Looks as though they've suspended play for some reason.

User avatar
RonK
Posts: 11508
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:08 pm
Location: If you need to know, ask me
Contact:

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby RonK » Tue May 14, 2013 8:30 am

Same as the counterfeit cyclewear shops perhaps - shut down by the US goverment.
Cycle touring blog and tour journals: whispering wheels...

User avatar
DavidTomic
Posts: 421
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:49 pm
Location: Caroline Springs, VIC

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby DavidTomic » Tue May 14, 2013 8:31 am

Talking about issuing refunds certainly doesn't sound promising for their future prospects ...

warthog1
Posts: 14275
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:40 pm
Location: Bendigo

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby warthog1 » Tue May 14, 2013 10:04 am

RonK wrote:Same as the counterfeit cyclewear shops perhaps - shut down by the US goverment.
Gee that would really encourage you to shop local.
I would go out of my way to buy online if that turns out to be the case.
Dogs are the best people :wink:

User avatar
rheicel
Posts: 2303
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:01 pm
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby rheicel » Tue May 14, 2013 10:15 am

Have had a popping nipple on one of the 38mm carbon clinchers on Saturday. This happens to one of the bike I built for my mate. I am now in the process of ordering DT swiss nipples and hopefully that will fix the problem as I do not really want to change the spokes. It all comes down again to we get what we paid for!
Image

clydesmcdale
Posts: 364
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:43 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby clydesmcdale » Tue May 14, 2013 1:35 pm

RonK wrote:Same as the counterfeit cyclewear shops perhaps - shut down by the US goverment.
Figured it would be something along those lines. Although they weren't strictly selling counterfeit branded gear. IIRC, they were fairly anti branded decals, clone bikes, etc. They even went as far as modding out pics and discussion re this.

I guess it could only be for assisting in on-selling frames produced via means of intellectual property violations??

Shame it's down as it was a pretty good resource for bulk buys.

User avatar
winstonw
Posts: 1793
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:18 pm
Location: Brisbane

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby winstonw » Tue May 14, 2013 1:45 pm

I've put around 1500k into these
http://www.farsports.cn/product/detail.php/id-134.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and they've been very good - they feel significantly more stable than the 50mm full carbon clincher when cornering, accelerating, descending.

they weigh 1505g without skewers, tape, etc.

Crawf
Posts: 2004
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:20 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby Crawf » Tue May 14, 2013 4:23 pm

That's a pretty impressive weight actually Winston.

User avatar
nickobec
Posts: 2271
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:51 am
Location: Perth or 42km south as the singlespeed flies
Contact:

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby nickobec » Tue May 14, 2013 7:11 pm

RonK wrote:Same as the counterfeit cyclewear shops perhaps - shut down by the US goverment.
Know what was happening in the early days, I would say it has nothing to do with counterfeit goods or the US Government (unless the IRS over tax)

Probably the effort of doing business with China and the Chinese ways

Factory offers to sell to Chinese middleman, VeloBuild arranges deal with Chinese middleman, Customer pays VB, VB pays Chinese middleman less commission, who ship product to customer when they get product from factory.

All you need is one factory or one middleman to stuff up a deal of 10 frames and VB is left holding the baby for a few grand and chasing somebody on the other side of the world.

The VB mall was being run as a business, if KillerBee was not earning a living from it and/or had problems like above, he has every right to close it.
Last edited by nickobec on Wed May 15, 2013 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
winstonw
Posts: 1793
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:18 pm
Location: Brisbane

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby winstonw » Tue May 14, 2013 8:57 pm

Crawf wrote:That's a pretty impressive weight actually Winston.
yeah I wanted to ride them around on general road rides, and also not bother swapping brake pads all the time.
So far, I think the extra 222grams of weight over the full carbons has been worth it.
They just feel more stable overall, carrying my high 80s bodywt.
I should also add cross winds just don't push them around as much...it is really really noticeable. These have the firecrest (toroidal) shape. Whether it is that or the extra weight who knows.

Anyway, will just keep riding them and see how they go. I'll have to get 20,000 out of them before I think they're quality.

A mate had a couple of spokes break on his Fulcrum 3s over the weekend. Now he has to wait for the LBS to order in proprietary spokes. Has reinforced that my next training wheels will be custom built with generic bits.

User avatar
snark
Posts: 581
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2008 2:35 am
Location: Geelong, Vic

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby snark » Wed May 15, 2013 7:59 am

winstonw wrote:A mate had a couple of spokes break on his Fulcrum 3s over the weekend. Now he has to wait for the LBS to order in proprietary spokes. Has reinforced that my next training wheels will be custom built with generic bits.
Is this a common problem? I've been thinking about a wheel upgrade, and wondering if I get something with non-standard spokes if I should ask for a couple of spares when I get the wheels. Or isn't it as simple as that?

Cheers,
Simon.
Phil Liggett, TdF 2011, Alpe-d'Huez: "I reckon tonight in hindsight he may have won the Tour de France tomorrow."

User avatar
winstonw
Posts: 1793
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:18 pm
Location: Brisbane

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby winstonw » Wed May 15, 2013 10:31 am

Good luck getting extra non standard spokes with proprietary wheels. Suppose there's no reason why you couldn't though...and keep them in your shed until you need them. This is the problem with non standards - my mate wanted to use these wheels in a big ride this Saturday, and they may not be ready as the LBS has to order the spokes in from the fulcrum agent.

My view is to spend less on any one wheelset, keep them generic, and have more of them...and same for frames.
The question shouldn't be "Can I afford a $10,000+ bicycle", but "Can I afford a $10,000 bicycle, and back up bike, and the servicing of both, so that I am never without a good safe ride".

If you keep wheels generic, you can eventually acquire the skill to build or rebuild yourself....and keep yourself on the road more.

User avatar
rheicel
Posts: 2303
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:01 pm
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby rheicel » Wed May 15, 2013 10:35 am

winstonw wrote:Good luck getting extra non standard spokes with proprietary wheels. Suppose there's no reason why you couldn't though...and keep them in your shed until you need them. This is the problem with non standards - my mate wanted to use these wheels in a big ride this Saturday, and they may not be ready as the LBS has to order the spokes in from the fulcrum agent.

My view is to spend less on any one wheelset, keep them generic, and have more of them...and same for frames.
The question shouldn't be "Can I afford a $10,000+ bicycle", but "Can I afford a $10,000 bicycle, and back up bike, and the servicing of both, so that I am never without a good safe ride".

If you keep wheels generic, you can eventually acquire the skill to build or rebuild yourself....and keep yourself on the road more.
^^^this, well said!
Image

Crawf
Posts: 2004
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:20 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby Crawf » Thu May 16, 2013 2:20 pm

clydesmcdale wrote:Anyone know what's going on with Velobuild?
"I'm not shutting down VeloBuild. I'm just getting out of the customer service business and turning it back over to crowd sourcing to put pressure on the sellers to get better.

Actually the business model is quite good if you can hire low cost CRM reps and like to work a lot of hours to get it started. We made a healthy chunk of change and got a lot of free toys. Investing in a better shopping cart would be a good idea... ours was crap.

VeloBuild was a hobby due to my love for bikes and saving a buck. My other businesses do far better and need my full attention... as does my fiancee, old cat and our new house

So... all the gloves (and moderators) are off. Post anything on VeloBuild you wish! We have invited every seller we know of to post as well.

BTW to the RBR mod... I hope this isn't in violation of your rules. You guys are welcome on VeloBuild anytime. This is just an effort to answer a lot of BS swirling around... fun BS to read... but still BS."

User avatar
rheicel
Posts: 2303
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:01 pm
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby rheicel » Sat May 18, 2013 1:35 pm

Latest result of my hobby. Wheelset will be carbon soon.
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
jaseyjase
Posts: 2993
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:00 pm
Location: Perth

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby jaseyjase » Mon May 20, 2013 6:24 pm

if anyone has a 54cm FM066 frame/fork they want to sell please let me know, new/used i dont mind.

English BB and mechanical please

Crawf
Posts: 2004
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:20 pm

Re: Chinese carbon frame and wheels thread

Postby Crawf » Tue May 21, 2013 12:26 pm

jaseyjase wrote:if anyone has a 54cm FM066 frame/fork they want to sell please let me know, new/used i dont mind.

English BB and mechanical please
What about an 54 098, including int Di2 battery and Di2 cables? :)

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users