I’ll provide some pictures later, but I’ve had a great experience with Carbonda for a frame Light Bicycle for wheels. I think it’s already been linked in the thread, but chinertown.com is a great resource. Also check the weightweenies forum. Lots of good info there as well.
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I just got a set of these Yoeleo H9 in 38x90 a couple weeks ago for my gravel build. Seem pretty good quality and shipping and communication was pretty good.
I really liked the cutaway videos they did with them.
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I’ve got 4k miles on a Sensah Empire 11sp groupset and overall I’ve been really impressed. Shifting, particularly in the rear, has been trouble-free once I got the limit screws set right. The front was…fine? It’s SRAM-derived so maybe that’s to be expected. I say was because after about 1500 miles it broke into two pieces on the trainer -the main pivot pin shot across the room haha.
I would NOT recommend the cranks that came with the groupset though. It wasn’t this exact one (CVR branded I think?) but the aluminum crank spindle snapped while I was winding up a sprint. I’m a big guy (~250lbs) and I don’t ride particularly gentle, so ymmv.
That being said, I’ve been very happy with these Jun F1 brakes! They do what they should — the bike consistently stops well. I use compressionless housing, and while they’re not quite as good as the Hayes CX brakes I have on my other bike, they’ve been very good.
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MISFITS ON THE HEADTUBE!!! Rad!
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Pretty paint jobs.
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I’ve got the Juin Tech F1’s on my Surly Straggler commuter. I’d say much better than the stock Avid BB5’s, and I’ve run Hayes CX and BB7’s and TRp SPYREs on other bikes, and I’d say at least as good
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Cool…FD’s exploding on the trainer and crank spindles snapping in sprints.
I’m gonna order 2 sets immediately!
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Haha fair point! I’m not complaining at this price point tho. Definitely making sure all my cranks have steel spindles from now on.
I’ve had a TT frame and track frame direct from HongFu bikes and can’t fault them.
I also had a disc wheel and tri-spoke for TT bike from Carbonbeam and again very good. Was recommended to try Carbonbeam by a leading UK aero expert.
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Anybody tried fake Aerofly? Aliexpress
For 50 bucks looks pretty neat. Appealing, especially that legit Roval aero bars are out of stock.
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I wouldn’t touch a fake anything on aliexpress especially when your teeth are on the line with carbon handlebars.
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There is a very wide range of quality as far as parts coming from China. There are legit brands with real QC and there are fly by night knock off places that really shouldn’t be trusted.
As far as groupset, HARD PASS but you guys can do whatever you want to save a buck. I’ll stick with companies that actually developed the technology and have known RnD and QC.
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Safest to assume fake. I think some stuff is incredibly accurate copies, and I’ve seen claim of AliExpress selling “seconds” from the name brands, but I’d be very cautious with anything that any failure will result in catastrophe.
Clothing and helmets and sunglasses are, I think, just blatant knock offs.
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can’t vouch highly enough for the farsports stuff (wheelsfar is the online shop). Have had 3 wheels built on 240 hubs over a number of wheels and it has held up remarkably. I’m 90kg and do 15,000km a year on mostly the road and have always run on their ‘gravel wheels’ (wider internal). Have a set of 40s, 58s for road and a set of 35s for gravel. I also got a f1 cockpit from farsports and always get compliments on how nice it looks.
The no holes in rim bed set up means no tubeless tape either, any idea why mainstream companies dont do this? impractical for servicing?
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I love my Farsports too. When I bought them (DT350s, classic 50mm rim) they were $550 shipped and comparable wheels were 3X the price.
These days, the same wheels are $720 and you can find budget name brand wheels for $1000-1500 with a lifetime warranty so the choice is a little harder.
Currently thinking about getting a Chinese Frameset (Carbonda, Winspace or some other well known one) and build it up from there, with the current prices of Framesets and built bikes it would probably save somewhere in the 1500-3000$ Dollar range…
For Wheels I got Zipp 303s because they were basically cheaper then any well known chinese set. I would probably buy them again or get a Winspace, LIghtbicylce or Farsport one.
Would not buy a some knockoff frame or Handlebar, that would be a bit to much. Also the Groupsets are probably a few years out until I would consider them but if they get QA and some niggles ironed out they will become an interesting option
I have a set of EIE wheels, they are outstanding. I actually had them build them even though I normally build myself, since they had stock of hubs that I couldnt find. They are these rims: S29C27D22 29er-I27-D22 carbon MTB rims and customized wheels symmetric profile concave surface tubeless compatible - EIE Carbon. Real light setup for someone my size, but very very happy with them.
Probably not in demand enough since it makes servicing spokes difficult for a normal person.
I have a wheelset that is hole-less for tubeless ready. I would venture to say that the cost of assembly from an OEM standpoint outweighs offering this feature at this time or in typically business model fashion they trickle things out slowly to have new upgraded offerings year after year.
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If I recall my 2010 genre Mavics had no holes.