Does anyone ride ICAN wheels? The price is right. They ship them from the US which means a return or warranty issue would be a lot easier than direct from China. I googled for reviews on them and looked on youtube and see/hear good things and no obvious danger signs.
I’ve been using the Nova 55 rim brake from ICAN for about 2 months and did a few crits with them. They brake well and feel solid in corners. Only complaint is that the front wheel was a bit out of true out of the box, but not much. Overall, I would buy from them again.
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Seems like a good place to ask now they’ve been about a while, what’s anyone’s experience with Panda Podium? Preferably shipping to the UK.
They have some suitable chainrings for 5800 series 105 at a good price, but it’s only good if it arrives and decent quality!
Panda Podium is great. They’re essentially curating the “best of” the Chinese direct brands. You might pay a few dollars/pounds more than you would buying from AliExpress, but you’ll get communication and support after the fact if needed. I’ve ordered several pricey items from them, and its never taken more than 2 weeks to get to me, in the US. I just had a return processed, after what I felt was sub-par QC and a wrong part(integrated handlebar and headset adapters), and was able to ship it to a US based partner of theirs, versus all the way back to China on my dime.
Dragging this thread back from the dead: anyone have any experience with Ryet hubs? I’m selling a pair of Enves and trying to build up a cheap rim brake Light Bicycle wheelset for a second bike that I only ride occasionally. The few reviews / teardowns I’ve seen appear to indicate that the hubs are reasonably well built and very good value. All the same, I’d love to hear people’s opinions on them.
Quality appears great, functionality appears great, tolerances are good…… there just heavy
The fact they use a different bearing from DT and others is nice (it’s just a standard size).
Hope some of this helps
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Your Ti build looks great! Which company did you use to make the frame? Thx
Late to this party, but I explicitely replaced a pair of 303Ss with some Light Bicycle AR465s; the 465s were significantly nicer out of the box and are built to a better spec that the Zipps.
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They look excellent. Are they MTB (110/148)?
They’re dt240 weight so pretty good if they’re reliable.
335g for front and rear is on par with DT240s, no?
How much does a pair cost, if you don’t mind me asking?
Yes they are 110/148
I guess they are not really heavy, just not as light as some high end options, and for the price its ridiculous. They were $65 for the set.
The 6-bolt variation is supposedly even lighter - 6-Bolt Hubs
Here is a review of the Ryet hubs by Hambini - Video Link
It’s from Tiris. They sell on eBay and AliExpress. They have stock geometry frames or partial to full custom. I think it was just under $1k delivered. I’ve added a seatpost and stem from them since the picture. It’s been great. I would recommend.
Last year was a record snow year in the Sierra Nevada’s. I’d always thought it was a bit marginal here for a fat bike (not enough natural snow some years, not enough riders to keep the trails bed in etc), but I’m starting to reconsider that based on a rider I follow on Strava who lives in Truckee. I’ve looked up “best fat bike”, and see that they have a wide range in price, from Bass Pro Shop under $1k, up to bigger brands in the $2500-3500 range.
What I’m on this thread for, is to see if anyone has done an aliexpress fat bike? Essentially frame/fork and wheels (or at least the hubs/rims). I could piece together many of the other parts from my parts bin or eBay.
Can an aliexpress fat bike be built for decent money, and be high enough spec and light enough that it’s fun to ride?
I’ve got some other bike projects underway, so this would be a summer 2024 build for riding in the 2024/2025 season.
Thank you
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As an alternative: There’s lots of people with brand name fat bikes that are looking to sell. Post a few “want to buy” posts and you’re likely to find something, IME.
We race fatbikes a lot around where I live, it is a little cult haha.
The best non-brand name Fatbike Frame you can buy is Nextie and ironically they have the best reasonable fat bike wheelsets.
I have a Nextie fatbike and do not have too much in it and it is 21lbs flat since changing to a 2-piece bar. The brand names that you can consider that we see racing all the time is Otso, Trek and Salsa but a fatbike might be the only bike that truly makes more sense to build up component by component when new.
Fatbikes are amazing winter bikes and make getting out in the cold a lot easier/more fun. You can go anywhere, your going slower so its not quite as cold and are just nice if you live in a low temp area.
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Curious if folks might have any suggestions for the best Chinese brand gravel bikes available nowadays.
I broke the frame on my old Checkpoint that originally did double duty as a road and gravel bike. Now that I have a pure roadie, I’m looking to transfer the parts onto something that is a little more on the trail-y side of gravel. Looking for a frame that clears 700x45 tires, slacker head tube angle, hopefully a threaded bb. Maybe fender mounts? Thanks!
I did a quick craigslist search, and within 200 miles of me, there were two. One is too small, the other is actually perfect (albeit not as good as a new build Nextie). I’m not able to make it to pick up the one that showed up (as it’s a 6hr round trip with no traffic). I’ll focus on used, and if by late summer I can’t find used, I think I’ll go Nextie.
thanks
They’re not particularly slack, but Carbonda makes some really nice gravel frames that are super affordable. I rode a CFR707 last season that I bought a bit large as an experiment and it was great. Tons of clearance (up to 700x50c) and handled some very rough Class IV Vermont roads in gravel races. I ended up getting a Giant Revolt Advanced because it was too big, but I’m considering buying a size down (L instead of XL) for more of an all-road build.
They’re one of the big open mould companies - Obed, Boltcutter, Bombtrack, Planet X, and some other companies all sell badged versions of their CFR696. I think DeRosa is charging something like $4500 for a CFR696.
Edit; just to add, Carbonda has kind of a cult following. You can look them up on the Riding Gravel forums, Weight Weenies, and others.
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I bought a Chinese carbon integrated bar-stem 2 years back and it’s been rock solid. Internal integrated bar stem. Cant flex them or fault them. No issues.
Here’s a current link to what i bought:
I’ve taken to buying all my stuff on Aliexpress lately. Last purchase was a R8000 groupset. Much cheaper and all authentic/fine when it arrived.
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Yup…I just dumped my fat bike for $300…it was admittedly not that great of a fat bike, but I just wanted it out of my garage. Lots of people bought them thinking they would get out in the snow and just found it not worth the hassle.