[Closed] New Bike - Not quite a Spacechicken, but close.

Good job 🙂 Very posh commuter

Have you got a link to the frame?

7.8kg with GRX Di2, King Wheels and Hope Brakes for a smidge over £1500.

LOL!! Makes a mockery of my new build, 10kg with GRX/105/Ultegra mix, posh rim brakes and Pacenti handbuilds for easily £2k (I lost track by the end, e.g. when I started buying custom headset caps and Ti bolts...).

Was that all purchased new? Frame can't have cost much.

Nice bike!

The hubs and rear mech are second hand, everything else was new, but from either eBay or closeout sales. £1500 doesn’t include the transfer of bars, stem, saddle, seatpost, rotors, chainset and Battery from my current commuter, but even with that, I’m sub £2k.

I’m still waiting on Ti bolts for all the cages, clips etc. Not for weight (the current boots are aluminium) but my last bike had Alu bolts in a carbon frame and the bolts disintegrated, damaging the frame in the process.

I’ve also got to fit my rack and guards which will ugly it up a bit.

Nice!! Although it needs more frame bosses. 😀

See that is a clean build. Not overly colourful or flashy, just good kit bolted to a plain frame.
I like it a lot.

Carbonda 696?

Where did you pick up the GRX?

I've been looking for a GRX Di2 groupset for a good price but not found anything yet.

mrb123

Member
Carbonda 696?

Yup.

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notmyrealname

Subscriber
Where did you pick up the GRX?

It’s not a Groupset. I already had the D110 battery, cables, XT display and lower junction box and an XTR rear mech. I just bought the shifters.

I got Wiggle to price match Bike Inn @ £276 for the pair.

Looks like a lovely bike. How was the experience of buying direct from China? Did they paint it too?

My son is after something along those lines have you a link to the frame

. I just bought the shifters.

Was that shifters only or did they come with calipers?

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slackboy

Subscriber
Looks like a lovely bike. How was the experience of buying direct from China? Did they paint it too?

it was fine. The biggest trouble was getting it exported from China. Yes, they painted it to my specification. The paint is good, but easily chipped.

Was that shifters only or did they come with calipers?

I only wanted shifters as the failure rate on Shimano callipers is pretty high. I paired them with Hope RX4s

https://www.dolan-bikes.com/gravel/framesets/dolan-gxc-carbon-gravel-frameset.html

Dolan seem to be using the same frame, as do Planet X.

I think it’s an open source design based on an Open Up, but a little heavier as they use more of and poorer CF, but do assure me it’s all Toray. I chose Carbonda as they seemed to have a good rep.

I’ve had a boroscope through all the frame tubes and aside from a small piece of mandrill that I was able to remove, the insides are as good as the outsides.

I’m still waiting on Ti bolts for all the cages, clips etc. Not for weight (the current boots are aluminium) but my last bike had Alu bolts in a carbon frame and the bolts disintegrated, damaging the frame in the process.

I just wanted rainbow anodising, but since you put it like that I'd better get some more for the bottle cages...

I did a similar build over a year ago a with a fake exploro frameset but with shimano 785 which were 230ish and di xt rear.

If you haven’t got the spare parts the di2 cost does rack up quickly.

I really like the xt rear it’s great, I’ve been looking for those grx shifters at a sensible price but did pick up some more 785 with brakes for £130 on crc.

I reckon you’ll love it for a commuter, you could go for the velcroed crud roadracers an remove for summer.

http://www.carbonda.com/road/gravel/80.html

@Daffy how much cheaper than the Space Chicken was the frame from China?

Anyone got a link to the fake exploro frame please?

I paid £465 for the frame and fork including shipping, customs and paint. I chose not to have their axles, headset and other gubbins, so this made it cheaper. I didn’t buy it from China direct because it was cheaper than OO, I just didn’t like the colours and graphics of the OO and only really wanted a frame. The Freeranger just made me aware of what was out there.

Whilst it looks like my UP, it’s not as lively, but it also has rack and guard mounts which the UP doesn’t. First proper ride on Tuesday.

Daffy, what through axles are you using ?
(I have a dengfu that uses fairly nasty axles but I can't really see an easily available alternative - guess it may just be dengfu using a weird thread pitch)

I'm using DT swiss Axles, but considered both the Robert Axle Project and Hardlite. CarbonTI stuff just seems ludicrously expensive and is only a 7g (per pair) lighter than DT. I only chose DT due to price vs. performance.

None of the pictures really do justice to the paint. It's a deep, rich Yeti blue, that flops quite nicely in the right light - I've taken a few more:

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That’s very pretty, did carboma do the paint job?

Very nice 🙂 ... whats the tyre clearance like ?

DT78

Member
That’s very pretty, did carboma do the paint job?

They did. It's nice but a bit fragile. We'll see how it holds up. At least (since I specified the paint code) I can touch it up.

stumpy_m4

Member
Very nice 🙂 … whats the tyre clearance like ?

A 29*2.35 semi slick will fit at both ends, but you wouldn't want to ride it like that. there's about 1-2mm of clearance.

"Whilst it looks like my UP, it’s not as lively, but it also has rack and guard mounts which the UP doesn’t. First proper ride on Tuesday"

"

Hurry up, Daffy - want to know what it was like - especially compared to the UP

What's the geometry like compared to a free ranger? I like the look of that.

Once you’ve ridden it could you comment how you find the RX4 callipers please?I’ve got Shimano brake callipers at the moment that have been going for a couple of years but I’m just waiting for the seals on the callipers to self destruct. I’m thinking I’d get the Hope ones to replace rather than giving Shimano anymore money for dodgy callipers.

Your new bike does look very nice!

Once you’ve ridden it could you comment how you find the RX4 callipers please?

Missed this earlier. I thought Hope used DoT fluid and Shimano systems use oil - ??

Missed this earlier. I thought Hope used DoT fluid and Shimano systems use oil – ??

Hope make a mineral oil RX4 for Shimano STis

Ah, thanks. Clever that, given Shimano's seal "problem"

The RX4 looks like a good option to de-shimano my braking system when it dies - but keeping di2 sti’s.

Those silver ones on the carbonda looks really nice on there. A touch of mtb on a gravel / road bike!

Planet X Free Ranger has the same stack and reach as those on the Carbonda website,but the Dolan frame has slightly different figures.I mention this because there are a number of Open Upper copies and in general the Carbonda version seems to have the best reputation.

@joebristol - I've been using RX4s for about a year and a half on the Litespeed, the Tripster and the Niner.

As they're 4 piston, setup is more fiddly, they also have less initial bite than Shimano but seem to have more overall power. If they're wet, they do squeal for about a second or two, but settle down very quickly after that. Faultless over about 8000km so far. And that’s on 3 different sets. Ive used them predominantly with Hope Floating rotors, but also shimano XTR.

First impressions are good, the frame is tight and quiet, on identical tyres, it feels a little stiffer, but perhaps not in a good way over the UP, but that could be the wheels or pressures.

Its reach seems smaller than the UP, so I may need a longer stem and the stack is a little greater than the UP. The UP definitely feels racier, despite being only a little lighter (maybe 800g), but some of this will be down to wheels and position.

Also today was a crappy day for a first ride and I had about 15kg of gear on my back, so not ideal.

Once I have more miles on it, I’ll report back.

Thanks for the comments on the RX4 - definitely on the list when my Shimano brakes die now. As much because the Hopes look so nice - just have to ‘Hope’ the rear one fits ok as it looks a little chunkier than what’s on the bike now.

Below are a couple of pics of the Litespeed with black RX4s. I 9nly went with silver on this bike as they were £55 cheaper than black. I did consider custom bore caps but wanted them both to be subtle.

I appreciate that ride time so far is limited but, given frame cost and general quality, would you say it’s definitely been worth the purchase ?

Nice bike as well as brakes!

RX4 definitely on the future purchase list. I’ve got a Caad12 so needs to be flat mount rear / post mount front.
Assume the front disc is a 160 but not sure if the rear is 160 or 140mm.

RX4s are only available in flat mount at 160mm. I don’t think it’s possible to squeeze the 4 pistons onto a smaller rotor and still meet the mounting constraints. Might work in post-mount.

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johnny63
Subscriber
I appreciate that ride time so far is limited but, given frame cost and general quality, would you say it’s definitely been worth the purchase ?

Hmmm, The general frame quality is good, like I said, both internally and out. General stiffness is also good, there’s no notable twist to the forks or lateral displacement at the BB beyond what you might expect. The paint quality is visually excellent, but VERY easy to chip. The ride is good, but the geometry might not suit everyone.

The goal for me was to build a sub £1500 replaceable commuter. So a readily available frame, capable of taking racks and guards, but light and sprightly enough that I wasn’t always reaching for another bike everyone the weather looked even remotely nice. I think it fits the bill and wouldn’t have been possible (at this kit level) without the frame being so cheap. Mission accomplished.

Time will tell as to how it lasts and if warranty is required.

Finally equipped for commuting:

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Generally, it's very comfortable, fast (33kph average vs. 29kph for the Niner) and feels great.

I may now remove the Pacenti stickers as they look a bit weird with the mudguards and rack in place.

RX4 definitely on the future purchase list. I’ve got a Caad12 so needs to be flat mount rear / post mount front.

You can get addapters that go both ways now, although flat fork to post caliper is seriously ugly, and the post fork to flat caliper has limited compatibility because the caliper has to has to sit between the posts at an angle.

Might be worth looking into as it would allow you to use a pair of flat mount calipers which may be more future proof.

Or ask Hope if they'll do something like an X2 caliper with mineral oil seals.

Hello Daffy, great looking build. May I ask what color your have choosen? Looks really nice!

Anybody else gone down the Carbonda route from the UK? I'm thinking I might give them a go and would be interested in hearing how you got on. Any issues?

Daffy - how's your bike fairing after 5 months?

Ooh - and some pics of them please.

@bonni - sorry I missed this.

Update: Well, I've now done around 2000+kms on the Carbonda and all is well, nothing untoward to report.

I've changed the drivetrain from 1* on a SRAM Force Chainset and XTR rear mech and cassette to 2* GRX crankset on 815F/R mechs and an Ultegra 11-34 cassette to make better use of the gears.

I've done a few 125-205km rides on it and it's generally fast and comfortable, even with full guards/rack averaging between 28 and 31kph for bigger rides.

The only thing that's a bit of a pain is the internal cable routing. As this has a full BB shell installed, getting cables and junction boxes around the BB can be a right pain with only two very small access ports. I've just installed some sound proofing to stop it sounding like a coin in a milk bottle.

Its now mostly silent, but when I get to the Christmas non-commute period, I think I'll strip and redo it.

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I’ve done a few 125-205km rides on it and it’s generally fast and comfortable, even with full guards/rack averaging between 28 and 31kph for bigger rides.

Bloody hell, I'd be happy with those numbers on my full on fast summer road bike 🙁

Mint looking bike! what's the paint code? I'm going to order a 696 myself

averaging between 28 and 31kph for bigger rides.

Bloody hell, I’d be happy with those numbers on my full on fast summer road bike

+1

Daffy must be putting out some impressive wattage.

I'm happy if I can get a bit over 25kph on flat-ish road rides, albeit solo.

@sillytorque - I think it's Pantone 3145

@chakaping - I seriously doubt it. Strava estimates the average power as between 140-180W between 28 and 30kph and about 230-250w for 32-37kh. over 50-200km.

28kph for 200km (or 100km for that matter...) is damn impressive in my book.

Anyway - nice bike. I have about 6500 miles on my cheapo Chinese road frame now and it's never missed a beat either.

This looks lovely Daffy!
So glad to hear you are enjoying it and are happy with the choice you made.

How tall are you out of interest?

Did you just order it direct from them?
Did they have the frame in stock and was shipping quick?

Thanks in advance.

@bobodaclown

Sorry I didn't see your post. I’m just over 5’11” and its a 56cm. I ordered direct and it took about 8-10 weeks, but this was at the height of the covid crisis in China and air freight was severely limited and as the frame needed painted, there was also a delay due to Chinese holidays.

Strava estimates

Thats where it falls down... 😀

@daffy

No worries.I still love that colour on yours it looks so good and such a great spec on the build! Kudos on that

Think I will order one myself, will probably go carbon finish.
I want to use it as more of a winter road bike. How do you find it when using as a 'road bike' do you think it loses much to an actual road bike?

Ta

That is a very nice build, tidy lines and great detail, hats off

How do you find it when using as a ‘road bike’ do you think it loses much to an actual road bike?

@bobodaclown

That's how I predominantly use it - commuter and crap weather road bike. It's fast enough, comfortable enough and quiet enough that I don't feel myself reaching for the roadbike if there's the slightest chance of a bit of dry tarmac. My average round-trip commute is around 56km, in the dark, usually wet and windy and I'm still averaging 30kph. Most 100+km rides are also above 30kph. It zips along nicely.

I have just put some more winter orientated wheels on it:

initially I tried my 650b wheels, but the 45mm guards were overwhelmed:

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My daughter liked it as it was now clean and had pink hubs:

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In the end I settled on using 700*40s:

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@daffy so sorry read your comments and insight I appreciate it, thanks for sharing. It seems like we wanted a bike for similar reasons. I have ordered one up in 56 UD Matte, now to find the bits to build it with,,, I have some wheels so far.

Liking the look of the free ranger. Looks like, according to planet X, I am between the large and the medium. I am 6ft with 32 inside leg.

Anyone able to offer any advice on fit?

Looks lovely. I am ticking off the days until my Free Ranger arrives. I went for the black and red as I thought the yolk of the brown and orange or purple, red and yellow wouldn't pass the log term amusement test.

Did you go for 1x drivetrain or the two chainring up front?

I'm just about to pay for my CFR696 frame. Did you guys use PayPal or via Alibaba?
Hopefully it won't take tooo long to arrive!

I'm in exactly the same boat as some on here!

@piesoup how much is the CFR696 direct from Carbonda? Are you getting custom paint?

@markieg I'm also around 6ft (maybe half an inch or so under) and unsure on size. Looking around other forums it seems about half the people would say definitely medium, half definitely large so I've no idea either. I'm tempted to go large to guard against toe overlap, and because I don't think it'll be too stretched with a slightly higher bar (and the slacker head angle) than my road bike. I quite like small and nimble off-road generally, but a bit longer and stable is probably no bad thing here. Also, I don't think Planet X are offering it with a 2x at the moment are they? Frame only is not great value compared with complete bikes so whilst I'd prefer GRX800 and probably 2x, I'll more likely go for Force 1x since it's so much cheaper.

I notice they had £200 off in the autumn... does anyone have any clue if they're likely to do similar in January...? £1800 is not bad, but at £1600 I'd hit buy now!

Notice you put the g-ones on the bike for winter, I ended up putting the same on your old niner 😁 what’s the impact on your average speed?

@gray

Yes, custom paint, but no graphics. Spare mech hangers, axles, headset. And the slow boat for delivery. $700.

Email them. Wing replies straight away and is very helpful. He breaks down the costs for you. Just asked what the lead time is. Fingers crossed!

@gray - I’m of the same dimensions and bought a large Carbonda which is what you see in the pics. Anything smaller would be too small.

@Tiboy on shorter rides, not much, maybe 1kph as I think I just pedal harder, but on longer ones maybe 2-3kph. Still not much. But combined with the guards I’m losing maybe 4-5kph on longer rides over my fair weather bike. Maybe around 28kph average rather than 33-34kph.

For whoever asked - I paid by PayPal and took just the frame, hanger and custom paint for around $570 shipped.

Thanks Daffy - very useful info. I love the colour of yours by the way, would be very tempted to copy it!

@piesoup - I've emailed them and Wing has replied. $480 for frame, fork, seat post and clamp. Headset $12, F&R axle for $26, spare mech hanger for $5. Single colour paint is $70 extra, shipping options are WXY air for $160 (25-45 days) or DHL for $230... so a decent chunk more than $570 or even $700. Maybe the seatpost is the difference? I saw a couple that had cracked on the ridinggravel.com forum, so I'm not desperately keen to pay much for one. I'll ask. By the time I've paid VAT and import tax on top, and bought the other bits it does make the Free Ranger look a much more cost effective option (I don't have many useful bits lying around so I'd need a full groupset and most of the finishing kit).

The shipping is the difference. Mine was $570 including shipping and the frame was a similar price. The import fees were low as they marked the value as $100. This wasn’t at my request and I didn’t know about it until it was delivered by PF, after I’d paid the fees.

This was my invoice. Same cost as yours @gray
@daffy, seems yours was without COVID tax!

I too have to buy a group set. Well, everything except bars and wheels. Interesting to hear about the cracking posts,

I'm trying to find the posts about the posts, but am struggling...

Your colours look nice - glitter as well!

Thanks! Going with a much lighter gray, as I have a silver crankset. No way am I having a dark frame with a silver crankset!

Carbonda didn't have any of the 15mm forks without mounting bosses, so had no choice but to choose those ones. I'll remove the bolts and figure a way to block the holes.

I've just ordered a Free Ranger (large). Decided it was too much hassle and potentially time to go direct. Can always steadily upgrade the finishing kit and wheels as the fancy takes me. I've not tried Sram shifters before, but I dare say I'll get used to them!

Hmm, spare mech hangers are $5 from Carbonda, or £25 from Planet X. Vitus branded ones are £15 from Wiggle. Does anyone want any extras? If not I'll just buy a Wiggle one, but if any of you guys could do with a spare then I'll email Carbonda and ask if they'd be willing to sell me some on their own.

(Oh and I don't think I mentioned, Wing said that buying the frame without seatpost would be $30 less. I couldn't find where I'd seen pictures of cracked posts, so could easily have been a different version and so I wouldn't worry. Certainly if the post is only $30!)