I initiated discussions with Workswell back in February and they were pretty good with responding to my questions. After about a month of back and forth (mostly due to indecisiveness on my part), I finally went ahead with the order mid March. I initially intended to get a Workswell WCB-R-085 for a budget endurance bike, but there wasn't much useful information out there on this bike and a few members here who have gotten it suggested it wasn't a very exciting bike, so I decided to spend a little extra and go with the WCB-R-081 with V-brakes. They said it was going to take about 4 weeks to build my frame and ship out and by 4 weeks, they said there was a delay and it was going to be about another 2 weeks (so 6 weeks from time I placed to shipping). Not a big deal for me since we've had a ridiculous amount of snow up here in western Canada this year and it didn't seem like winter was going to be ending soon, plus I was still in the process of sourcing out some needed parts. From the time it shipped out from China, it took about a week to get to Canada. When I picked it up from the post office, I almost tossed it over the table because I was expecting a much heavier box and over estimated the strength I though I needed to lift it haha
When I inspected the frame, I was very impressed with it. Overall the build quality was quite good; certainly better than I expected for a budget bike frame. I went with the matte finish and for the most part it was done well, though there were a few spots that had some light rubbing like around the rear wheel well. Personally I didn't see this as a big deal because a) my intention is to eventually paint the frame myself, and b) after a few weeks of regular riding, the rubbing would have developed naturally from normal wear and tear anyways.
Now, as I proceeded with the build I did come across a bit of a problem. The upper and lower clamps that hold the saddle didn't appear to line up correctly.
And yes, the saddle *is* clamped down in these photos. Coincidentally, Workswell emailed me as a follow up with my purchase just as I discovered this so I brought it up with them. They asked me to measure the rails on my saddle to confirm they were 43mm and parallel, which they were. Their response to that was, and I quote:
That was disappointing. It's not that hard to install a saddle that someone could mess it up. In the end, I just left it at that, cause I could probably fix it with a bit of filing around the rail holes or maybe put in some rubber inserts from cut up tubes to increase the friction (or both). But even without any modifications, the saddle is still held firmly in place. I was just a little annoyed that all customer service went out the window once they got my money.For all our clamp produce by the same mold, it do not occur this problem before.
Now it should be install problem.
Other than that, the install went very smoothly. Workswell provided all the necessary parts for the frame, as well as extra spacers and plugs and other odds and ends. Since I was building a 1x, I wasn't going to be routing a cable for the front derailleur and they supplied a holeless cap where the cable housing would have normally gone into, so that was nice. They also provided a compression stem cap for the headset, which I wasn't expecting. I could have saved myself a bit of money by not buying one in preparation for the build haha
The frame, uncut fork, and uncut seat post came out to be 1.781kg which is slightly more than the advertised weight. In the end, my final build came out to be 8.33kg, which really isn't a surprise considering this was a budget build mostly done to help get rid of spare parts I had getting in my way, including some junker WH-R500 wheels I kept tripping over in my storage room. I may or may not upgrade to some lighter wheels next year, but for the time being I'm just going to enjoy riding it.
This is both my first road bike and carbon frame, so it's noticeably stiffer than the aluminum cx bikes I'm normally used to riding. In my first two rides, I already set 31 new PRs with an additional 20 achievements on Strava
Feel free to ask any questions I may be able to provide about the build.
One thing I did want to mention that I had difficulty finding information for: according to the Workswell specs, the maximum tire size for the WCB-R-081 is 700x25c though someone had mentioned on this forum that 30c might be tight but it could probably fit a 28c. I'm using Continental GP4000S II's in 25c, which we all know measures about 27mm. A true 28c width tire shouldn't have problems on this bike. If I come across a 30c tire, I'll give it a try.