Chinese Open Mold Gravel / CX Bikes

[snapundersteer]

So, after hunting around for a new budget commuter/race bike, I've decided to give one of these chinese frames a shot and see how it goes. I've chosen the Carbonda CFR696 frame due to its inclusion of rear rack mounts, which are a necessity for me in my commutes.

I have also decided to go with a completely custom paintjob as well, which can be seen below.


Just waiting for a response from them to finalize the order and get things rolling now, fingers crossed it all goes well!

Thats going to look really nice, is the dragon going to be painted on or a decal? How much did they charge for that design if you don't mind me asking.

[JCVelo]

Thats going to look really nice, is the dragon going to be painted on or a decal? How much did they charge for that design if you don't mind me asking.

Its going to be painted on in a metallic gold and then the whole frame given a gloss finish. Hopefully it turns out well! In total I got the frame+headset + F/R thru-axles + extra grommets and hanger + paint, for $758, plus $85 for shipping.

[gummee]

I'm on my 3rd chinesium CX frame.

1st was a FM058 cantilever frame that I'm still riding as an SSCX/gravel bike. I over tightened the front derailleur clamp so have some compromised carbon in that area. As hard as I've beaten on that frame over the 3-4 years I've had it, it doesn't owe me anything.

The next pair I bought were ICAN AC386s. I was trying to get some Dedacciai frames imported, but that got to be too big a PITA so I orderd chinesium again. ...for half the price of the 'Italian' frames. I got those custom painted as well. One is orange with black logos. The other is black with orange logos. Both have pretty close to the same parts on em: 8020 mechanical shifters/hydro brakes, Ultegra 6800 cranks, Ultegra 8000 front derailleurs (HIGHLY recommended!), Ultegra RX rear derailleurs, Zipp posts and SL80 bars. One has a Zipp stem. The other has a Pro stem. XTR pedals. Once CX season hits, Wickwerks 34/44 rings go on and the 34/50 rings come off. Been riding them all spring and rode the black and orange one in the Hilly Billy Roubaix.

So far, across 3 CX frames, a 29er frame, and 2 road frames, chinesium has been a great value

Next up is likely to be another ICAN. Aero road disc next.

M

[Dinomac]

Has anyone looked at the new Carbonda CFR696?

The big attraction for me is the increased tyre clearance: 700C x 50 or 650b x 2.1
longer 435mm chainstays will make it more stable off road, but less responsive on road
traditional seatpost clamp should fit the slipping issues some had.

https://carbonda.en.alibaba.com/product ... meset.html

Yes I just got one, it has been a pitas, first the delay because the fork was on backorder, then the cable guide stops at the head tube also have a big hole for brake hose however I'm wanting to use cable disc TRP so I'm going to have to run a full length cable housing for the rear brake, the steering tube is rubbing on something inside the head tube, I think it's the leftover material from the internal cable routing at head tube, wouldn't we think they would check that in part of their QC.

Now back to the rear brake again, I got some flat mount to post mount adapters as I'm going to use (or think i am going to) TRP SPYRE post mount brakes 140mm rotors. The rear adapter almost rubbing the disc and the brakes caliper hits the frame and disc, it doesn't fit in there, I emailed the at Carbonda asking if with this frame can I only use flat mount disc, the response was vague: said can you send video and make sure you use the right adapter, well I've never built a road disc bike and our new bike shop in a very small town hasn't built one either. There is a shop about a 100 miles away and in all honesty I'm wishing I had gotten a Salsa frame because of the support I would have with it, I can say I really like the color of my new Carbonda CFR696 it's the leaner blue/purple metal flake.

I'm sure I'll be happy as a pig in crap when I get these little hiccups figured out, I'm new on this site so once I learn how to navigate my way around on here and how to upload photos I'll get some posted up and some pointers on any of the problem issues I'm having there's not a wealth of information on the web about the Carbonda CFR696.

[emotive]

Has anyone looked at the new Carbonda CFR696?

The big attraction for me is the increased tyre clearance: 700C x 50 or 650b x 2.1
longer 435mm chainstays will make it more stable off road, but less responsive on road
traditional seatpost clamp should fit the slipping issues some had.

https://carbonda.en.alibaba.com/product ... meset.html

Yes I just got one, it has been a pitas, first the delay because the fork was on backorder, then the cable guide stops at the head tube also have a big hole for brake hose however I'm wanting to use cable disc TRP so I'm going to have to run a full length cable housing for the rear brake, the steering tube is rubbing on something inside the head tube, I think it's the leftover material from the internal cable routing at head tube, wouldn't we think they would check that in part of their QC.

Now back to the rear brake again, I got some flat mount to post mount adapters as I'm going to use (or think i am going to) TRP SPYRE post mount brakes 140mm rotors. The rear adapter almost rubbing the disc and the brakes caliper hits the frame and disc, it doesn't fit in there, I emailed the at Carbonda asking if with this frame can I only use flat mount disc, the response was vague: said can you send video and make sure you use the right adapter, well I've never built a road disc bike and our new bike shop in a very small town hasn't built one either. There is a shop about a 100 miles away and in all honesty I'm wishing I had gotten a Salsa frame because of the support I would have with it, I can say I really like the color of my new Carbonda CFR696 it's the leaner blue/purple metal flake.

I'm sure I'll be happy as a pig in crap when I get these little hiccups figured out, I'm new on this site so once I learn how to navigate my way around on here and how to upload photos I'll get some posted up and some pointers on any of the problem issues I'm having there's not a wealth of information on the web about the Carbonda CFR696.

I ended up buying a CFR696 in May 2018 and have done 11000km. It’s been great. There is a good thread with lots of build information on this frame on the riding gravel forum.

[Dinomac]

emotive, did you have to use a flat mount road caliper, there's no way that this post mount even with an adapter is going to fit, I have my local bike shop looking up what it's going to cost me for the TRP spyer or the spyer slc and lii just run a full cable housing through the frame. I'll have to see if I can find that discussion on that site, I seen one on a gravel bike page that was closed, I think it was on Riding Gravel

[fattywilliams]

emotive, did you have to use a flat mount road caliper, there's no way that this post mount even with an adapter is going to fit, I have my local bike shop looking up what it's going to cost me for the TRP spyer or the spyer slc and lii just run a full cable housing through the frame. I'll have to see if I can find that discussion on that site, I seen one on a gravel bike page that was closed, I think it was on Riding Gravel

I used flat mount trp spyre on my velobuild gravel frame with no problems also had to run full length outer to rear brake wasn't a huge deal really

Sent from my VTR-L09 using Tapatalk

[emotive]

emotive, did you have to use a flat mount road caliper, there's no way that this post mount even with an adapter is going to fit, I have my local bike shop looking up what it's going to cost me for the TRP spyer or the spyer slc and lii just run a full cable housing through the frame. I'll have to see if I can find that discussion on that site, I seen one on a gravel bike page that was closed, I think it was on Riding Gravel

Yes, I have Ultegra R8070 flat mount calipers. 140 on the front and rear. Though I recently flipped the included adaptor and switched to a 160mm rotor on the front as I’m bikepacking through some big descents in Italy.

[Dinomac]

I did end up buying a new flat mount brake caliper for the rear and also I ran a full cable housing for that rear brake as I did the front brake the same, Carbonda has them setup for hydraulic braking. It seems that my avid brake levers are not going to stop this bike so I just ordered some TRP levers to go with my TRP Spyre brakes, one goofy thing I did was I used some red cable housing just because that's what I had and so I have to change that to black but my lbs only has a expensive kit with cables that I don't need, my bike is the metal flake Purple that changes to Blue. I had a three speed front derailleur that isn't going to work with 2x crankset so I had to order one of those also. I've been super busy with other stuff so it's not driving me too crazy have it almost done but not just there yet.
Thanks guys.

[flashpunk]

Curious if anyone has seen a frame like the Open Wide with the double dropped chainstays?

[fattywilliams]

Curious if anyone has seen a frame like the Open Wide with the double dropped chainstays?

That's quite a new frame the open wide I doubt there will be a Chinese mould just yet I may be wrong though

Sent from my VTR-L09 using Tapatalk

[JCVelo]

Well the painting is done, this is the picture they sent back to me of the frame, now just waiting for it to arrive in-person.

[Dinomac]

Very nice JC, what photo editing do you guys use, I have a photobucket account but it doesn't seem to want to work with my Galaxy Note 9
TIA.

[tarmackev]

@JCVelo
Thats very cool. Reminds me of the current Cannondale paint jobs but the dragon ads something unique. Very cool!

[JCVelo]

@JCVelo
Thats very cool. Reminds me of the current Cannondale paint jobs but the dragon ads something unique. Very cool!

Thanks! I figured since I was getting a chinese frame, I'd embrace it and go with a Chinese dragon as well Should be here in a week or 2.