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Recently I have been looking on EBay at carbon frames and have noticed some companies selling carbon frames from Asia. I have heard that these are the companies that manufacture frames for all the big bike companies. The frames look the same as the big named frames just without the badging.
The seller’s descriptions are fun to read "man is never so happy as when riding carbon mountain bike in the sun" direct quote!
These frames are half the price of any badged frame.
Anybody have any info on who these guys are? -
Do some searching on alibaba.com. You can buy them direct from the factory, and they are decent quality.
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"maddslacker" wrote
Do some searching on alibaba.com. You can buy them direct from the factory, and they are decent quality.
Do a lot of research before buying. Some are good, some are crap.
There are threads with THOUSANDS of posts about these bikes on MTBR. I’ve read many of them myself. Here’s what I gathered:
-Most of the frames with internal shift routing have shifting issues due to poor routing, or holes aren’t even big enough to get the housing through the frame, etc. Folks usually drill them out then it works okay.
-Many of the people posting about those frames are people I wouldn’t really trust IMO. Many talk about how it’s so much better than their old bike, which is often a WalMart bike or a hybrid they’ve been riding trails on. So….it doesn’t take much to be better, and they don’t have enough experience to say if it’s really good or not IMO.I saw a no-name chinese road frame at the LBS, whoever owned it paid one of the guys there to paint it for him. That thing had the stiffness of wet noodle. Standing next to the frame and pushing on the pedal down and towards the bike, the bottom bracket would move nearly an inch to the side with very little pressure on the pedal. I can’t imagine what it’s like to climb out of the saddle on that bike, or hit a corner at 35mph on a descent.
All that said, I’m sure there are some good ones out there. You just need to make sure you know what you’re getting. I’m a big beliver in you get what you pay for.
For my money I’d rather buy a decent metal frame from a real company I know I can trust to deliver a good product, and back it up if I did have any issues with it. YMMV.
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The big manufacturer of carbon frames in China is Hongfu. They also make frames for several retail brands that we see here. I have seen two of their MTB frames in person and they were both fine. (One guy did have to enlarge the cable route a little)
For a name brand carbon frame, the Giant xTC is an excellent option, and you can buy it as a frame-only and build it up.
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The Chinese carbon is constructed of Toray 700 carbon…. Don’t really know what that is.
Where are Trek or Specialized frames made?
I can’t seem to find much info about that.
I’m slightly suspicious of the big brands, not because of quality issues but because we pay so much for badging.Ok update time: did some in depth investigation ( sat in front of the computer reading articles) and found mucho info on American made carbon frames (trek) and how they are aerospace rated interplanetary carbon materials hand made by uber-geniuses right here in the good old US of A.
Still we pay too much for badging.
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"jamis29er" wrote
The Chinese carbon is constructed of Toray 700 carbon…. Don’t really know what that is.
Where are Trek or Specialized frames made?
I can’t seem to find much info about that.
I’m slightly suspicious of the big brands, not because of quality issues but because we pay so much for badging.The material used isn’t all that important. HOW it’s used is what matters.
The frame is the frame.
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"jamis29er" wrote
I’m slightly suspicious of the big brands …
You should be. I got some disturbing info about carbon frames from one of the big brands. I can’t go into detail publicly but 1) they screwed up a whole run of carbon frames and 2) they did not recall them or in any way publicize the fact that it had occurred, and 3) they refused to warranty any of the affected frames. 😮
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