Anyone have a pic of this frame built up with a straight post?

Duties to Canada are pretty simple (for bike stuff at least). If it comes through Canada Post, you'll get dinged a flat $5 (customs fee), plus PST/GST (duty fees) on top of that. That's it! I've ordered quite a few times from ProBikeKit.com (u.k. based) and Taiwan based businesses and have never paid anything more than that (often times I don't even get charged duty).

As for the shoe example. take a $100 pair of shoes, add a $5 customs charge + $13-$15 for GST/PST and it all makes sense that you got charged about $20.

Now, the 'customs' fee is MUCH higher if you receive a shipping order through UPS or Fed Ex (i.e. they RIP YOU OFF), but the actual 'duty' is always the same (PST/GST).

Will the straighter seatpost change the effective length of the top tube? I like the frame but a 52 is 1cm too big.

This is why if you are in Canada you should have everything shipped to you by USPS (US) or by anyone other than FED EX or UPS. I always ask for this service. Plus keep in mind most people send their products as GIFTS so the GST/PST is very low. I think I paid $7.50 on some parts that arrived the other day that cost me $250. So that was nice.

I *think* (I'm no expert), that when fitting yourself to a bike, you need to take into 3 main points of contact. I recently did this when I got a new bike and it worked quite well.

1. Saddle to armrest distance (or where your 'bum sits on the saddle')
2. Saddle to pedal distance.
3. Pedal to armrest distance (maybe this is less important / irrelevant, but could be used to determine drop.)

Adjusting the seatpost angle will certainly have an effect on the saddle to armrest distance.

You could also overcome the 1 cm increase in top tube length by running an equivalently shorter stem.

i think so. The info i have is for the earlier model ( i think they had 4 sized then and six now) and it shows that for a S (51)
Standard Layback Post - Effective TT (Forward Setting) 49.5 (Rearward Setting) 53.2
Zero Layback Post - Effective TT (Forward Setting) 45.2 (Rearward Setting) 44.8
Plus you have a few cm for/aft on the seat rails and depending on the armrest/aerobars used you should have some adjustment room there as well. I can't imagine 1cm of top tube length being an obstacle on a tri bike.

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"Competetive sport begins where healthy sport ends"

Can you give us any feedback on how the frame is working out for you?

I can soon.....Still building it up and waiting for some new parts.

It is beautiful!!!

i don't believe PST/ GST are the same as duty fees. from what i understand, if ordering goods manufactured in countries covered by the free trade agreement (such as the usa and mexico) you only pay taxes and brokerage fees on the imported goods. however, if manufactured in countries not covered by free trade, there is an additional "duty" charged. that charge is a percentage of the value of the goods depending on what the goods are. the uk might be an exception (for obvious reasons) but i thought there might be some additional duties levied if the frame was coming from and manufactured in taiwan.

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"I'm happy when life's good,
and when it's bad I cry.
I've got values but I don't know how or why."
- The Who

I must admit that I am no expert of customs fees. I did recently buy a wheelset from Taiwan (from the slowtwitch group buy). I spent around $600 cdn and didn't get taxed anymore than the local tax rate (It might have even been lower, but I can't remember).

I originally planned to order Giant's Trinity Advanced SL frameset but due to popularity/demand, Giant apparently sold out nearly the entire US allocation by November of last year. As a backup, I instead opted to spend ~$650 and ordered the same carbon tt framesets (pretty sure it is the same one used by Boyd Bikes referenced on the previous page) as Mitochondria. The design seems to be a combination of the top tube/down tube from the 08/09 Trek TTX coupled to a rear triangle that is very similar to the P3. Ordered with a two color paint job paying via PayPal and despite the fact that the rep from GreatKeen is on the backside of the clock here in the US, he was very responsive and helpful and I recieved the finished frameset within 21-days of ordering. Although the manufactuer shipped the wrong lower headset bearing and crown race (1.5 instead of 1 1/8) I built it up last weekend and following are some initial thoughts:

Pros:
• Nice internal cable runs with fixed internal cable liners which helps to eliminate wasted time fishing for cables should non fixed liners come out (ala Giant Trinity/Trinity Alliance)
• Fork appears to be an all carbon including very thick carbon dropouts
• Horizontal, all carbon rear dropouts (also very thick) with replaceable alloy deraileur hanger
• Hidden rear brake which mounts behind bottom bracket
• Two position, infinitely adjustable seatpost/clamp design
Cons:

• Fork is 1 1/8 but the manufacturer sent the lower headset bearing and crown race for a tapered road fork
• Fork steerers inner diameter a 1mm smaller than standard thus standard top cap assemblies (like FSA or ExtraLight) will not work
• Front and rear dropouts required some 'cleaning' up in order for wheel axle to cleanly clear dropouts
• The heads of the allen bolts for the front deraileur mount are too 'tall' and interfere with front deraileur adjustment and had to be replaced with low profile bolts
• The angle of the braze on mount for the front deraileur appears optimized for compact cranks (110 BCD) and not standard (130 BCD) cranksets making optimum adjusting of the front deraileur slightly less straight forward
• Internal cable runs enter frame via holes in top tube 1.5cm-2cm aft of the steerer tube and while the manufactuer ran internal housing, the hole for the rear brake is on the right side of the (looking down from saddle) which with 3T Ventus integrated aerobars, makes for a bit of a challenge in terms of cable run and demands a 15mm headset cap/cover in order to get proper clearance. Ideally the hole for the rear brake should have been routed from the front hole instead of the right cable hole in the top tube
• Frame incorporates a hidden rear brake designed and came with a Tektro center pull rear brake but the brake cable exits the down tube just ahead of the bottom bracket similar to Specialized Transition but unlike with the Specialized, there is no cable hanger to hold the end of cable housing in place which results in some 'slope' during application of the rear brake. The Simkin Egg Brake would probably be a better choice for a rear brake as it features a narrow side pull design
• Inside of the bottom bracket shell has a 1-2mm raised/polished center section which prevents insertion of the alloy center sleeve for an FSA MegaExo ceramic bottom bracket but since it can be omitted is not a show stopper and is probably not a problem for Shimano/SRAM as I swapped the alloy sleeve for a plastic one with no problems
• The infinitely adjustable seatpost/clamp design is rather finicky as once properly torqued, the circular seat post clamp/wedges require some fiddling to work loose in order to achieve the desired saddle angle. This issue was overcome by inserting a medium tension spring between wedge clamps so when the bolt is loosened, the clamps are driven apart by teh spring making saddle adjustment much easier
• The nature of the seatpost clamp design also prevents use of carbon railed saddles with non-stanard rail diameters such as Fizik Arione/Arione Tri 2 w/braided carbon rails)

Only two 60-minute rides on it thus far, but based on things like percieved effort as well as SRM power numbers, this cheap/bargain Chinese frameset is dramatically outperforming the 2008 GIant TCR TT Composite frameset it replaces and while the nitpicky issues are numerous, thus far I am happy with the results. In terms of quality control, frame construction and finish are certainly not on a par with big name manufacturers and the paint job and clear coat is adequate but if I order another frame for the wife, the next one will be single color (black). Finally, if you are not a somewhat well versed/equipped home or pro mechanic and will be sending the frame to the local bike shop for assembly, then that added expense for some may end up puting the cost of this project on par with the entry level offerings from the name brand manufacturers frames.

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I've been promising myself a new frame for about 2 years now. The prices of some of these companies are pretty high. Would like to see the build on that frame.
Cheers Rick

What size frame did u get? Have you had a chance to measure the stack and reach, also 2nd for pics.

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"I like you. I'll gladly sit down and have dinner with you after the race. But when the gun goes off, I pretty much hate you, and I want to stomp your guts out. That's racing." -Rappstar

http://train4autism.org/

Yes heaven forbid paying the company who actually does the RD on frames and makes sure they are road worthy before sending them out of the shop.

Do you have any photos?

Bike is built and the seats too high but still 'tuning' a couple things like the rear brake as well as reach/fit of 3T Ventus extensions (got some s-bends on the way):

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Looks great! I like the red accents.

Gorgeous Bike! Can you break down the components / cost?

I have a chinese fab roadie (Pedal Force RS2) and love it. I'm on the fence about a tri bike, I'm leaning to getting a brand name though.

i've seen more than a fair share of the roadie variant of these chinese frames, and the quality is still unbelievable to me

Choose one.
Its either lighter, or its stiffer, but there is no way in hell its both.

Fantastic build. Enjoy it!

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´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX

why not? the scott addict is lighter and stiffer than the CR1. that's a comfort bike.

Most of the parts were swapped from my '07 Giant TCR TT Composite (aka Trinity Composite) and although I did acquire the 3T Ventus and Zipp shifters specifically for use with this frameset, they saw use for two weeks on the old bike before being installed on the new frame:

• Frame, fork, headset, seatpost - $650 (GreatKeen)
• Tektro R725 aero brake set - $40 (only using rear brake - Ebay)
• 3T Ventus Team - $625 (swapped from old bike - Ebay)
• Zipp R2C Vukashift bar end shifters - $285 (swapped from old bike - Ebay)
• Dura Ace 7900 front brake, front & rear deraileur - $290 (swapped from old bike - LBS)
• SRM FSA Powermeter - $2300 (powermeter only from trukweaz in 09)
• Fizik Arione Tri2 Kium - $199.00 (swapped from old bike - Ebay)
• Zipp 808 front tubular - $700 (swapped from old bike - Ebay)
• Zipp 909 Disc tubular rear - $850 (swapped from old bike - Ebay)
• Zipp Tangente cork brake pads - $80 (new from LBS)

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tell that to cervelo's project california team....

MS6073

Can you give us some stack and reach numbers? Did the seller provide sizing info?