Looking into a new-ish road frame for myself and ran across this on eBay:
Another forum had some positive things to say about similar frames but was curious if anyone here had had any experience with either SPCycle or this frame in particular?
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Seems just like every other completely random Chinese frame on ebay that you know nothing about and have no recourse if something isn’t right. A whole “27” for feedback, too. Which means they create a new name every month or two.
Buy at your own risk, but I certainly wouldn’t (and I own and race a Chinese frame).
Looking into a new-ish road frame for myself and ran across this on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/…?hash=item1a518685a9
Another forum had some positive things to say about similar frames but was curious if anyone here had had any experience with either SPCycle or this frame in particular?
Never heard of them. Stick to the well known, established Chinese companies like Light Bicycle, Yishun, Yoleo etc They offer warranties. That said, they’re not cheap.$700 for a frame. Add wheels, handlebars, saddle, pedals, groupset etc you’re looking at close to $3k and you won’t get anything close to that when you go to sell it.
Not that you asked or care, but IMO, that frame is ugly… 
Buying from China is kinda risky. Best to stick with a company that at least has been in business awhile and has good feedback. Like this one: https://www.ebay.com/str/carboncycle/Road-Frame/_i.html?_storecat=9901071018
There are a couple others on ebay selling frames.
buy it and report back.
I’ve bought more than a few frames direct from Asia. I’d suggest looking at aliexpress. I seem to be able to build up bikes with carbon wheels, ultegra groupset, for ~$2300cad (or $1900-2000usd). I’d also stick with the same frames that others are buying, not ‘similar’ looking ones.
Selling a used chinese direct bike hasn’t been too much of an issue for me. While it’s true that you can’t get the same amount for a Chinese than you could for a branded bike, you also aren’t spending anywhere near the same amount as a new name-brand bike. I actually figure that the depreciation is greater in a brand name bike.
I’ve bought more than a few frames direct from Asia. I’d suggest looking at aliexpress. I seem to be able to build up bikes with carbon wheels, ultegra groupset, for ~$2300cad (or $1900-2000usd). I’d also stick with the same frames that others are buying, not ‘similar’ looking ones.
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Not being a dick, but that seems really expensive. My 2018 BMC TM02 cost me $2200 USD. And $2k can get you a great 2nd hand bike. I think the Chinese bike industry has potential and I think the quality is fine, but price seems way off what it needs to be. Brand new Chinese wheelsets costing the same as near new Zipp wheelsets… I’m not sure where and who they are selling their gear to, I’ve seen very little in the way of Chinese frames/wheels in Australia.
These shit frames are showing up in Great Britain.
There is a great article on the Chinese/Taiwan bike industry at BikeBiz. Some companies are top notch and they are the ones who produce almost all of the high-end frames. Others you should avoid like the Plague. This article answers all the questions you would ever want to know from a forum question.
I would paste the link, but my iPad is a turd. Google BikeBiz Cowboy and it will come up.
These shit frames are showing up in Great Britain.
Bikes in the UK seem to be quite a bit more $$ than in Australia for some reason so I guess the Chinese frames seem pretty cheap? I can’t build up a Chinese bike cheaper than I can buy a new big brand one. And the resale on those Chinese bikes is abysmal. People won’t touch them.
Stick with a few of the better known brands. Flyxii, Deng-Fu, Hong-Fu and Workswell are the ones I’m familiar with.
Flyxii is going to be the cheapest (once you include shipping) but they are the slowest to ship - Plan on 3-4 weeks+ after ordering to get your frame. The others are about $75-100 more expensive, but you’ll probably have the frame in 1-2 weeks.
Personally, I went the Flyxii route for both of my road builds. My first one lasted me over 6 years before I crashed it. My most recent one is the Flyxii FR-322 and cost me about $375 shipped including the headset, seatpost, frame and fork.
What about planetX frames. US$340.
What about planetX frames. US$340.
Nothing wrong with them, though add around $100 for shipping. That said, the sub $400 frames from them are really basic – no internal cable routing or aero anything about them.
Not that you asked or care, but IMO, that frame is ugly…
Buying from China is kinda risky. Best to stick with a company that at least has been in business awhile and has good feedback. Like this one: https://www.ebay.com/str/carboncycle/Road-Frame/_i.html?_storecat=9901071018
There are a couple others on ebay selling frames.
This was actually what I was fishing for: A long-time, reputable seller. Thanks!
There is a great article on the Chinese/Taiwan bike industry at BikeBiz. Some companies are top notch and they are the ones who produce almost all of the high-end frames. Others you should avoid like the Plague. This article answers all the questions you would ever want to know from a forum question.
I would paste the link, but my iPad is a turd. Google BikeBiz Cowboy and it will come up.
The problem with that article is that it mostly disses counterfeits while saying hardly anything about open mold frames. It divides the issue into top end frames manufactured for Western companies and shit frames made by mafia owned, fly-by-night operations. It does not address what most people buying an open mold frame are looking for, a cheap frame that is good enough. It does give a clue, though, when it calls out Pat McQuaid for saying frames selling for thousands cost thirty or forty dollars to make and then a paragraph later defends the industry by saying the cost is ten times McQuaid’s misconception. Now it’s been a long time since I took multi variable calculus and differential equations, so I may make some math mistakes here, but ten times thirty or forty seems to me to be a small fraction of several thousand and, coincidentally, not too far off what reputable open mold sellers charge.
I have a Hong Fu frame that has been alright. It is not as chi chi as the custom frames I bought over the years, but at this point in my cycling career I don’t care. Instead of being covered with oversized, hideous logos like bikes from the big manufacturers, it is murdered out black so there is no confusing it with a work of art. It is just a tool. It also came with a BSA bottom bracket instead of that press fit garbage the industry has pushed on to everyone. And I don’t have to worry about the industry changing standards every year, obsoleting stuff for negligible benefits, because the frame is so freaking cheap I can buy a new frame every year or two and chalk the frame off as a consumable, like tires, chains, and cassettes.
I have a Dengfu road frame and a Seraph gravel frame. Both are open mould and I paid the extra $150-200 to get a paint job, bc I think the plain black look is boring.
Both frames are top-notch build quality and paint finish. I tried a custom paint color & scheme the 1st time around but communication with contact person at Dengfu was klunky (Chinglish, via whatsapp text). For the gravel bike, I just chose one of their stock paint schemes.
I build up my bikes from on-hand parts mostly. Resale value doesn’t factor into the equation for me. At $600+, I’m happy to get several years out of it 'til I get the itch to build something new. I’d rather buy new open mould with a mint paintjob, than someone else’s dinged / scratched / fatigued / used carbon frame. Life’s too short to ride someone else’s bike…
My buddy just bought a frame off aliexpress for under a grand.
It’s the EXACT frame as a well know high end manufacturer who sponsors a world tour team.
It’s literally flawless and indistinguishable from the real frame which sells for at least 5x more.
I think it’s a factory second that failed QC. My buddy says it just weighs 80g more than the listed weight. Is that enough to fail QC? Probably.
I’m seriously considering buying my next frame from China.
This was actually what I was fishing for: A long-time, reputable seller. Thanks!
This one has 100% feedback x1200. https://www.ebay.com/str/carbongoods/Road-Frame/_i.html?_storecat=4156742018
No, not an unfair comment at all.
When I help friends get new road bikes, I often steer them to some of our local shops that are always doing ‘last-year’ model sales. Some of those road bikes, (like Cervelo S2’s with 105 and basic wheels) were $1800(cad). Even if I could build a bike for the same amount, I will always push someone towards the S2 as there’s just no point in going generic. Of course, there’s also the used bike market as well and that is another great route to go.
I do see the value in the bikes that I’m building up as finding a road bike with Ultegra, carbon wheels, carbon handlebars (etc.). When you add up all those things, shops don’t come close to the price that I can build it up from. …I also enjoy building/working on bikes, so there’s that too.
I love how all these threads center around conjecture and no real life experiences.
I guarantee that for every Chinese frame from a somewhat “legit” online vendor in the $400 to $600 range that has a problem, there’s also one from a main company like Giant or Specialized.
Get over it. It’s an open mold with the same fiber and copied layup techniques. The cost savings is in have essentially ZERO R&D staff, wind tunnel costs, etc…
If you own a car with more than 100k miles, likelyhood is that at least 1/2 to 3/4 of the replacement parts on that car are “open mold” OE replacements, not OEM.
The counterfeit stuff of completely ripping off a company’s mold is bad, yes. But there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with an open-mold frameset just because it only cost $500 from China.
Once something has been done a million times, there is an accepted common procedure for how you do it. How you layup carbon, how it’s layed up around a head tube, or junctions, etc… Also…90% of all that fiber comes from one place anyway.
I would totally do it for a crit bike or a cyclocross bike. If you’re going to eventually crash it anyway, it won’t matter if it was going to break or not once you split it wide open in a pile up.
Also, you can get a wifi borescope online for like less than $40 and can scope the frame after buying it if you’re that concerned. Or buy it unpainted also, inspect, then paint.