raria

Did I miss something? All of a sudden there are a whole bunch of really cheap framesets on Ebay like this one https://www.ebay.com/itm/700C-Full-C...Condition=1000

I don't own one but it seems for $299 you get a 1400g frameset, seat post and also the head set and internal cabling as well.

The product seems very well thought out so it seems too good to be true? I thought China Bomb framesets started at $500.

WhyFi

Give it a whirl and report back.

raria

Seriously, I wonder if they know something about upcoming tariffs.

datlas 

It's got a BSA BB. Must be good.

Steve B.

There have been Chinese direct ship carbon road and mt. frames available for years, some advertise and sell thru E-Bay, some with Amazon, some direct. 1500g frame and fork, $350

Bunch of others out there

FLX-FR-322 ( 700C )

raria

The Workswell level quality framesets have been around for along time and sold for $500. But this is the first time I've seen that level of quality frameset for under $300. By quality I'm not refering to just manufacturing quality but also design quality. If you read through the product description its clear this is not some half assed product.

indyfabz

It's on eBay, so it must be the best bang for your buck.

pressed001

My Kestrel recently bit the dust and I nearly bought a frame from Aliexpress for 340 shipped. Would be good to know how they hold up over time. The initial reviews seem to be quite good. I think as far as bang for the buck is concerned that these frames are top.

Most name brand frames are made in CN anyway and with the way the Chinese change jobs, there is no avoiding any R/D information leaks. It may take some time, but that 2018 Giant TCR SL will at some point be available from China for 400 clams and maybe lesser quality carbon layup.

Maelochs

Ummmm ... let me make sure I understand you ...

You read The advertisement that the manufacturer ... or Much more likely, the fourth-generation reselller, pasted on his internet site ... so It Must Be True.

What happened here, is some genius realized that Chinglish, half-Google-translated sloppy semi-meaningless product descriptions probably hurt sales, where as professionally written ad copy would probably set the seller ahead of the competition ... . so the seller stole some good text off some website and pasted it under the quite probably stolen photos of some product which might or might not be even vaguely related to what you might or might never receive if you send some money.

Shoot, I speak decent English and I would probably steal web copy if I were selling online---why not use the best available? Particularly if I lived in China, where "intellectual property" is a comedy theme, not a legal concept, and where businesses which opened, collected ten or twenty payments, and folded without shipping anything, and reopened with the same principals and the same address but a different name three days later, are the norm.

If you really think this bike is a great deal, by all means buy it. And if it is, come back and tel us. And if it is not .... welll .....

There was a guy on this site who bought a Chinarello ... actually two guys .... one guy bought two ... exactly the type of frame every e calls "a cheap knock-off sold for suckers, no QC, will certainly asplode." As far as I know, all parties were pleased. it might be hit or miss, who knows?

It could be a backdoor deal from a major manufacturer ... you know, where the frames fell out the back door of the factory and this guy just happened to pick them up.

I also know Workswell is always trying to get me to buy a bunch of frames to sell .... which might be a great business opportunity or might not. But maybe a few guys with some bucks made a sizable purchase and are simply underselling the factory.

Or maybe these are low-quality cast-offs with zero QC which might or might not meet any of the quoted specifications, the headsets or BBs might not fit, the cable holes might not be cut ..... we need a brave explorer to forge ahead blindly into the fog.

Go for it.

Bob Ross

I know I've told this story before so stop me if you've already heard it:

Guy I met on a European cycling tour vacation had a no-name Chinese carbon frame. I asked him how he liked it. He says "It's great! I can wreck this frame, buy another, wreck that frame, buy another, wreck that frame, buy another...six times over before I've even spent as much as my son did for one Cannondale frame!"

The funniest part was, on day 6 of our tour he wrecked his frame!!!

nycphotography

Framesets are sub 700g these days. ie Wilier Zero6.

raria

I see you have a Workswell 066 which I was thinking of buying back in 2015 (bought a CAAD 12 instead).

Were these low price (apparently) high quality framesets around then? I don't recall seeing items like this then.

A quick look shows 400 ratings of which only 6 are bad (mainly due to logistical issues such as slow delivery and customs).

Quite a few people have bought their MTB frames.

Steve B.

Did the frame esplode ?, or totalled due to the crash ?. If crashed he's now out about $400 instead of upwards of $1500 for name brand at which point he's correct.

noodle soup

The fork is 448g

Only about 100g overweight.

raria

Sure, plenty of sub 700gram frames. This one is about 1000grams. But those 700g framesets come with weight limits of around 175 pounds so there are two prices for such low weight.

noodle soup

If it failed, and caused a serious wreck, how much were his medical bills? Even without a wreck, it screwed up his cycling vacation.

raria

A cheap frame that explodes will cost you much more than the replacement frame cost. I know too many people with the scars of crashes. Some are just road rash but quite a few have lost mobility and strength in limbs.

Maelochs

there were very few Alibaba-style sellers then. And they were all sketchy.

It could be that this company is legit ... the frame and fork are pretty heavy .... depends why. Is the whole thing overbuilt for some reason? is it beginner-quality layup? i don't know nor claim to know.

One thing about ratings .... it depends how liong they have been around, it depends hwo long the buyers have had the product ... and it depends how many are real.

No joke--haven't you seen ads for businesses which will promote your website, including fake twitter and Facebook posts? Bots, or low-paid cut an paste people. if they have them in the US, I assume they have them everywhere .... hire some homeless guys, tel them "One phrase from column A, one form B, one from C, post ... we will pay you one yuan per post."

On the other hand ... these could be completely legit people, just starting out, overbuilding their frames for safety (or sloppiness) or maybe using old, old molds which are less precise. Their products could be durable ... but if I was going to spend that much money, I would either spend more and get a frame from a known vendor (and get a much lighter frame) or I would get a Bikes Direct bike. Wit the BD bike I can get the overweight frame and a bunch of decent componentnts, EBay what i don't want or put them on another bike, and finish the build with what I liked.

I honestly have not even checked out the ad. i might later ... but I cannot see any reason to buy an overweight CF frame from a possibly sketchy supplier. i can get an overweight frame from a known supplier, or a lightweight frame from a known supplier ....

But ... if you think this guy is for real ... go for it.

I can remember when everyone thought Dengfu and Workswell were sketchy companies selling cheap plastic crap which wouldn't last a day.

You might be the guy ten years from now laughing at all the folks talking about their fears of asplosion.

znomit

You say overweight, I say 30% extra carbon for free.
Slad to be of help.

rpenmanparker 

Dopefish905

motosonic

I read an article a few weeks ago about a guy who purchased a carbon fiber mountain bike from Walmart for a few hundred dollars and then put all top-notch parts on it and said that it was one of the best bikes he's ever ridden. my understanding is there is a road bike version of that and it's equally as good. So, you buy the bike strip off all the junk parts and then outfitted with 105 or ultegra and you're good to go.

Maelochs

Key Phrase: "one of the best bikes he's ever ridden."

... of the four other Walmart models?

Common sense ... has probably always been an either/or proposition.

Here I think it is sensible to say that No Matter how massive the bulk, no matter how large the production run ... the cost to build a bike and ship it from China to America has Some basic cost, below which it simply cannot be done. And there has to be profit involved for every supplier/builder/assembler/transporter as well as the retailer, for it to work as a business.

If the bike shows up for $300 in Walmart, the store has got to be paying maybe $100? max $200, but I doubt it, even with Walmart wages. Even if we take the high number ... that is All parts, from wheels to tires to cockpit to drive train, and whatever suspension if it has any .... And a carbon-fiber frame .... for $200.

How much care can have gone into any of that? If someone tells me he can sell me a top-quality CF frame for a mountain bike for $50 I will tell him he is wrong ... because it is either junk or stolen, and I won't buy it. Sorry, but "best bike he has ever ridden" says to me the guy has never ridden a good bike .... because I refuse to believe that Walmart can buy a CF bike frame for under $50 that is as good as the best frames out there ... or is even very good.

I am sure i could lay up a CF frame, and rig a vacuum pump out of my vacuum, and then cook it in my oven .... and sell it for $50. Pretty sure materials, energy costs, and labor would make it a loss ... even without shipping and assembly added on top. And I could be pretty sure that the quality of the finished frame wasn't as good as that coming out of a factory where QC was more stringent, and where the designers were actually working hard to push the envelope to make the strongest, stiffest, lightest frame possible.

I am pretty sure Walmart reverse-engineers an old frame and adds a bunch of material so it won't break so they can avoid lawsuits---pretty sure they don't hire the industry's best engineers using the best software to model potential loads and forces to determine exactly where and how to place and orient fibers to provide all the needed strength at the lowest weight.

The idea that Any frame made out of carbon fiber is equivalent to any other .... well, for a guy who has only ridden Walmart bikes, it might as well be.

ridelikeaturtle

Great story. Everyone wondering about the quality of knock-off CF frames should remember this.

nycphotography

What? That it's not relevant since you're just going to crash it anyhow?