PSA: Vitus Substance carbon frameset - £600

Excellant! The Geo chart is 2 lines out of sync! Are they good bikes?

I spotted these earlier and contemplated one to use as the basis for a road build.

Hmmm 2x compatible too.

Only 42mm clearance limits it a bit

More details here - Vitus Substance Carbon Frameset – Vitus Bikes
Hopefully the geometry chart isn't screwy here.

Only 42mm clearance limits it a bit

Does it though? I'm building up my first gravel bike (a Ragley Trig) so I'm pretty clueless, but doesn't depend on the balance you want between road and off-road? The Trig only has 700x40 clearance (27.5x2.1") but there seem to be increasing options in drop bar MTBs if you lean towards more off-road.

I bought one of these with GRX for £1500 back in 2020. It’s a rebranded Carbonda CFR696 frameset, as also sold by Planet X, Dolan.

Thought the geometry looked a bit open mould/Planet X.

42mm will be on 700c. I think it is sold with 650?

I use the Energie as a gravel bike outside of CX season. I run 43 gravel kings. Beyond that I might as well take a mtb. The Energie got me round 2 dirty reivers lots of training rides and the national champs.

FWIW I have just ordered another Energie Evo with Rival. Like the bike and it's cheap. Means I have a second CX bike or a dedicated gravel bike (The 40:36 is a little steep as the lowest gear at the end of a long day so I'm going to look at a 11-42 cassette).

Frame only is same price as the Substance. They have the Rival Venon for £1800 if you want a complete gravel bike.

https://www.wiggle.com/p/vitus-energie-evo-frameset

Perhaps not the bargain they appear then?

I like mine, £600 is cheaper than ordering direct from Carbonda.

This is the Planet X version:

https://www.planetx.co.uk/collections/on-one-free-ranger

They no longer seem to sell the frameset though.

I’ve got the Dolan version of the frame - been really impressed with it. I built mine up as a relaxed road bike with 30c tyres on 700c wheels and 2x11 Ultegra Di2. <br /><br />

It feels light and fast on the road - although I haven’t weighed it. That price looks pretty decent to me.

Would guess it’s middling to slightly more road orientated as gravel bikes go - although it will take a wide ish 650b tyre as an alternative to 700c I believe.

42mm will be on 700c. I think it is sold with 650?

I use the Energie as a gravel bike outside of CX season. I run 43 gravel kings. Beyond that I might as well take a mtb.

+1

Depends exactly on your tyre choice, geometry, bar width etc. But IME going over 45mm takes you into rubbish-but-light-mtb territory. There's still a use case for that (e.g. 300miles on flat bars gave me numb hands) but it's straying away from what it's good at.

Cycle to work generally makes these cheaper than buying direct - but it's very rare to see them simply priced cheaper than buying direct
FWIW I built mine with 2x 105 for gravel/commuting/family rides and I love it.  Fun on almost any surface.

Decent deal that for a good frame.
Have a direct purchased one as a winter road bike set up, works pretty well.
About to change the group set on mine over to a SRAM set up I think from the GRX di2 set up I currently have on it.

Same as the PX Free Ranger?

I was on the lookout for one as I've cracked my Space Chicken BB (probably on the 3 peaks cx race) and I think all round this frame design is better more clearance etc.

@fooman yup same as the freeranger and many others that use the Carbonda cfr696, which there are many companies using to good effect and feedback. It's been around awhile, is still a great frame.

I have a Carbonda 696 that I bought direct from Carbonda and built up myself. I run it with Maxxis Rambler 700c 50mm tyres. Clearance is tight but fine. I have a couple of friends who have Planet X Free Rangers who use the same tyres. If this frame is a 696 then it will fit wider tyres then a 42mm.

I have a Free Ranger. I love it. I use it with 32 mm GP5000 as a winter road bike, and with WTB Nano 40 mm tyres as a gravel bike. It's lovely.

Perhaps not the bargain they appear then?

I got a complete bike (Free Ranger) with SRAM Force groupset for £1500, so frame alone for £600 doesn't seem that good value...

Only 42mm clearance limits it a bit

Does it though?

No idea, that's what I read on the blurb. I'm presuming they know what the clearance is 🤷‍♂️
Add some typical UK mud (or a mudguard if you only ride it as a winter road bike) and it begins to limit use

43mm 700c on my Ridley version at the moment, I’m confident 47mm or more will fit with tons of clearance. That would probably be the limit with 25mm wide rims. There’s plenty of experience of Freeranger owners to compare.

pondered over this until all the large were sold out 🙁 trying to make up my mind if an XL will be too big. don't want it looking like a gatepost with the seat tube etc

The Trig only has 700×40 clearance

I have 700 x 45c tyres on mine, albeit on 19mm internal rims.

I reckon it could take the same with 25mm internal though.

Just FYI.

Is it just me - but £600 is what I'd expect to pay for a branded open mold frame? Taking £1000 off the dictated RRP seems like a sports direct tactic.

Is it just me – but £600 is what I’d expect to pay for a branded open mold frame?

It's definitely closer to what I'd expect to pay than £1.6k

Of course the benefit of the branded bit is usually UK warranty support, but that's by no means certain here.

How much are they from Carbonda?

It's worth pointing out that an "open mold frame" doesn't necessarily mean that it came from the same production line in the same factory as another that looks the same, just that they were made from the same generic, off-the-shelf mold - the quality and method of the layup may be completely different.

I think £600 for this is decent - you’re getting a pretty light full carbon frame and fork - with decent tyre clearance and plenty of difference mounts on the frame.

I remember seeing somewhere years ago you could get this frame from Carbonda round the £600 mark but I’m not sure it’s that cheap now by the time you pay import fees / VAT etc. 

I paid a bit more than that for the Dolan version (although via cycle to work as it’s my commuter - so the actual cost probably isn’t too bad) and happy with my purchase. I don’t see a lot of other carbon gravel bikes of this weight for a similar cost.

Planet X offers on whole bikes have been silly cheap (with rival or force) - although I’m not sure if these are still around so much since they got a new website and (maybe) restructured?