Just black as I am thinking of adding some colour myself. I asked for a spare mech hanger too.

Got mine today. £243 all in. A quick look over inside the tubes with a torch and it all looks good so far.

I chose their cheaper delivery option and escaped import duties and VAT for some reason, despite the parcel marked at $150 and delivered by ParcelForce.

nice!

I understand from other threads that some people are sent the import invoice/courier admin fee after delivery.

……but….does it make the airwolf noise??

Do airwolf make their own wheels or are they just rebranded generic stuff?

I understand from other threads that some people are sent the import invoice/courier admin fee after delivery.

Yeah I will see. I guess duty and VAT on $150 plus the £12 charge won’t be too much.

<blockquote……but….does it make the airwolf noise??

yes it does! constantly!

Do airwolf make their own wheels or are they just rebranded generic stuff?

Airwolf is a brand of the Shenzen Yaoflying Sport Component Co., Ltd.

https://yaoflying.en.alibaba.com/

I believe the make their own stuff – if you scroll down on that page theres a pic of rims in a mould. But who knows.

Cor, liking the look of these! If you can choose 142×12 and a threaded BB then i’m very tempted indeed. Ideal for my southern XC/trail mtb life….

Cor, liking the look of these! If you can choose 142×12 and a threaded BB then i’m very tempted indeed. Ideal for my southern XC/trail mtb life….

I’m going to glue in a threaded BB adapter I think.

Mine is 142×12.

just seen that inserts are readily available, anyone know if it’s available with threaded BB as standard? Also, is it for 100mm fork? I have a exotic monocoque carbon fork that might go well with this 🙂

100/120mm the geo is the same as a santa cruz highball

You could ask them for a threaded bb, I didn’t think to duh.

wonder if anyone has tried the FS frames? If I cold find a half decent shock I’d be tempted, but I think I’d need to know more about pivots etc.
quite like the look of the one shaped like a scott spark.

Yeah loadsa people, search the chinertown forum and youtube.

Yeah loadsa people, search the chinertown forum and youtube.

good lord, what a rabbithole that is!

got stuck on trunnion or not trunnion shocks for that, then realized I was recommended for my height, the XL, which has a 540mm seat tube. I run my seatpost BB to top of saddle at 770mm. doesn’t leave a lot of space.

then saw some other brand similar, lighter, and more up to date geo for about £700 rather than £480, which pushes things up a bit…
maybe a nice hardtail will have to do…

Still no sign of a parcelforce customs invoice.

Got the vinyl decals cut to my own design by an Aliexpress decal seller for £3.50 delivered(!). They are inspired by the font of a popular bike brand, not sure if you can tell which one.

The colour match to the exposed steerer tube was a total accident.

Looking good thus far. Are you going for the full on weight weenies build ?
Thinking as manitou’s are usually pretty light.

Looks good, any idea on frame weight?

I’m going for a “whats in my garage” build so far… I am waiting on a BB, KS dropper and a carbon handlebar. I have a deore 1×11 group and some shimano brakes somewhere.

Manitous are lowly 100mm Markhor / M30 at 1.8kg, but I plan to add the ABS+ damper upgrade for £50 if they don’t feel too spindly, this should see them perform well.

Wheels are overkill DT 350 on stan’s arch… I am sorely tempted by some chinese carbon rims on novatec.

I do also have these beauties to go on:

Those cranks are actually quite nice. I had a pair of 24mm versions, though the 30mm ones there look like they’re moved away from the ‘wavy’ interface to a hexagonal?

mine creaked, and the self extracting bolt was very very soft. made me nervous every time I took the arm off to clean up the BB interface and stop the creak.

still, PF BB, so you’ll not know if it’s the cranks or the BB…;-)

but yeah, they look nice and are stiff enough.

These are 24mm, seems they changed the design. I bought a steel bolt to torque them up and remove them with….the alloy bolt will just be there in use.

I;m glueing in a BSA BB shell adapter when it arrives.

I do also have these beauties to go on:

what are they?

Ditto – I’m guessing they are Ali express specials hjt they actually look quite nice!

Fovno Phantom

I first saw them on this very website, featured three times no less! But got bored of waiting for a review so bought them.

Andi’s purposely alternative, accidentally purple Pole Taival build

Fresh Goods Friday 538 – Are You Jumpy or Grumpy?

Fresh Goods Friday 560 – The Padded Pyjamas Edition

I bought them for a total of £50 delivered with 104 spider and without the BB from here https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001819743148.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.5bf264e0ptu56l

But before you buy them have a read here, the bolts are soft and need careful consideration I have a steel bolt to use to mount and dismount them. https://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,2959.0.html

I bought a steel bolt to torque them up and remove them with….the alloy bolt will just be there in use.

that’s what I ended up doing. With a really big hex bit to remove the self extracting cover.

Some thoughts on the frame. I’ve had China direct carbon road bike frames in the past with great results, hence why I was confident to buy this one.

– It’s light, not much over a kilo for a large.
– It’s crazy cheap. £243?!

But is it strong…….? I don’t know yet. There is a guy on the chinertown forum who rides one in Vancouver and says it coped well down 7th Secret, so he has put it through the mill soemwhat. The seller claims its passed the EN tests. There is a video of it being put through its paces on a test rig here:

http://video01.alibaba.com/vod-icbu/7c569251818fbca4/rwmGfhDkuafxuGYiGQd/Y50kpUZpVAw5oAsTQch_295718423364_sd_hq.mp4?w=962&h=540&e=sd&t=2101e38516329920937882481e9e64

From: https://yaoflying.en.alibaba.com/product/62419780834-804391055/2020_29er_carbon_mountain_bike_frame_full_toray_T1000_carbon_hardtail_mtb_frame_with_135_9_142_12mm_hook_XC_carbon_mtb_frame.html?spm=a2700.shop_index.82.7.7ddf112d78JMhF

– Geometry is about the most modern for any china direct frame. Decent reach, but still head angle is a little steep.

Niggles so far mine is a yfm025 non-boost so the 026 boost has different dropout setup:

– Its nowhere near a proper bike company level of finish and detail. To be expected, so don’t expect it.
– The tolerances of where the dropouts clamp to the frame are poor. The dropouts are loose fit until you do up the tiny bolts to clamp the frame.
– The dropouts are square edged and obviously run off really cheaply with no bevelled edges. I’m not entirely confident the hanger will break off before the frame is damaged.
– I’d rather see metal inserts bonded in for dropouts but perhaps add cost and weight.
– The hole for the headset bearing is oversize, so the bearing is located purely on the taper in the carbon. I found this quite odd. The engineer in me things this is always the case anyway, the taper accounts for misalignment of upper and lower races (so frame mfrs can be a little lazy). However there is a gaping chasm around this one to fill with mud and water. So I might fill it with something.
– It has front mech cable routing….why?

I bought them for a total of £50 delivered with 104 spider and without the BB from here https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001819743148.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.5bf264e0ptu56l

If you’re interested in cheap Chinese cranksets I’m currently using a SWTXO GXP one. It uses a HT2 style fixing and after a few months of use seems perfectly fine.

https://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.html?orderId=8132862202897629

Just had one of these turn up – I’d echo wzzzz – looks clean inside. They chucked in a PF30 bb for 24mm axle which seems to have gone in OK, XT cranks are spinning cleanly. Likewise the included headset seems OK at first glance. Time will tell on both of course.

One niggle though – the seat tube has a massive internal lip which limits seatpost insertion – was hoping to get a 125mm Lev in there, but it comes out a bit too long. Bit annoying as it seems there’s more room down to the top bottle cage bolt. The lip seems to be by design, but I can’t really see what it achieves.

Yeah I see what you mean, on mine I just measured the lip to be 18cm into the seat tube, just below where the rear stays join. On mine its not massive though. I think it’s just where resin has oozed out at a join.

So max insertion 18cm for a 31.6. I have a KS 125/400mm dropper coming, but I only need maybe 15cm insertion so should be OK.

Maybe you could use a long 30.9-31.6 shim and run a 30.9 seatpost? Or if you are brave sand it back….? a long wooden dowel with slit in the end and sandpaper wrapped around it inserted into a drill would make a neat job.

I didn’t bother with the supplied BB yet. Suppose I could run it to death but I doubt it will last long.

Yes, I hadn’t looked too carefully but it does look like resin oozing from a joint. On mine it’s 16cm down FWIW – M frame.

I had thought similarly but maybe a 27.2 post…thing is I have a reasonable 31.6 that I was hoping to use, so I may go down the sanding route.

Either that or this is a stealth swap ad for a 100mm 31.6 Lev (which there should be room for) to swap for my 120mm.

The BB has some sort of cartridge bearing in there, so as the alignment seems good I’m hoping that if they turn out to be bad it could just be a case of replacing with some decent ones.

Forgot to mention that I did have to pay import duty, VAT and handling via Parcelforce – £80 total – declared value was much closer to the actual, but they do seem to have given it a 14% bike import duty rating rather than 4% frame, but it’s only £20-ish so maybe not worth the effort. Lost on that, but I think it’s the first time I’ve had to pay duty etc from China.

I took a picture. Looks like a mix of resin and CF, probably at a joint as you say.

It also looks as though the seattube has been reamed down to it as the lip looks like it’s been cut by the tool…question is do I go further?

View post on imgur.com

Ah mine is less of a ridge, mine is a large frame

View post on imgur.com

Small update on my bike.

On my second ride I lost the bottom cover (that gives access to the cables as they pass round the BB) somewhere on the South Downs. You need threadlock!

I contacted Airwolf via ebay. They messaged me on whatsapp. They checked the frame type and the colour, took payment via paypal and ordered a replacement. It arrived.

I’m posting this because of what I think it says about this (and other) Chinese suppliers. They are not cowboys. They care about their customers. They want to establish a reputation.

I’m posting this because of what I think it says about this (and other) Chinese suppliers. They are not cowboys. They care about their customers. They want to establish a reputation.

I think you’re right. on the chinertown forums there are a lot of folk putting various frames through their paces, with some failures and some issues, but very little hassle in terms of sorting things out (providing you know how long things take to come from china and don’t expect the world). If I think about some of the warranty hassles there can be from well known brands, it’s quite refreshing, in a way, if you don’t think about the possibility you may be ‘beta’ or ‘gamma’ testing a design…

@martinwilly @simon_g how did you get on routing cables? I’m trying to get an outer cable through the chainstay but I think there isn’t enough space for a full outer…. did you just use the stops and an inner cable through the frame?

I didn’t think there was either 😄 It’s a tight fit but I did manage to get the outer through the chainstay.

I’m seriously tempted to take a punt on one of these as a ‘winter project’. Someone mentioned the SpCycle SP-M05 somewhere up above – looking at the Geo chart it’s a bit slacker than the others:

It’s quoted as 68.5 HA – but if you look at the fork axle to crown (506mm) that equates to about a 100mm fork (RS Recon Gold RL 29″ 100mm travel = 508mm A2C according to https://www.sram.com/globalassets/document-hierarchy/service-manuals/rockshox/front-suspension/gen.0000000005952-2020-fs-oil-air-coil-token-specification-english-rev-a.pdf)

If you feed the numbers into https://bikegeo.muha.cc/ and change to a 130mm fork, you end up with:

Is this going to make it ride like a pig, or am I reading too much into it?

I couldn’t get the outer through either.

I used stops up at the top of the down-tube and on the chain-stay by the mech.

I ran the cable through a short length of outer as it passes under the BB. I fixed that short length of outer (poked into frame holes a couple of centimeters either side) with some double-sided tape.

Is this going to make it ride like a pig, or am I reading too much into it?

Yeah I looked at those and they are a fair chunk more expensive.

I wouldn’t be putting more than 120mm on one of these frames really.

But fit and feel is fairly personal, lifting the front will a) raise the bars b) shorten the reach c) slacken the seattube d) raise the BB

If it has plenty of reach b) is no problem, c) you can slide the seat forward on rails its only d) that will make the bike unmanageable.

They are also fairly XC frames, with short chainstays, so I think maybe turning them from XC whippet into trail monster is pretty unrealistic, but who know might be your perfect bike.

I didn’t think there was either 😄 It’s a tight fit but I did manage to get the outer through the chainstay.

I couldn’t get the outer through either.

I had another go, threaded through from the dropout end. Went through chainstay with a decent shove, under BB and up down tube. easy to fish the other end through hole with fork removed by poking finger through headtube. I slid some foam tube over the outer to hopefully stop rattles.

So now the under BB hatch is redundant on mine. The dropper cable makes its way above the BB and the brake hose goes under like the gear cable (not as tricky as the chainstay is wider on the left).

Still waiting on a handlebar and seat and then its done.