Inspired by the Spacechicken Freeranger and how similar it seemed to my Open UPPER, I ordered the open mould frame direct from China to build up into a new commuter.

This is it:

7.8kg with GRX Di2, King Wheels and Hope Brakes for a smidge over £1500.

Good job 🙂 Very posh commuter

Have you got a link to the frame?

7.8kg with GRX Di2, King Wheels and Hope Brakes for a smidge over £1500.

LOL!! Makes a mockery of my new build, 10kg with GRX/105/Ultegra mix, posh rim brakes and Pacenti handbuilds for easily £2k (I lost track by the end, e.g. when I started buying custom headset caps and Ti bolts…).

Was that all purchased new? Frame can’t have cost much.

Nice bike!

The hubs and rear mech are second hand, everything else was new, but from either eBay or closeout sales. £1500 doesn’t include the transfer of bars, stem, saddle, seatpost, rotors, chainset and Battery from my current commuter, but even with that, I’m sub £2k.

I’m still waiting on Ti bolts for all the cages, clips etc. Not for weight (the current boots are aluminium) but my last bike had Alu bolts in a carbon frame and the bolts disintegrated, damaging the frame in the process.

I’ve also got to fit my rack and guards which will ugly it up a bit.

Nice!! Although it needs more frame bosses. 😀

See that is a clean build. Not overly colourful or flashy, just good kit bolted to a plain frame.
I like it a lot.

Carbonda 696?

Where did you pick up the GRX?

I’ve been looking for a GRX Di2 groupset for a good price but not found anything yet.

mrb123

Member
Carbonda 696?

Yup.

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notmyrealname

Subscriber
Where did you pick up the GRX?

It’s not a Groupset. I already had the D110 battery, cables, XT display and lower junction box and an XTR rear mech. I just bought the shifters.

I got Wiggle to price match Bike Inn @ £276 for the pair.

Looks like a lovely bike. How was the experience of buying direct from China? Did they paint it too?

My son is after something along those lines have you a link to the frame

. I just bought the shifters.

Was that shifters only or did they come with calipers?

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slackboy

Subscriber
Looks like a lovely bike. How was the experience of buying direct from China? Did they paint it too?

it was fine. The biggest trouble was getting it exported from China. Yes, they painted it to my specification. The paint is good, but easily chipped.

Was that shifters only or did they come with calipers?

I only wanted shifters as the failure rate on Shimano callipers is pretty high. I paired them with Hope RX4s

https://www.dolan-bikes.com/gravel/framesets/dolan-gxc-carbon-gravel-frameset.html

Dolan seem to be using the same frame, as do Planet X.

I think it’s an open source design based on an Open Up, but a little heavier as they use more of and poorer CF, but do assure me it’s all Toray. I chose Carbonda as they seemed to have a good rep.

I’ve had a boroscope through all the frame tubes and aside from a small piece of mandrill that I was able to remove, the insides are as good as the outsides.

I’m still waiting on Ti bolts for all the cages, clips etc. Not for weight (the current boots are aluminium) but my last bike had Alu bolts in a carbon frame and the bolts disintegrated, damaging the frame in the process.

I just wanted rainbow anodising, but since you put it like that I’d better get some more for the bottle cages…

I did a similar build over a year ago a with a fake exploro frameset but with shimano 785 which were 230ish and di xt rear.

If you haven’t got the spare parts the di2 cost does rack up quickly.

I really like the xt rear it’s great, I’ve been looking for those grx shifters at a sensible price but did pick up some more 785 with brakes for £130 on crc.

I reckon you’ll love it for a commuter, you could go for the velcroed crud roadracers an remove for summer.

http://www.carbonda.com/road/gravel/80.html

@Daffy how much cheaper than the Space Chicken was the frame from China?

Anyone got a link to the fake exploro frame please?

I paid £465 for the frame and fork including shipping, customs and paint. I chose not to have their axles, headset and other gubbins, so this made it cheaper. I didn’t buy it from China direct because it was cheaper than OO, I just didn’t like the colours and graphics of the OO and only really wanted a frame. The Freeranger just made me aware of what was out there.

Whilst it looks like my UP, it’s not as lively, but it also has rack and guard mounts which the UP doesn’t. First proper ride on Tuesday.

Daffy, what through axles are you using ?
(I have a dengfu that uses fairly nasty axles but I can’t really see an easily available alternative – guess it may just be dengfu using a weird thread pitch)

I’m using DT swiss Axles, but considered both the Robert Axle Project and Hardlite. CarbonTI stuff just seems ludicrously expensive and is only a 7g (per pair) lighter than DT. I only chose DT due to price vs. performance.

None of the pictures really do justice to the paint. It’s a deep, rich Yeti blue, that flops quite nicely in the right light – I’ve taken a few more:

That’s very pretty, did carboma do the paint job?

Very nice 🙂 … whats the tyre clearance like ?

DT78

Member
That’s very pretty, did carboma do the paint job?

They did. It’s nice but a bit fragile. We’ll see how it holds up. At least (since I specified the paint code) I can touch it up.

stumpy_m4

Member
Very nice 🙂 … whats the tyre clearance like ?

A 29*2.35 semi slick will fit at both ends, but you wouldn’t want to ride it like that. there’s about 1-2mm of clearance.

“Whilst it looks like my UP, it’s not as lively, but it also has rack and guard mounts which the UP doesn’t. First proper ride on Tuesday”

”

Hurry up, Daffy – want to know what it was like – especially compared to the UP

What’s the geometry like compared to a free ranger? I like the look of that.

Once you’ve ridden it could you comment how you find the RX4 callipers please?I’ve got Shimano brake callipers at the moment that have been going for a couple of years but I’m just waiting for the seals on the callipers to self destruct. I’m thinking I’d get the Hope ones to replace rather than giving Shimano anymore money for dodgy callipers.

Your new bike does look very nice!

Once you’ve ridden it could you comment how you find the RX4 callipers please?

Missed this earlier. I thought Hope used DoT fluid and Shimano systems use oil – ??

Missed this earlier. I thought Hope used DoT fluid and Shimano systems use oil – ??

Hope make a mineral oil RX4 for Shimano STis

Ah, thanks. Clever that, given Shimano’s seal “problem”

The RX4 looks like a good option to de-shimano my braking system when it dies – but keeping di2 sti’s.

Those silver ones on the carbonda looks really nice on there. A touch of mtb on a gravel / road bike!

Planet X Free Ranger has the same stack and reach as those on the Carbonda website,but the Dolan frame has slightly different figures.I mention this because there are a number of Open Upper copies and in general the Carbonda version seems to have the best reputation.

@joebristol – I’ve been using RX4s for about a year and a half on the Litespeed, the Tripster and the Niner.

As they’re 4 piston, setup is more fiddly, they also have less initial bite than Shimano but seem to have more overall power. If they’re wet, they do squeal for about a second or two, but settle down very quickly after that. Faultless over about 8000km so far. And that’s on 3 different sets. Ive used them predominantly with Hope Floating rotors, but also shimano XTR.

First impressions are good, the frame is tight and quiet, on identical tyres, it feels a little stiffer, but perhaps not in a good way over the UP, but that could be the wheels or pressures.

Its reach seems smaller than the UP, so I may need a longer stem and the stack is a little greater than the UP. The UP definitely feels racier, despite being only a little lighter (maybe 800g), but some of this will be down to wheels and position.

Also today was a crappy day for a first ride and I had about 15kg of gear on my back, so not ideal.

Once I have more miles on it, I’ll report back.

Thanks for the comments on the RX4 – definitely on the list when my Shimano brakes die now. As much because the Hopes look so nice – just have to ‘Hope’ the rear one fits ok as it looks a little chunkier than what’s on the bike now.

Below are a couple of pics of the Litespeed with black RX4s. I 9nly went with silver on this bike as they were £55 cheaper than black. I did consider custom bore caps but wanted them both to be subtle.