I've been looking at potentially getting a China carbon frame and am currently considering the Carbonda CFR696 and the TanTan GR029.
I've been riding Diamondback Haanjos since 2015. I first bought an aluminum one and then got the carbon version when it was released in 2017. They have similar geometry which I guess is towards the more slacked out side of gravel geometry with a 70 degree head angle (in size M). Nevertheless they have suited my needs quite well and I have bought 3 sets of Hed Ardennes+ 700c wheels that are setup with anywhere from 30-40mm tires. During cross season (now) I usually have a set of muds, filetreads, and 30mm 'road' tires mounted.
Realistically I don't have any desire to run a tire bigger than 40mm. I don't really like the assymetric chainstay thing that the Open introduced and the 696 copied to fit > 40mms.
The prob is that all the moderate gravel China frames have pretty classic cross specific geometry. All the Dengfu bikes have super low bottom bracket drops unfortunately. I want something around 70mm ideally.
I'm basically just looking for another Haanjo carbon frame as a sort of backup ideally. None of the carbon frames from China have this exact geometry though. But I don't mind going a bit steeper in head tube angle and shorter chainstay / wheelbase.
Also BSA or T47 is a definite req for me. The Haanjos have threaded BSA BBs and it's been a completely creak free easy to maintain setup. I'm actually going to try pressing some NSK bearings into the FSA BB threaded cups to reuse them after cross season.
I don't really want anything aero or integrated, either seatpost or cockpit.
The Carbonda CFR 1056 may do the job. Clearance for about 36mm tyres. So it wont completely replace a Haanjo, but could do the road and light gravel duty, and save some wheel swaps
Thanks I had actually had a look at the CFR 1056. The 32mm seemed like a deal breaker but if it can really fit 36mm tires that would be potentially workable. It just seems like the 696 is by far more popular so very little reviews out there on how the 1056 holds up. Do you know if there are any bike brands that are rebadging it?
The other thing I think that scared me off it was the integrated seatpost and internally routed cable headset. My extent of aero is just wearing a fitted jersey and bibs. I've just seen way too many people with endlessly slipping seatposts, and those were on $10k name brand bikes.
I've contacted Basic Bikes to see what their shipping cost would be to me for their rebadged GR029. Surprisingly inexpensive shipping to Canada - 70 EUR whereas all the Chinese manufacturers are insisting on ~$200 US for UPS air freight for some reason. So a Basic would come to $1500 CAD for me + any potential duty. A significant premium over direct which was like USD $399 frame + $180 shipping + $40 for widgets that Basic includes. So ~$850 CAD. A paint job as good as Basic would probably cost $125 so that would bring the potential cost to over $1000 CAD.
I quite like the Basic bike color and logos.. to be honest I'm not much of a designer and I've seen alot of pictures of God awful looking 696s with terrible custom paint combos. I think by and large most people should not be picking the color schemes and designs of their bike when the only person they have guiding them is 'Suzy' from Dengfu.
Maybe Basic does some sort of QC checks as well? It sounds like they're shipping it from Europe rather than from Asia, and by the delivery time they quoted me they must have a number of frames in their warehouse ready to go.
psi wrote:Thanks I had actually had a look at the CFR 1056. The 32mm seemed like a deal breaker but if it can really fit 36mm tires that would be potentially workable. It just seems like the 696 is by far more popular so very little reviews out there on how the 1056 holds up. Do you know if there are any bike brands that are rebadging it?
The 696 has been out a lot longer, so that is to be expected. The 1056 will even fit 40mm in the front. There is a lot of valuable info if you have the time to read all 32 pages of that forum I linked to.
Here are a couple of 1056 rebrands mentioned in that forum.
... to be honest I'm not much of a designer and I've seen alot of pictures of God awful looking 696s with terrible custom paint combos. I think by and large most people should not be picking the color schemes and designs of their bike when the only person they have guiding them is 'Suzy' from Dengfu.
