Chinese Carbon Bike Build (CCBB or C2B2)

[GB]

The background: I spent ~3 months researching/drooling over carbon frames on eBay, diving into other forums for reviews, and trying to find manufacturer’s websites. After more or less settling on the AC129 frame from ICAN (seems to previously done business as miracle) I reached out to them for pricing. It was $420 for frame and fork – I almost bought 2. Throw in everything else carbon and final price with 4 water bottle cages, 1 paint color ($50) and shipping ($80) was $740.

I worked with Linda at ICAN and she was very helpful. It would have been nice if they published every dimension (I’m learning that there are several variable dimension that have to match in order to put a bike together, the following come to mind, seat tube diameter for the front derailleur clamp, the rear hub size needed, and the disc size). Linda was always able to answer my questions, generally in 24 hrs.

After finally convincing my SO that what we really needed was another bike I sent payment via PayPal (Linda kept prompting me during our ~1 month long email exchange that I should pay them). After I paid, it took ~3 weeks to paint and ship the bike.

Note: ICAN offers a full build with Ultegra and BB7s for ~$1,800. If I didn’t actively want to build the bike this seems like a good option, although I’m sceptical of any wheels Hozn didn’t build.

Topic

[mstone]

@GB 121872 wrote:

I’ve got 105 clips on my road bike and SPD clips on my MTB. The shoes I have for both are nearing the end of their lives (I mean are in great condition if I sell them). Is there a recommendation for a do it all clip system? Or is there a road system and a MTB system for a reason and I should stick with that?

I just use SPDs. If you have a stiff enough sole, I’ve not seen a reason why you need a bigger contact area. I like being able to wear any of my shoes with any of my bikes.

[hozn]

I commute in SPDs, so definitely spend more time in them. My issue is that I can feel the pressure from the cleats through the sole, since the cleats don’t bolt into the stiff carbon soles, but rather into the metal backing plate which is just separated by a thin piece covering and the insole from my shoe. This might well vary by brand, but definitely when I come back from a morning ride and swap my Specialized road shoes for my [actually slightly stiffer–more carbon] Specialized commuter shoes, that pressure point in the middle of the foot bugs me for a few minutes. So for on the bike, I definitely find the road shoes more comfortable, but for ability to walk from my parking garage to the showers, etc. I’d much rather have spd mtb or touring shoes.

[mstone]

Try a different brand of shoe

[Author]

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