i just orderd one of these!

Well guys/gals

Its nearly build time, the frame looks great (exactly the photos by box).
The build will be as follows:

Groupset Sram Rival
Wheels Mavic ksyrium equipes
Bars FSA wings
Tyres Vittoria Rubino Pro3 (great price)
Seatpost FSA carbon

Am just waiting on the rest to be delivered from CRC & Merlin

No problem,

I will do a full picturial & written road test as soon as its built.

I will also tell all about how easy it was to build.

When ive put a few miles on it i will know better, its 1st (official....) run out in public will be the Greater Haywards Heath bike ride on April 1st.

The story so far. You all know the frame turned up, well so has 99% of the stuff im fitting (waiting on HongKong seatpost).... So the scary, but exciting task af the "build" started round my mates saturday at 9am, we know we have a 2hr window. Usual coffee, chat then a nervous spanner appears. 1st is the head bearing, no special tools here just a trusty piece of wood and a home made puller and its done. Next up the BB, that flies on and so does the crank, rear and front mechs. Exciting innit? Next up the wheels need tubes and tyres on, no problems there then. The end of part 1.
Honestly we`re all very interested in this project and so far so good, every part, screwthread, bearing face has been no different to any other known frame ive built.

the site i got mine from is on the 1st thread. The guy is called Walton. Hes realy helpful, i had loads of questions for him. My frame is the one in the pictures by a box, and the build up is going great (so far)and am just waiting on a seatpost so i can finish up, put the bars on, indexing and all the other silly things that tale for ever. Anyone set-up and indexed the Rival stuff on a new frame?

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Its done,
So this is part 2 of 3.
A lot of this stuff was new to us MTBers and casual roadies. Internal cabling, double click shifters/brakes and so on. After the initial bottle of beer we got to it. As ive already said the build quality is good. Everything we`ve bolted or pressed fitted onto the frame has fitted with no dramers. The Sram Rival is good quality stuff, the Mavic Ksyrium equipes are a nice wheel set, frameset is light and looks good and thing like tyres,seatpost. saddles are a personal choice!
So we finished it at 9.45 last night. It took 4.5 hrs ish to build so that was`nt too bad. Part 3will vbe after a 40 mile breaking in ride saturday. Heres some pictures.

Here it is in all its glory at 6.30 this morning. The misses didnt want it in the lounge.............

I can see the bars are going to need some tweeking.

Oh and it weighs 17.4 lbs, without pedals. Im still waiting for a lighter seatpost and saddle, so should be able to shed a bit more weight after that too.

yep its a 54.

The total build cost is around the £1350 mark!

You can get some nice bikes for that sort of price, but im very happy so far with the way its turned out.

Probably plenty of faffing on the initial ride tomorrow

yeah,

Me and my riding bud will be taking a few essential bits and peices with us. We tryed to pre-stretch the cables but..........

Even the quick sprint up the road and back (100mm) told me the brakes are a whole lot better than the tiagra ones on my 1.5 Trek! It felt spritellier as well.

a quick spanner check this afternoon to make sure i forgot nothing.

well it made it!
we done a 50 mile shake down ride around west sussex this morning. heres the niggles.

chain slipping, 9 spd chain link, dont work on 10 spds!

front mech rubbing chain in big ring, after cables stretched it dissapeared.

steerer/stem creeking, needed tightening after a few miles, started creeking again probably needs some greasing.

seatpost slipping, have a 27.2 with shim instead of a 31.6. waiting for correct post, in post!!

apart from that few things and seeing it was only finished late thursday night it wasnt so bad.

the ride quality was great, steering quick and direct. it looks the b******s as well. compared to my Trek 1.5 work horse its a Ferrari. it felt so spritely, looking forward to puting loads of happy miles on it.

I will keep you all informed of any problems or mods as i go.

so,

1st sportive completed, with no dramas, creaking saddle only annoying thing to happen today. lovely sun too

beginning to like this roadie thing. so much cleaner than my normal xc riding!!!!

hoorah,
dear not all carbon is the same, you are right but, anyone who knows a thing about top end bikes will know its a fake!
im not claiming it to be a propper Pinarillo, if anyone stops me and asks i will tell them its a Chinpin.

i just thought some people would be interested in the fact "i" bought one! there seemed to be a lot of doom and gloom aroung buying these frames from china, fine, you dont have to read it, like you dont have to buy one. ive got 3 other bikes a giant, a kinesis which i built from a frame and a trek. the frame and paint quality of the Chinese frame are better than the kinesis
and as for road test and building problems, ive done all the hard work for you all. i just enjoy riding my bikes and its nice to build em too. the bike looks great, it rides good too! ive riden treks high end projects and to be fair its about the same ride quality if a bit heavier. 17.4lbs aint bad for under £1500.
happy riding.

no harm done,

ide looked at the geometry and rode a couple of bikes with simular character to the Pinchin, the rest was in the lap of the gods!

lets hope it all stays in one piece and as you said many more happy miles.

All i need now is a light, comfy and reasonably priced saddle!!