Chinese Carbon Bikes - Paint

     So now you have your perfect bike size figured out and you've placed your order for a bike frame but you want it painted or finished in your own custom design. What do you do?

     All the Chinese carbon frame distributors offer custom finishing options which vary from copying real paint and decal schemes (to make a counterfeit bike), creating custom designs for the customer, using custom designs from the customer, and finishing options like matt or glossy. With the FM098 frame I ordered from DengFu through the Velobuild group buy #7 I have selected a custom two colour design that I will send to them.

     On the group buy ordering page there is a paragraph that explains that to submit a design you must select the colours from Pantone that you would like to use, create a .JPG, and Email it along to the company's representative, Lucky.

     My favourite car is the Ford GT40, and I have always loved the Gulf Oil livery colours of powder blue and orange. I decided that I would have my frame painted in a similar scheme.

     The livery also looks sweet on a Porsche.

     After some searching on the Internet I found a Baum Coretto with a paint design that I liked and after some more searching I actually found one in the Gulf livery colours!

     I applied the Coretto paint scheme to the FM098 by using pencil crayons and submitted my drawing, the above images of the Baum bicycle and an image of the Ford GT40 so they could see the inspiration. I had determined that the proper colours to use would be PMS 290 (for the powder blue) and PMS 165 (for the orange).

     After less than 24 hours Lucky responded with a mock up of my design on a photo of the FM098. She said that they do not have the two colours that I had requested and wanted to know if the alternatives they use were acceptable. Upon looking up PT2975C (blue) and YS7871 (orange) both colours looked alright to me.

     There were two small changes that I wanted made to the DengFu design so I used my weak GIMP skills to edit their image and sent the requested changes along to Lucky.

     The next evening I received a reply with my requested changes and I accepted the modified design by Email.

     The black portions on the frame are a clear coat over UD carbon weave. They will be filled with custom decals that I will have made up. I will be describing the decal ordering process in a future post because I need to have the physical dimensions of the spaces before I can begin designing that portion of the frame.

     Now I wait for the group buy on Velobuild to close and for delivery of my custom painted frame.

Chinese Carbon Bikes - Ordering

     Once your size has been locked in and you know what frame you want, you have to place the order. When I was looking for a frame I had narrowed the frames I liked down to:

     The MC055 from Miracle Bike which is similar to the Cervelo S5. The frame is actually quite ugly to me but I like that you can easily set it up as a road bike and a TT bike by switching out the cockpit and using the appropriate saddle mount.

     The AC031/MC031 from Ican and Miracle Bike which is similar to the Cervelo S2/3. I decided against this one because I couldn't find any first hand reviews from anybody who has purchased the frame.

     The AC053/MC053 from Ican and Miracle which is similar to the Scott Foil. The frame looks nice but there were some early issues with slipping seatposts (I think this has been corrected in the newer versions).

     The FR315 from Flyxii which is similar to the Giant Defy. I decided not to go with Flyxii because there are some claims that while their products are usable they appear to be seconds that did not make the cut at other suppliers. A frames drop outs may be off a bit off or the wheels may be unevenly weighted.

     The FM098 from DengFu which is similar to the Specialized Venge. The frame is very popular on Velobuild.

     In the end I decided to go with the FM098 because of the large support community of people who have ordered the frame already, the reputation of the seller (DengFu), and the price. When ordering there are a couple of different ways you can go about it. The frames are available through Alibaba and EBay (search for carbon bicycle frame, set the region to China and prepare to be overwhelmed), directly from the manufacturer by contacting them through Email, or (I used this method) an organised group buy on a website like Velobuild.

     I decided to go with the group buy option from Velobuild primarily because of the cost savings. When ordered directly from the distributor the FM098 sells for as much as $600 but through the group buy it is priced at $450. The group saves the money by meeting a MOQ (minimum order quantity) for a bulk buy. Velobuild features a 'mall' where you can place your frame order (they also sell wheels and other accessories) and then submit your payment by Paypal. Once the MOQ for the group buy is reached the group closes and the orders are then processed by the distributor. In this case my frame will be sent from SchenZhen, China by DengFu.

     When ordering you have to select the frame size you want, the bottom bracket type (BB30 or BSA), Di2 or no Di2 compatibility, and the type of carbon weave preferred (3K, 12K or UD). You can also add some other items to your cart which are also slightly discounted. I included a tapered headset, some extra derailleur hangers, an extra seatpost collar, 2 colour custom paint, some carbon handlebars and two carbon bottle cages.The carbon bottle cages and handlebars alone were less than a quarter of what a similar product would cost for me here in Toronto.

     With my option for 2 colour custom paint I had to submit a design to the representative from DengFu and I will cover the process of my design in an upcoming post.