One crazy guy just bought a Claud Butler

[Dr Imran T]

Following on from one of the earlier thread about the ebay 'special' carbon frame, I quite fancied one as a cheap gap filler kind of thing.

So whilst cruising ebay at 3:00am I suddenly felt the urge to buy a Claud Butler.

Feeling ever frustrated with my track/race car project which is going nowhere, I needed something to build to fill the void.

Enter this:

http://www.southwatercycles.com/m1b344s6p46028/CLA...

I bought the Frame and Fork inc. headset combination.

So I did a bit of research and it seems that Claud Butler get all there frames from China or the like and then just slap on some Claud Butler stickers.

The frame is as generic carbon frame and I am sure it is similar to many other own brand entry Carbon frames, I think someone said it as the same as the Ribble one.

There was a interesting thread one one of the toer cycling forums which had some very interesting facts about generic carbon frames..

Read the review here:

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/...

Seems like the frame is decent enough - I have quite a few spare parts lying around which I am going to put on the bike and hopefully have a decent bike for a little outlay. More importantly should have some fun getting all the extra bits that I need too.

Oh, I paid £250 for the frame/fork/headset delivered. Worth a shot and if it turns out to be a bad move, I stand to lose the equivalent of good meal out

Edited by Dr Imran T on Monday 24th December 21:44

[anonymous-user]

Generic carbon frames are pretty good. There are loads on ebay and enough builds on various websites to justify taking the plunge. At first it was a bit of a gamble but now they are far more common, credit crunch? savvy buyers?...

The same moulds are used for dozens of bikes all with different badges. What no one reall knows however, is whether they are the same underneath. That means the quality of the carbon, resin, wrap process, baking etc etc. It may look the same underneath and it could well be the same bike as all the others with expensive names but the truth is no one can really be sure.

I'd throw away the headset and get something better though, it does make a difference.

[Dr Imran T]

Indeed wise words there pablo - good advice about the headset I think I will get another one then.

These generic carbon frames seem to have held up pretty well. Bar the odd exception here or there, the general consensus is that they worth a punt.

cheers

[Eddh]

Linky to generic carbon frames?

[anonymous-user]

all over ebay, carbonzone have a good rep but most get theirs direct from a company called Deng Fu bikes

You can match the geometry up with some posh brands and it all carries over but as I said, you dont know whats underneath is identical (though I am guessing it is).

When you start investigating the whole thing the production numbers in China is incredible.
http://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/CN/bicycle-fr...

[Dr Imran T]

^^beat me to it - was going to say much the same

[voicey]

I am waiting on a pair of tapered forks from carbonzone. I obtained the technical drawings from both carbonzone and houngfu - they were identical except carbonzone was cheaper and had the protection of buying through eBay.