Chinese Bike Frames - Dengfu Any Good?

Lcrievrytim on 31/12/2020 - 15:46
Last edited 31/12/2020 - 16:26 by 1 other user

I bought a fairly cheap flat-bar road bike early this year and I now want to sell it and build a carbon fibre road bike. However, to significantly drop the cost, I was thinking of purchasing a Chinese frame from Dengfu. I will be also buying reputable parts for mainly everything else (Shimano groupset).

Does anyone have any experience with Chinese parts, specifically Dengfu? Additionally, how have you found the bike, and how much did the full build cost?

Any help regarding the topic and tips about building a bike would be greatly appreciated.

Have a bloody ripper of a New Year!!

• 

  ElevenoutofTen on 31/12/2020 - 18:01

  +2

  Hi there,

  I purchased from Dengfu back in 2015 and got the FM098 carbon road frame, communication was real good (back then anyway)
  All up I paid USD $583 ($458 for the frame/fork and USD $ 125 for the delivery)

  If I added up all parts for the complete build it would probably would be the same cost as an entry level carbon road bike (~2.5K AUD)
  The difference being I added 'nicer' parts that I wanted and learnt how to 'build' up a bike.

  I still ride the frame and have changed the parts on it multiple times now.

  Would I do it again? Probably not, I would just buy something I wanted as I probably spent more in the long run.

  Most frames are made in China anyway.

  Good luck!

• 

  Drakesy on 31/12/2020 - 18:20

  +2

  Bought one off Aliexpress back in the early days of 2014, not dengfu per sae and would buy one again without a doubt.

  The frame was near perfect, just make sure you get the threaded bottom bracket if offered, they've had issues with the press fit systems for years now.

  Honestly my ultegra 11 speed build with the chinese carbon wheels came to around $2300 all up and personally i'd happily do it again. Having done 6 years in a bicycle workshop also helped keep the labour costs to nil.

• 

  Porker on 01/01/2021 - 07:00

  +1

  I bought China carbon frame (mountain biking, however) and while doing so, told myself that all frames come from China so it's ok.

  When it arrived, I inspected it and was very pleased with the workmanship, however, it was as light as a feather and only had (what appeared to be) only a few layers of carbon as the frame.

  The frame was honestly less than half the weight of my other named carbon frame.

  I ended up not using it after reviewing how other China frames failed. E.g.. I've had named carbon frames crack and replaced under warranty. The China frames, at least with MTB, seem to just fail catastrophically rather than give an early sign.

• 

  FocusRider on 01/01/2021 - 07:22

  +2

  If I was you I'd look into winspace

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  Misty Echo on 03/01/2021 - 23:43

  Never heard of this brand but might be a star in carbon frames.

  From my years experience living and shopping in China, made in China product quality is generally equal to how much you pay for. Some Chinese products are craps and fake stuffs as they are just cheap. As this sort of products will always have market (population of poor always relatively more than the rich). I can’t quite understand why people buy cheap stuffs and later complain those are craps. Lol. In Yiwu (a city in China that supplies small commodities) you won’t believe how low the wholesale price is. In fact the factories have the ability to make moulds overnight if a new product was suddenly became very popular.

  However, I saw more and more Chinese products has great quality that won’t empty your wallet. In contrast it’s less common to see Italian made or Aussie made have cheap price in the same quality level. So conclusion is made in where is not quite important, even the word “China” is too generic. As China is huge, each province has its own strength in different production field. If you know that could be very helpful in shopping made in China products. So do some research about the product and company, and judge the price among same level products, you will figure it out.