Building my LTK023 Chinese Carbon 29er from LT Bikes

Part I: Dealing With LT Bikes

I had been looking for a Chinese carbon 29er frame for the past couple of years.  I knew I wanted to upgrade my bike recently, but with two kids, I don't have tons of money to throw around.  So, it seemed like the perfect time to buy. I was able to sell off my old bike and a lot of bike parts to raise the funds to pay for almost everything that I bought for the build.

The bike arrived well packaged

When I began seriously thinking about it, through research, I decided that the LTK023 frame was the one that I liked best.  Rather than go through Ebay or a website like Alibaba, I decided to order direct from LT Bikes.  It was and is my perception that the customer service will be better if you deal with the company directly and there really wasn't a difference in price.

I contacted Alisa Zhao at LT Bikes who is the main connection for ordering and questions.  I asked her several questions about my options, pricing etc etc.  I did not indicate that I was ready to buy.  Nevertheless, she was incredibly prompt with her answers and invited more questions with each email that was sent.

Alisa's time and attention to my order did not change at all, even after I received my order.  LT Bikes was great to deal with in this regard.

Part II: Bike shipping

As you can see in the picture, the bike was well packed for shipping.  Each piece the I ordered was well covered in Styrofoam and was secured within the box.  No damage was done to the box in shipping either.  The only hang up in the order was that there was a slight delay due to a painting error.  I still received my bike on my door step on the 30th day, which is pretty much what was the original max delivery range.

Part III:  The Bike

The build went well.  It was surprisingly easy to install the brake lines, as the internal routing is set up so that you can run the full housing all the way through (I assume this is so you can use hydraulic brakes).  I use mechanical brakes, but it was still great just to run the housing all the way through.  They put cable guides through each of the holes so that you can easily insert the housing through the other side, no sweat.  Everything else went together well.    The NECO headset that came with the bike went right in, no problems.  I've read that some folks had a problem inserting the bearings into the internal headset due to a buildup of epoxy or carbon.  I had no such issues.

Getting the build started

Others also had issues inserting the seat post clamp far enough down the seat post tube to get a good hold.  I didn't have that issue either.  I used carbon paste in that area to make sure everything was tight and everything attached very firmly.

Crank and rear wheel...check

The bike's finish was beautiful, though not perfect on close inspection.  You can see several of the seams etc.  I kinda like the look as it gives it a very industrial, no BS kind of look and feel, but it may bother you if you are expecting an extremely polished, high-end bike.

I did have two slight issues.  The first was with the fork that I ordered that matches the frame.  I had slight trouble understanding the expanding mechanism that goes into the carbon fork in the place of a star nut.  But once I figured it out after a couple of minutes, it was no sweat.

Almost there!

The other issue that is still ongoing is that I was unable to get the shifting in the rear perfect.  Several others have had this issue with the frame.  Some even drilled out their cable stops so that they could run full housing to the rear derailleur.  They felt that the internal plastic housing that runs internally from cable stop to cable stop was compressing and causing unsmooth shifting.  Before drilling into my carbon frame, I just took it to the local shop to have them make sure it isn't just a bent hanger or something.  I'm waiting to hear back on that issue.  If it really is the internal housing, I may have to take the drilling approach as well.  We'll see.

The bike is super light.  I have a couple of things to change out, like the rotors that will reduce the weight a bit.  When I first weighed the bike it was just over 21lbs, running a 1x9 system.  I'm hoping to get it in the 20 lb range after the rotor change.  I also switched the bb5 brakes out for bb7's, which makes a world of difference in performance and slight difference in weight.

The bike is absolutely beautiful and light and cost me about $1000 all in.  You can't beat that!

Part IV: The Ride

I can't really speak to the ride of the bike yet. I rode it briefly but decided to stop until the shifting was perfect because it was driving me crazy.  From what I felt, the ride was actually a little harsher than I expected.  I was really feeling the bumps.  This could be caused by tires that were inflated more than I was used to or the difference in the fork that I've been used to or due to the frame itself.  It's hard to tell.

I will give more feedback after more time in the saddle.

Part V: The Pics

Enjoy!