12-20-2019, 06:18 AM
I recently purchased a custom titanium tour bike from Hanglun. Working on the theory that they are a mucking enormous manufacturer who OEM for dozens of brands all around the world and have done so for roughly 30 years, I made the mistake of thinking that they were telling me the truth when they said they knew tour bikes.
I should have gotten the bike from Habanero but I currently live in China and, among other things, it seemed really silly to have my frame cross the Pacific twice on its way to me with the associated customs, duty, and shipping costs.
If I had it to do again, despite my living in China, I would order from Habanero.
I have a few minor dissatisfactions with the frame as the "perfect touring frame" it was supposed to be. However, these are generally things it took a month of loaded riding to notice, and, as I signed off on the frame blueprints before manufacture, I have no right to complain.
The fork... on the other hand.
They told me they had touring forks available. They didn't tell me that the 'touring forks' they had available would be manufactured to spec, that they would modify their own published spec in making my 'touring fork', or that they weren't going to give me any blueprints to sign off on for my unexpectedly custom 'touring fork'; and, well, it's not a touring fork.
It's a modified version of the fork for an audax bike from one of the European brands they OEM for (a bike which they insist on referring to in Chinese as a long distance touring bike even though the brand themselves do not call it that) with a cut steer tube (so that I have an almost 3 inch drop between saddle and handlebars) and single set of braze-ons that theoretically are "perfect" for "standard racks" (their words, not mine) but which can't mount either my Tubus rack or my Blackburn Manything cages.
The date that the bike arrived was too close to my departure date so the recent tour was done with both a steer tube extender and my drop bars flipped so that I could get enough height. I also decided to use my Manything cages with a **** ton of heavy-duty zipties and just not put anything heavy on the front of the bike.
Good news! They agreed that they'd fix my fork when I finished the tour.
Bad news! They're pissed off to realize that making an actual touring fork out of the dogsbody they gave me isn't happening but will require a completely new fork. However, they've still agreed to make good (for reasons that I'm sure are not at all connected to my bitching about them all across southern China to every high end bike shop I popped in at and important friends from the days when I still did translation for the Chinese Cycling Association).
But they want me to send them measurements. And I've got no fucking clue where anything goes other than "on the fork the way it's supposed to".
I should have gotten the bike from Habanero but I currently live in China and, among other things, it seemed really silly to have my frame cross the Pacific twice on its way to me with the associated customs, duty, and shipping costs.
If I had it to do again, despite my living in China, I would order from Habanero.
I have a few minor dissatisfactions with the frame as the "perfect touring frame" it was supposed to be. However, these are generally things it took a month of loaded riding to notice, and, as I signed off on the frame blueprints before manufacture, I have no right to complain.
The fork... on the other hand.
They told me they had touring forks available. They didn't tell me that the 'touring forks' they had available would be manufactured to spec, that they would modify their own published spec in making my 'touring fork', or that they weren't going to give me any blueprints to sign off on for my unexpectedly custom 'touring fork'; and, well, it's not a touring fork.
It's a modified version of the fork for an audax bike from one of the European brands they OEM for (a bike which they insist on referring to in Chinese as a long distance touring bike even though the brand themselves do not call it that) with a cut steer tube (so that I have an almost 3 inch drop between saddle and handlebars) and single set of braze-ons that theoretically are "perfect" for "standard racks" (their words, not mine) but which can't mount either my Tubus rack or my Blackburn Manything cages.
The date that the bike arrived was too close to my departure date so the recent tour was done with both a steer tube extender and my drop bars flipped so that I could get enough height. I also decided to use my Manything cages with a **** ton of heavy-duty zipties and just not put anything heavy on the front of the bike.
Good news! They agreed that they'd fix my fork when I finished the tour.
Bad news! They're pissed off to realize that making an actual touring fork out of the dogsbody they gave me isn't happening but will require a completely new fork. However, they've still agreed to make good (for reasons that I'm sure are not at all connected to my bitching about them all across southern China to every high end bike shop I popped in at and important friends from the days when I still did translation for the Chinese Cycling Association).
But they want me to send them measurements. And I've got no fucking clue where anything goes other than "on the fork the way it's supposed to".
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