Are cheap chinese carbon frames worth the gamble?

Just don't tell Darth about the bits Malone did

After four years and more than twenty thousand miles of cycling, I have decided to retire my trusty Trek 1.7. It has served me well, and will continue to trundle me through Warwickshire when the weather is sufficiently crap. But for sunnier and grander occasions, I want a bike that rides like it's just stolen something (lawsuit pending from Lance's soundbite department ... hopefully he's too busy).

£40 Bicycle Workstand Review

Continuing in this months assault on decadence, I scrape a few pennies together and buy a brand new workstand off EBay. Purchased with a view to future bike builds, there's plenty of product testing to be done cleaning up my Flyxii and reassembling the Trek.



"Pop outside for a long stand me old mukka"

Steve Malone's take on Cheap Chinese Carbon builds



Insane in the membrane

In this article, Steve Malone explains how he went from a Stig lookalike to a "skinny" road rider. He also describes his experiences with his first ever Cheap Chinese Carbon Frame bike build.

Coming Soon. Is it a good idea to buy carbon directly from China?

Flyxii Frame. Flyxii Bars. Undamaged cardboard box. But will they work?

We've all heard about them, and some of us have been tempted by the promise of cheap carbon with no apparent shortcomings. But are the new crop of Chinese factory outlets selling carbon bike products worth the gamble?

I have almost completed my journey from placing orders with Flyxii to placing my bum on the finished bike. In fact, the only thing i'm waiting for right now is a seatpost ... from the UK!

When I've had time to ride the bike, I shall write a detailed article on just how good or bad the experience was.

Watch this space....

Fatal1ty Interview 2012

Whilst posing for his Press photo, Fatal1ty continued to frag n00bs with his spare hand

When the E-Sports scene was emerging from the primordial soup of freshly drawn 3D, I was head admin at ESReality.com and found myself covering perhaps the most exciting time in E-Sports.

 During this frenetic period there emerged a handful of players who transformed the FPS genre into an art-form. They gathered fans as their "demos" went viral through the online gaming community. As the fan-base grew, the handful of players found themselves presented with sponsorship deals.

 First there was the unbeaten, Ferrari winning legend that is Thresh. His impact on a largely HPB * scene was seismic. Never before had a gamer been spoken about in playgrounds, offices and pubs with such awe.

 And then, in 1999 came Fatal1ty. Effectively surfing in on the first E-Sports wave, Fatal1ty shafted his way through the Quake3 crowd with brutal efficiency. Totalling over $500,000 in prize money, he has reigned victorious in a staggering 5 different games. Holding titles in Doom 3, Alien vs. Predator 2, Unreal Tournament 2003, Quake III and Painkiller, he is unmatched.

Breaking Evens

Having spent the first Sportive of 2011 dragging myself up the daunting slopes on the Dragon Ride in Wales, I decided to iron out the bumps for my next big event. To this end I searched for route profiles that didn't look like a cardiogram of a twenty stone smoker running for the chippy before it closes. Eventually I found what I was looking for. Flat out in the Fens looks refreshingly uniform on the profile. In fact, short of riding on a frozen lake, this route is about as flat as you can get in the UK.

My First Winter

This morning I rode past a rabbit which was standing in the middle of a frost-laced A- road, staring blankly at the oncoming traffic. I didn't stop, I was far too cold and if I had stopped I would have felt like an idiot. The rabbit was probably suffering the effects of mixomatosis, but to all intents and purposes the little grey bag of fluffy bones looked frozen and suicidal. Standing there with a vacuum chill sucking the air out of its lungs, cars thundering past on both sides, staring fixedly along the white lines, the rabbit looked how part of me felt. This was my first experience of Winter on a bike, and it has left me uncomfortably numb.