This is my Yoeleo R12 that I finished building last night. It is a full carbon road bike with some relatively high end features. For those unfamiliar, Yoeleo is a direct-to-consumer Chinese carbon frame and wheel manufacturer. They have built a reputation for delivering a very high quality frame for the price, and based on my initial impressions while building and riding it, I would have to concur. It's also a UCI approved frame if you care about that sort of thing.
Price I paid:
- Frameset (including fork, seatpost, stem + headset hardware, handlebars): $1,306
- 50mm carbon wheelset (prebuilt): $999
- Groupset: Shimano 105 R7000 – Free (reused from my previous bike)
Likes (based on build process and a 27-mile shakedown ride):
- Tolerances are very good, made the build process relatively smooth, no workarounds needed, etc. Everything went together the way it is supposed to.
- It is light. Whole bike (minus pedals and bottle cage) came in at 16.9 lbs (7.7 kg)
- It is stiff and responsive (compared to my old bike – Polygon Strattos S5D). I didn't realize how much my old bike flexed when I was trying to put power down. This thing feels super snappy when accelerating and cornering.
- It's a bit smoother over worn asphalt compared to my old bike – this is likely because I went tubeless on this bike.
- Frame accommodates smaller riders: I'm 5'6" (167cm) with relatively long legs and a shorter torso. I was able to get a 47cm frame with 38cm handlebars. Also, the seatpost has a slide that allows quick adjustment of the saddle fore-to-aft without having to untighten the saddle rails. If you have a saddle with a pressure relief channel you can easily access the bolts from the top. If you are smaller than me, there is also a 43cm frame size.
- Wheels are great – they are light, came trued, included hubs seem good quality (we'll see long-term) and super easy to set up tubeless, no tape required. Valve stems not included though.
- Fully internally routed cabling looks super clean (and I guess has an aero benefit – idk I don't ride fast enough for it to really matter)
- I love the paint job. It's probably not for everyone, but it's really cool in the sunlight. And it looks better in person.
Meh:
- Frame geometry is a bit more racy than my old bike. It fits better because of the aforementioned features, but I could see it being a bit uncomfortable on longer rides.
- Bottom bracket is BB386 Evo. Not a lot of cheap options for this bottom bracket, especially if you use shimano. That said, it's quiet and the spin test was good.
- If you care about aero, there are probably better aero frames out there.
- The steering is more sensitive than my old bike. It took some time to get used to it, and I'd still call it a bit twitchy. This is probably a skill issue though.
Dislikes:
- Routing cables through the stem and handlebars is a fucking nightmare. Never again. If I bought the frame again, I would skip the handlebars and stem ($170 optional add-on) and use anything else that fit me. The carbon bars look cool, but they don't feel any better than alloy bars and I don't think they are lighter. You will probably have to get the headset though regardless. The spacers have channels that allow the cables to be routed up the headtube.
- Internally routed cables make noise inside the bars when going over rough road surfaces.
- The headset is difficult to preload properly and gets sticky when applying the rated torque. To get the steering smooth, I have to under-torque the top cap and then tighten the stem to keep it together. Then I can tighten down the top cap so it doesn't rattle loose.
Notes on the build process:
- This frame is only (relatively) cheap if you already have all the tools needed to put the bike together. This is my first full bike build and I like to DIY stuff like this, but there was significant cost getting tools that I didn't have (for example: cassette and centerlock brake tool, bottom bracket wrench and bearing press, hacksaw blades for carbon, brake bleed kit, etc. you get the picture). I imagine that a local bike shop could put it together for you, but I don't know how much that costs.
- You don't need to buy the expensive park tool if you're not going to do this all the time. Amazon has plenty of cheap tools that will work for occasional use.
- You will absolutely need a way to cut carbon. The steering tube is definitely too long, and I had to cut the seatpost down as well. If you do this, make sure you think about breathing protection. Carbon dust is very similar to asbestos in terms of health effects.
- Be sure to give cables extra slack in the headtube so they don't bind the steering tube at full rotation of the bars. Figured this out after tightening everything down and it's a pain the ass to fix after the fact.
- If this is your first time building a bike (or doing internal cable routing), route the cables first and give yourself lots of extra cabling/brake hose. This saved my ass when I realized I didn't put enough slack in the headtube.
Overall, I love my new bike. It came out exactly how I wanted and I can't wait to put some miles on it.
by CommunicateInStatic