Lightcarbon LCE930 review

[Mikael1]

Hi guys,
I have been reading this forum and have been inspired by builds fron Sandnap and Denver among others. Now I just ordered and LCE930 with motorkit from LightCarbon. Will be posting pictures and notes as I build. The goal is a very functional build, not a luxorious or high end build. I will try to save money where possible without sacrificing quality. So it's a combination of new quality parts, old quality parts and some noname parts.

Wheels are existing 27.5" to begin with, but will probably build a 29" carbon set next year. If you guys have the frame in L and remember what length steerer tube you have (after cutting) that would help me source a good second hand fork.

Here's a brakedown of costs now with new money and total costs along with weight. The prices/components in orange are still pending.

Part	Product/comment	Cost incurred now	Cost total	Weight estimate kg
LCE930 Frame+collar+chainguide		641,87 €	641,87 €	2,942
motor+battery etc		909,09 €	909,09 €	2,3
(battery)		0,00 €	0,00 €	2,6
Frame + motorkit fees		483,01 €	483,01 €	0
Shock		73,81 €	73,81 €	0,45
Bushing m8x22.2	MUQZI 22.2x8mm bushing	4,89 €	4,89 €	0,03
Bushing tool	Risk bushing tool	7,69 €	7,69 €	0
Fork	Rockshox gold 35?	150,00 €	150,00 €	2,33
Shifter housing	(With shifter)	0,00 €	0,00 €	0,05
Shifter cable	(With shifter)	0,00 €	0,00 €	0,025
Brake housing	TRLREQ Brake housing	4,88 €	4,88 €	0,08
Brake olives	Generic china SRAM-type olives	7,15 €	7,15 €	0,005
Dropper housing	TRLREQ Shifter housing	4,51 €	4,51 €	0,05
Dropper cable	ZTTO polished Shifter cable	3,72 €	3,72 €	0,025
Brakes	Sram DB8	100,00 €	100,00 €	0,711
Shifter	GX 11s shifter	31,90 €	31,90 €	0,142
Dropper	E13 Vario 150-180 dropper	75,00 €	75,00 €	0,62
Dropper lever	ZTTO Bicycle Dropper trigger	0,00 €	16,00 €	0,05
Saddle	Ergon SMC	59,98 €	59,98 €	0,352
Stem	Nukeproof Horizon Stem	59,99 €	59,99 €	0,128
Stem spacers	ZTTO carbon stem spacers	7,56 €	7,56 €	0,01
Handlebar	Newest Next 760mm carbon riser bars	21,86 €	21,86 €	0,26
Derailleur	Sram X1 11s Derailleur	0,00 €	39,99 €	0,256
Cassette	Sunshine 11-42T 11s cassette	27,72 €	27,72 €	0,535
Chain	YBN S11s 11-speed Chain	17,00 €	17,00 €	0,26
Front tyre	Front tyre VITTORIA Martello TLR Graphene 2.0 27.5´´x2.8	0,00 €	53,12 €	1,12
Rear tyre	Rear tyre Vittoria E-Agarro TNT 4C Graphene 2.0 27.5´´ x 2.60	34,99 €	34,99 €	0,94
Rear tyre shipping		6,76 €	6,76 €	0
Rims	2x 27.5 xm481 DT Swiss Rims (including alloy nipples)	0,00 €	156,28 €	1,034
Spokes	DT Swiss Competition Race Spoke 2.0/1.6	0,00 €	83,59 €	0,35
Front hub	DT SWISS Hub front 350 Disc Center Lock 15x 110 mm Thru Axle BOOST 32 Hole	0,00 €	63,42 €	0,166
Rear hub	DT SWISS Rear Hub 350 Classic Center Lock 12x148 mm BOOST Thru Axle HG	0,00 €	123,33 €	0,259
Seatpost collar		0,00 €	0,00 €	0,02
Rotor	2x IIIPRO 180mm rotor, centerlock	26,12 €	26,12 €	0,4
Grips	Ergon	0,00 €	15,00 €	0,111
Total:		2 759,51 €	3 310,24 €	18,611
			Actual weight:	?

 

[un..inc]

Leave the RockShox Gold 35...
In my oppinion it is a too hevy piece of junk...
Look for a sale on a Lyrik...

 

[Mikael1]

Thanks for input. It's not super heavy. It's 2300g, roughly same as Yari. Will definitely buy a Lyrik if i see one for cheap (just missed one for 210€). But trying to cap the fork budget at around 200€ (second hand). I know 35's are sometimes available for 80€. I actual had a 35 silver. It was totally OK. It's not premium, but it works.

 

[Mikael1]

Alright, now I snatched up a Pike select MY22 for 259€. Also found a used 125mm dropper for 50€, which seems ok given the short insertion length of the seat tube.

Now just waiting for the parts to start rolling. Jim from light carbon said they would ship after 10.10, so hoping it would be soon.

 

[AvantGarde]

Mikael1​

the price for frame and motor just 1500EUR? i have another offer from Jim ...hmmm i need to recheck​

thanks for letting us know . I have this offer:
" LCE930,Frame set including frame+ seat clamp+ head set+ rear thru-axle, and two hangers for rear derailleur.
Color: UD matt, (painting customized is acceptable with extra cost.)
Motor M820 kits including motor M820 43V+ battery BT F014 43V 410wh+ display + cranks+ chainring 34T+ charger 2A+ speed sensor SD021.01
Price is USD$2147/set including shipping cost and all duties "
Good luck with your build
Cheers

 

[Mikael1]

Mikael1​

the price for frame and motor just 1500EUR? i have another offer from Jim ...hmmm i need to recheck​

thanks for letting us know . I have this offer:
" LCE930,Frame set including frame+ seat clamp+ head set+ rear thru-axle, and two hangers for rear derailleur.
Color: UD matt, (painting customized is acceptable with extra cost.)
Motor M820 kits including motor M820 43V+ battery BT F014 43V 410wh+ display + cranks+ chainring 34T+ charger 2A+ speed sensor SD021.01
Price is USD$2147/set including shipping cost and all duties "
Good luck with your build
Cheers

Hi, i think the price you were quoted is same as me . You might have missed one of the fee entries. I think I paid a bit over 2000 eur with the exchange rate a couple months back.

 

[AvantGarde]

Hi, i think the price you were quoted is same as me . You might have missed one of the fee entries. I think I paid a bit over 2000 eur with the exchange rate a couple months back.

Oh, i think i missed frame + motor kit fees, another 500€ (+/-) thanks for your kind reply.
Cheers

 

[Mikael1]

Just a small update on progress. Still waiting for the order, now they said they would ship it end of month. I also learned about small improvements. The display is changed to c245 and cranks are now 165mm. Both of which sound like nice changes.

 

[exomaa]

Hi how is your project going?

My Dengfu e10 was stolen in Helsinki by NarkkariNisti and after getting insurance money I am planning to build another Bafang e-mtb as I loved previous one.

What motor will you be using? Bafang m560?

 

[Mikael1]

Hi, I'm still waiting to get the frame and the motor, will update more on Monday about this. I bought all the other parts already. Well, actually I just ordered the lockring tool and waiting for that to also arrive.

NarkkariNisti™ are the worst. Hopefully you get a good payout atleast. The LCE930 frame only accepts m820, it has a smaller mount than m5** motors, so choice was easy .

 

[Mikael1]

Now I got confirmation that they did infact get the motor set and are shipping it this week. Hope that is the case

 

[Mikael1]

Alright, so again setbacks . Apparently they received the wrong product from Bafang, so really unsure when I will actually get the bike. I did learn that they seem to start shipping some new headset cover from now on.

 

[Mikael1]

Alright. If you have seen this thread before (previously called Upcoming LCE930 build), you might have wondered what happened. Let me tell you. I will break down the story about my experiences in to a series of around 4 posts. Posts about the buying experience, the production quality, aftercare and maybe later, the build. This post will start with the quality since I received the frame earlier this week and it was not what I expected. And to be clear, I did share my concerns with LightCarbon before coming to the forums. They simply did not share the same understanding.

Part 1: The production quality

General impressions

Externally the frame appears to be quite nice as you can see from the picture. The frame looks like in the promotional pictures and the finish is a matte black. Paint quality is mainly good. There is a very minor imperfection on the paint in one of the cable ports (more about it below) and there is a slight roughness in the inside curve where the top tube meets the down tube. Both of these are things I can live with.

The defects

When I inspected the frame in more detail, I started seeing more and more small defects. Alone any one of the defects could be something I could live with, but together they give the impression that absolutely no quality control has been performed. They also raise the question how many defects there hidden are inside of the frame, which I cannot detect without an x-ray or ultrasound. Let's go through the list. I'm linking to an album to keep the thread more readable without all the embedding all of the pictures. Here's the whole album if you want to browse it LCE930 Defects.

1. Motor Mount/"Bottom Bracket" Area

• Overview of the motor mount area, showing unevenness, and lack of qc. They didn't even clean the dirt off to see what is underneath. You can see that the carbon sidewalls are uneven, but thick.
• Drive & Non-Drive Motor Mount Holes: Voids present in carbon at both sides, potentially compromising bolt integrity. Also the metal inserts are not in the center of the supports, weakening the adhesion. (Files: Hole 1, Hole 2, Hole 3)
• Cable Routing Ports: Delamination and poor adhesion of carbon fibers on both sides of the frame (File: Driveside, non-drive side).
• Dirt Flap Rivets: Evidence of poor adhesion and misaligned carbon fibers, indicative of weak structural bonding (Picture from inside frame).
• Seattube Curve: Dent/unevenness in carbon near the curve, raising concerns about structural integrity (File: Motormount seattube curve).
• Sidewalls: Voids visible in both drive and non-drive sidewalls (File: Sidewall DS, Sidewall NDS).
• Bolt Condition: A motor bolt appears worn and used, which is unacceptable for a new frame. But still, one of the lesser issues all in all. (File: Motor bolt).

2. Chainstay

• Cable Routing Port: Rough carbon that has not been painted properly. This is a very minor issue. (File: Cable port).
• Drive Side Thru Axle Hole: Multiple voids potentially compromising the integrity of this high-stress area (Files: Chainstay thruaxle DS 1, Chainstay thruaxle DS 2).
• Non-Drive Side Thru Axle Hole: Additional voids in a critical load-bearing location (Files: Chainstay thruaxle NDS 1, Chainstay thruaxle NDS 2).

3. Headset Area

• Upper Headset Cup: Uneven carbon, indicating poor quality control and finishing. Some finishing might have been done indicated by the marks, but cups are still larger than need be (Files: Headset upper 1, Headset upper 2).
• Upper Headset Cup: Video of bearing knocking back and forth in the cup (Files: Headset upper, knocking video)
• Lower Headset Cup: Void near a high-stress area adjacent to the lower cup (File: Headset Lower from above).
• Lower Headset Cup: Some red paint marker, indicating maybe QC fail. Some machining probably done, but it has not fixed the fitment issues. (Files: Headset lower)
• Lower Headset Cup: Video of bearing knocking back and forth in the cup (File: Bearing knock video)

4. Headset assembly

• Headset bearing: There seems to be some play in the bearings. According to LC, this is by design of the enduro bearings. Again, im no bearing expert, but i dont think fresh bearings should have any play. Also I have not seen an Enduro logo on the headset bearings (File: Bearing play video, Bearing seals picture)
• Crown race: The crown race seems to not fit correctly and the bearing rocks back and forth on the race. I have not fitted it to a for, so maybe it fits better when mounted, but never had similar issues with other manufacturers. (File: Crown race bearing rock video)

5. Downtube

• Internal Carbon Dust: Significant carbon dust inside the frame suggests poor quality control and no cleaning during manufacturing. There is no way of inspecting the frame properly if you don't clean it. (File: Downtube dust)

Please, if you have bought a frame, do share if these are things you observed. Based on what I have read on this forum, no one has reported of similar issues here. I am also not a carbon expert, so do share if you think my reactions are exaggerated (I think not)

Light carbon earlier production quality
To gauge whether I received an exceptionally poor specimen, I looked up other frames from LightCarbon shared on youtube and in other places to see if similar problems have been surfacing every now and again, but seems like it has been more of an issue since end of last year and during this year.

Examples of bad quality

• Chinertown thread about a guy having swarf in a steerer tube Is the quality on my new Yishun/Lightcarbon LCR0X-V bad?
• Chiner town thread where Jim says to amp up QC New Light Carbon LCSF980 XC bike
• Here's a youtube video explaining what a guy called Santiago has entountered. So far he's on his third frame, the first two had defects like voids
• Chiner town post about bad quality Lightcarbon LCG071-D Build

Examples of good quality

• Anything on this forum, Sandnaps videos, Robs video.
• to be updated

Aftermath of reporting issues to LC
I shared my concerns with LightCarbon, but Jim promptly dismissed them even when I referred to what we had agreed during order. They have not admitted fault even after several emails. I will give them opportunity to rectify the situation, wait for comments and experiences from other people on the forum and then I will continue with the series of posts I have planned.

 

[kaaskopf]

i have had multiple issues with my lces004 from the start, its an older frame but cracks kept coming
i got a replacement chainstay in the end after much complaining which was almost double in weight.
after that headtube developped cracks and near the downtube

for me no more lc frames and no more dengfu, because they also have big qc issues and do not care enough to help you.

look at recent e82 pics. its even worse

 

[Mikael1]

i have had multiple issues with my lces004 from the start, its an older frame but cracks kept coming
i got a replacement chainstay in the end after much complaining which was almost double in weight.
after that headtube developped cracks and near the downtube

for me no more lc frames and no more dengfu, because they also have big qc issues and do not care enough to help you.

look at recent e82 pics. its even worse

Thank you for sharing. People don't seem to want to talk about these issues. But making this public is the only way we can make these companies accountable. Quality issues hurt their bottom line and they go out of business, or they up their game.