After having spent a good bit of time last year riding FABike’s first generation carbon bike on a mix of road and trails, we came away pleased but wondering how flexible and adjustable the bike really was, being stuck with rim brakes. Well, Fabike heard our thoughts, and now with the updates of their second major iteration of the carbon frame – the C2 – has added compatibility with both flat or post mount disc brakes and their own in-house aero v-brakes (with completely removable posts.) But also new from them at Eurobike was the T1, a titanium version of their flexible & adjustable concept that is disc-brake only. Jump past the fold with us for the full details on both of the new bikes, plus new carbon and alloy tubeless ready, disc-brake wheelsets to complement the bikes…
The ti version of the Fabike comes in two variations – T1R and T1X – that share the same 3-2.5 titanium frame but get different forks. The R or road version gets a full carbon tapered road fork with 25mm max tire clearance. The X or cross version comes with a full carbon tapered cyclocross fork that will clear a 38mm tire.
The base ti frame uses a house brand external 1.125″-1.5″ headset, has a 31.6mm seatpost, and a 55x68mm press fit bottom bracket that comes with both standard and eccentric press-in cup sets for either geared or singlespeed setups.
Brakes are disc-only and use the flat mount standard, or post mounts with adapters. The frame gets fully internal cable routing with modular shift ports for both mechanical and electronic compatibility. With a coupler in the fully ti driveside seatstay, the T1 frames keep Fabike-standard belt drive compatibility, or can stick with using a standard chain. Frame-only weight for a size M is claimed at 1.7 Kg.
The Titanium Fabike framesets are available in 5 sizes & 5 accent colors for $2700/2600€. The color choice gets a matching 3D headtube badge, headset, seat clamp, and cable routing plug. They can be preordered direct from Fabike now, with availability expected to be in February 2016.
The Fabike C2 carries over a lot of features of the previous rim-brake only bike with an update to its unique Toray T800 carbon frame and fork. It gets an internal 1.125″-1.5″ tapered headset, a 31.6mm seatpost, and a Press Fit 30 BB. With removable hidden brake bosses at the back of the fork and under the bottom bracket, the C2 keeps the aero v-brake option, but adds flat mount disc brake tabs as well.
The frame keeps internal cable routing for mechanical and electronic drivetrains, as does the stealthy aluminum break in the driveside, sliding dropout that adds the belt drive option. Frameset (including the fork) weight is claimed at 1.6 Kg.
The Carbon Fabike frameset still can be built to suit into many different types of rides, and is available in 5 sizes & 5 accent colors for $2500/2400€. The color choice here gets a matching 3D headtube badge, sliding dropouts, headset, and seat clamp. The C2 carbon frames are available now with more pics and info on Fabike’s website.
Two new disc brake wheelsets were designed to offer light and durable options to complement the frames. Fabike wasn’t really satisfied with the reasonably affordable options, so worked with their asian suppliers to design and optimizes a pair of wheelsets that could serve the multi-surface duties of the fat-tired Fabikes.
Both aluminum and carbon rimmed versions share the same straight-pull, centerlock disc hubs with 24/28 two-crossed aero spokes, and offer wide internal widths (alloy: 19mm, carbon: 18.3mm) to support the wide tires that really take advantage of the Fabike frames.
The aluminum rims are a 23mm lower profile (23mm wide outside) to keep them light at 1440g. The carbon rims, built on the other hand to take more abuse, are a bit deeper at 30mm (26mm wide external) for a small aero benefit, and actually bump up to 1490g for the set. Both wheelsets get external nipples as well, which are available in Fabike’s standard matching ano colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and black. Pricing for the Aluminum version is $600/600€ and for the Carbon set $1500/1400€.
