www.pandapodium.cc/brand/farsports/ - I'm proud to stock Farsports products on my own website, Panda Podium! 🐼 Thanks to Farsports and especially Mae Li for this unique opportunity to visit their factories.
I'l take for a given they are very stiff whilst having high compliance, offer excellent feel and also give great rider feedback as well... how many other vague platitudes can an industry develop? ;p
I have two sets of Farspprts wheels. Did the custom build on both. These are LITERALLY the best wheels I’ve had after 20+ years of racing. Absolutely flawless, super fast, and great ride quality. 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽Thanks for the awesome vid!
i actually wanna share an experience i had with farsports, i had some issue with the trueness of the rear wheel after a couple of weeks of getting my wheels (a feder series with sapim cx ray and dt240 coming in at just 1360 grams at 45mm ), i messaged farsports and they replied, despite not being in mainland china, they took care of me and asked me to take the wheels to a local bike shop for repair, i asked if they could take care of the bill and they did, so its actually quite nice of them to do that for me, the wheels have been spotless thus far
I have a pair of Farsports rims witg DT240 hubs, I'm very pleased with this video! This helped a lot to increase my level of trust on my wheels. well done!
Great video Joe, we need more of this. I'm happy to pay good money when I see quality and the labor that goes into making quality carbon products. Note the word 'quality'. I like to get home safe to my family.
Been buying wheels from them since 2015 or 2016. Great to see the factory tour, I was recently invited by my sales rep to come check out how they work.
You should take the chance.... although, you've literally already seen it now, haha. But still, Xiamen is a beautiful place. My / the Panda Podium office is also a few hundred meters from the Farsports office... so make sure you come say "hi" if you go!
The amount of QC and feedback is a great professional standard. Doing realtime feedback is another level. This makes me want to buy a pair just on principle of supporting good manufacturing processes. Nice job on the video.
Joe; Excellent episode - Your unique (down to earth) presentation style made this a very informative & enjoyable tour. Mae Li & the Farsports factory are impressive. Well Done👏
Glad you enjoyed it! It's hard to strike a balance. There's a balance between depth of info and accessibility, and also balance of it being an advert and it being entertaining. Hopefully I got close.
Amazing insight to how quality carbon rims are made. This is the most transparent process, that is so much better than the likes of Zipp marketing adverts that make out its their own dark Art. This has all the anti China bike industry snobbs crying into their soup 😂😂😂 Great work Joe👍👍👍👍👍
Really good video, Joe 👍 I've been building wheels for so many years with a lot of Farsports rims and I've had never any issues while building or riding these wheels. No delamination, no cracked rims, always round and good spoke-nipple lines. I can confirm that they make good quality products.
Indeed. And in the book, it also shows the signature of Etienne De Wilde, not Roger De Vlaminck. So I guess you guys misunderstood who she was talking about. Etienne De Wilde never won Paris-Roubaix, though he was (and still is) one of the most famous Belgian track riders ever! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne_De_Wilde
Oh crap. Massive apologies to both of those guys. I thought it was just a thing of Flandarians switching between Belgian and Dutch or something... I messed that up. Again; huge apologies to both Roger and Etienne... (Especially as they can both probably still drop me...)
I bought my first pair of carbon wheels from Farsport back in 2015. Super quality and amazing customer service. They helped me to solve a problem with some wheels three years after purchasing. Highly recommend!!
I bought 4 sets of gravel hookless rims from them. Been buying wheels from them since 2015 or 2016. Dope wheels btw. I've banged mine so many times on rocks in Bulgaria, still going strong.
I think they have some hookless models in their "DIY" range, and also some of their OEM customers request hookless models. But, yes, currently all their "Farsports" brand road wheels are hooked... safety first kids.
Yeah, the ladies doing the layup was very labour intensive, also very mentally taxing (although I'm sure it gets easier with repetition) Also loading up the molds looked tough.
@@ChinaCycling I weigh in a 65kg but will do around 3000m of vert each week so it's not just riding on the flat. My only worry is that by the time they wear out Far Sports won't be doing rim brake rims any more :)
I have MTB wheelset which done 30000kms mix of XC/gravel races and rides. The only thing I've had to do is regrease DT Swiss ratchet. Everything else considered are bulletproof. I am 80-90kg rider ( depending on the time of the season :D )
I support farsports. I have one of their wheels for over a year. Its currently on my heavy touring bike and it had taken the abuse no problem. I am 88kg not light at all.
I bought a set of far sports rim brake carbon wheels back in 2012. They aren't my highest mileage wheels, babied them at first and eventually learned they don't need to be babied. Still going strong today!
The "making the rim" portion I found most interesting. I'd like to see a wheelset in that 12k weave pattern!🔥It's crazy what you can do with carbon. The ideas are endless! Excellent coverage Joe! #RobbArmstrong
Good to see comments like these. I obviously get the red carpet rolled out when I show up with my camera, so seeing that genuine paying customers are getting great service is also reassuring!
I’m using farsports hubs and never had an issue…been using it for 3 years..but recently.,I decided to use a respectable brand.,I won’t name it though..lasted for only 6 months so I have to put it back again…
Excellent video. My junior daughter has a pair of carbon 50’s far-sports rim and got a flat 1km from finish of natz road champ and rode them to finish. Not one issue with them. Not even out of true.
Yup! Rocking them on my 3T. It's crazy how many different spacers they have to make and trying to keep it compatible with all the different routing options out there. The new F1X is a bit pricey, but I do like the look of the "lava carbon" finish.
Love Farsports. Got a set of wheels from them many years ago, and they've been great. Though, pretty sure I bought them in 2012! Are you sure that's Roger de Vlaeminck? The guy at @18:11 and @18:15 is definitely not Roger. I'm fairly sure it's Etienne de Wilde - you have a clip of a book with photos of him and his name :).
Love these factory videos, thanks for sharing!! Maybe a little too far on marketing with the 2 microns for the first CNC operation 😅😅 but otherwise great to see this👍👍
IMO farsports is on par with hyper wheels. I’ve got friends who uses them both rim brakes and discs, and they’re really solid. Please also review Avian factory. I think they’re one of the next big thing.
Boy this was an education ! So many people are only to ready to diss Chinese bicycle components and when I now see how thorough they are in producing them its an insult to all those that are involved in the process. I'm pretty sure those wheel builders would get jobs over here in the UK. When finances allow I will definitely looking at yours and Farsports for new wheels.
Been using farsports for rim break over 2 yrs. FYI. . My weight is around 185lbs. Still solid no issue. But riding mostly jn flat or rolling hill terrains. So not sure their rim brake surfaces would be okay for long term if you live in like Colorado or Cali areas where have long distance downhills
What happens to their products that don't pass QC? Are they sold on a secondary market as unbranded? Are they recycled? Thrown in the waste bin....etc?
8:20 rim mold is very controversial right now because of the hook less rims incident in races nowadays. im not saying the video itself is for hook less but is shared some same process with the hooked types.
@ChinaCycling agreed! As big manufacturers push expensive complicated tech on consumers, they will continue to have sales worries (BMC, SCOTT are you listening?) . The clever , hungry manufacturers (mostly in East Asia) will take the gap created and give the market what it wants.
As far as I know, Farsports is the OEM supplier of rims and f the Farsport branded models. Wheelsfar is the channel through which they sell custom wheel builds...
I mean, it would be nice to know for sure. I have wheels from Wheelsfar that have Farsports stickers on them, and I even recognised some wheels in the videos as wheels sold on Wheelsfar site. I just seek to a clarification. Thanks for the reply🙏
@@Saladh_Olivier Wheelsfar is simply Farsports custom choice website. They offer much more variation while Farsports is their namebrand stock setup. All from the same place.
Hi there, I wanted to buy the lightest farsports wheel set for road bike, farsports on aliexpress clam to have 810g clincher but one guy from farsports tells me that the lightest possible was 1050g someone knows?? Thanks
I was shadowing her for a while during the production of this video... an incredibly talented lady and also super busy. The amount of information she has to process from each side of the business is staggering. Hats off to her.
The amount of machine time, processes, handling, and claimed tolerance in hubs/free hub alone makes me wonder how in the hell they make any money. I know labor in China is cheap, but goddamn.
Which Chinese brands are and aren't fruit of IP theft? Does anyone think it's odd that some China brands have zero design facilities but just factories?
11:42 If I were the QC guy, I would wear the safety glasses, just in case... 😁 I also wonder why it's not required to wear a cap or hairnet during lay-up processes. 15:22 Working with that posture seems stressful to the neck. They should build a lacing jig to give these guys a more comfortable and efficient way to lace spokes. To Ms. Li: don't abandon rim brakes if you want happy customers!
That QC guy... as soon as I heard there was 155psi in that tire I got nervous... as soon as I saw he had no ear defenders I was instantly relaxed. He obviously does it day-in day-out without any issue For him putting 155 in that tire is like us putting 120psi in our tires back in the day. (I didn't wear any protection gear to blow up my tires back then either - hah.) But yeah; be safe kids.
Kinda reminds me of some gcn vid to be fair. Farsports is a great brand but the video is basically an ad. I do understand why but hey, I'm pretty sure some of the QC steps are just scanning bar codes to be sure that's the right wheel. No fancy measurements at every step.
I approve of your skepticism. I think everyone should be skeptical with what they consume on social media. Of course, Farsports would not give me access to their factory if it wasn't beneficial to them, and I'm sure they made sure everyone was on their best behaviour for the day, etc, etc. But like, at what point does the truth stop being an ad? As mentioned in the video, the rim QC aside from scanning a barcode also included mounting a tire and checking flatness, checking waterproofing, visual inspections, weighing to check for resin loss, etc, etc. But no... in general I approve of your skepticism, because so much of what we consume is all manipulated and out of context... but... there is still some truth out there.
@@ChinaCycling you're right. They showed you exactly what they wanted the audience to see. We can't blame you. And by experience, when being in front of the people who proudly show their work, you can't be "meh I'm not sure it's really what you do everyday". Being able to visit such factories is always an overwhelming experience if you are interested in the subject so I understand the very enthusiastic tone in the speech. Wouldn't have the same taste if it was just B roll with a voice over. Anyway, keep up the content, we love it !
@@ChinaCycling It's not skepticism, its cynicism. It's offputting and tacky. Keep making great content, you're THE source for us in the west. Introducing good brands in a deeper way is very valuable. Your integrity is well established.
Love to see the hubs Not anodized! Black is a joke in keeping clean plus as I spent the money for the rims I would like to see them. Black rims disappear just like on a car. Marketing sold the general public on black rims which sucks for the detail oriented owner who likes any color other than black! Like all black bike frames, is that $3000 bike or a $12,000 bike? Only the owner. Plus all black bike/rims shows a clear sign the owner has zero imagination. @farsports please make non anodized hub......! They look amazing not anodized!
@@ChinaCycling being a bike guy who has only 6 bikes with one I bought in Italy in 1994 that now has over 60k on it with Campy groupo(silver, aluminum hubs) still looks good(rain, snow rides). Up till 10-12 years ago black hub, brakes were not seen. Ok, yes cranks are black but all mine are clear carbon. As I have only been cycling since 1994 on road bikes plus I only ride 80-190km a week as my view is a little different. Just passing along my suggestions is all. Thanks T
1:23 You don't forge metal into a billet. A billet is an extruded lump of metal, cut to length. A forging is what you're holding, which is made of a billet, either cold or melt forged. & you don't use a lathe for "lathing", you use it to "turn" forgings into finish products. FFS! I'd have thought you'd have understood the basic engineering terms before launching into your supposedly authoritative diatribe. Solecisms like this just make me go and find something else to watch.
Own two sets by Farsports/Wheelsfar, one road and one gravel. Almost a 1000kms on each so far, happy as a peach. Great quality, great price. Went with their own in-house hubs which turned out to be lighter and less expensive than the big names.
Really find these videos helpful for getting to know the Chinese brands better! Had one question: I was fascinated by the part of the tour where they tested the rim brakes. I've heard a lot of good things about how carbon rim brake tracks have improved, but has there been progress on the temperature sensitivity of the resin? If Farsports is willing to say what the glass transition temperature is of the resin they use, I would be curious to know.
China really is taking over the market now. Why would you pay more? I got given a pair of FS back in 2019 and they are still going strong. Great video!
