Figmo?

This was one of my experiments a few years back. I had ridden aluminum road bikes and such, but never a full blown carbon fiber one. I was really getting the itch to try carbon fiber and kept staring at these cheap full frame sets on eBay. They varied quite a bit in price and you could see all sorts of different ones with names you've never heard of.

After a bunch of browsing, I saw some blank frame sets, with headset, seat collar, fork, etc., for about $450. That's cheap, but for slightly more, around $625, I could get something with a name on it, a warranty, background on the factory, etc. I decided to roll the dice and order one up. Heh, I wasn't expecting much, but at this price it was kind of an experiment and I could treat the bike as disposable. I have to admit, it's not the most ethical thing to do by bringing in a bike like this to a high end shop, but thankfully the guys are pretty good dudes. Anyways, the bike is definitely not that great in quality, but how bad could it be? Well closer inspection showed that the rear drop out wasn't perfectly straight and over time one of the rivets holding the cable stop popped off. A quick rivet gun fix later and I was back in action.

So how did it ride? Not that bad to be honest. It isn't very stiff, and the geometry isn't the greatest, but it worked and gave me miles of enjoyment. This didn't help when combined with those Easton SLX wheels, since they aren't exactly stiff hoops, but if I didn't really hammer on the bike, those subtle differences could easily be missed.

Like anything else, my experiment eventually faded and I moved on to better wheels and a better carbon fiber frame set. I retired the Figmo and eventually gave it to a good friend in Utah who was itching to try out the road riding thing. He has it to this day, but I don't think it gets too many miles. That's okay, and it was fun to try. I've been known to do stuff like this from time to time.