Kinesis Racelight 4S Disc Custom built

Well I've raced two TCRs and a TransAM on mine plus all the thousands of training between and it's still going. I'll probably snap it as soon as I finish replacing the worn driveline now...

Thanks both, that's reassuring. Shame no bolt thru but not a deal breaker

Despite seeing the post by @TurtleRecall, during my speccing up process, I bought a 4S disc frameset. My decision was influenced by the fact that upgrade/Kinesis dealt with the issue so well, that they are fairly close to where I live, and I kind of know some of the staff (due to having a mutual love of Stan's Bike Shack)
The build has been very successful, I'm very pleased with how it looks/rides and look forward to many happy rides on it.
Have only managed just short of 600 miles on it so far, due to not being a commuter, and spending a fair bit of time on my MTB, but the (very nearly) 100 miles that I did on Sunday were an absolute pleasure.

My experience of Kinesis when my frame cracked was that they were doing their best to help, whilst Probikekit were useless. The main thing to bear in mind is not to buy a Kinesis (or anything else) from PBK.

I had to go through a lot of back & forth both with merlincycles and kinesis staff to get the missing parts and also an answer about the 160 rear rotor (seems I was the first one to try it and dent the frame because of it). But after that I got a 140 rotor with adapter from Kinesis and missing small parts from Merlin and 👍. I loved my old Kinesis Convert2, it was an almost identical frameset (without discs and carbon fork), and that one got as well a lot of use and abuse without a single issue. So go on @jv you won't regret it (I hope) :)

I realised the last picture of my bike on this thread was just post-rebuild with it looking decidedly anti. Here's how it looks these days:

Looking good - do you have any pictures that show the cable routing from the bars to the frame?

Thanks it's definitely top of my list but won't be buying until after xmas. Also wondering if they're about to update the frameset to thru axle like the new adventure frame they have.

That's a badass build. Pretty bling if it's your commuter? Think I'd try one of those expandable blackburn frame bags the go inside the triangle.

Thanks @belugabob and @jv, it's my only geared road bike so it's my commuter, weekend bike, tourer (potentially - last tour I did was fully laden on my old ribble audax, which this is the successor to), so I'm happy with tarting it up a bit, plus the wheels are only Chinese carbon, not zipps or anything too fancy.

I might take a look at frame bags, but the saddle bag fits tool, tubes, work stuff and clothes in and is a bit lighter than my Carradice. Don't really notice the weight or wobble after the first half mile or so.

Bob, I'll take a pic of the cable routing in a bit! I've lowered the stem a touch, so there's a little more than there probably needs to be...

@belugabob here you go:

As I thought, the cable/hose that passes in front of the Kinesis logo, on the headtube, would route better if there were 2 cable ports on both sides of the frame, instead of 1 on the driveside and 2 on the non-driveside.
I did bring this up with Rory, from Upgrade, when I bumped into him at Stan's Bike Shack, so future owners may get neater routing (and less chance of cable rub)
At first, I thought that the current set up seemed to be designed for European riders (brakes reversed) but then realised that the front brake cable would then be on wrong side of the fork.
All a bit confusing, TBH.

Total dredge, but I got a GFTi secondhand a while ago and gave my warranty replacement 4s disc frame to my little brother. He built it up and has been riding around on it for the last few months until, quelle surprise, it cracked!

Guess where?

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Yeah, warranty job. It's a poor design.

The new version fixes it with TA rear, similar to the Tripster back end.

Think it's a 3 year warranty on this frame, so it'll be out of warranty now, unfortunately. Guess first port of call would be PBK to see what they say... Should be fun!

This was already warrantied, so should start again, plus it's a known defect that they should've fixed in the first place - it's why my warranty replacement was the Tripster and not the same (bad) frame.

Yeah it should restart although new warranty period may be different/shorter..

If something broke because it wasn't fit for purpose and they replaced it with the same thing where do you stand with getting a refund for the original not-fit-for-purpose item?

Depends

If you mean getting a refund AND a new frame, yes that would be nice but I wouldn't expect it.

No, I mean, either a full refund for the original purchase price or a replacement with a frame that doesn't have the fault (ie. the new 4SD with thru axle rear end)

Ahah got you.

I was just making the point that some companies that repair under warranty only give a shorter warranty period than the original, I've had this with a power meter. It was in the terms and conditions so I didn't manage to argue for the longer period.

Guess it depends on the nature of the fault. The original 4SD is clearly a crap design at the dropout. That's why I got Tripster as replacement and not another 4SD.