Weight Cheapie (Chinese crabon fun)

No, it really isn't. It's akin to putting some leccy tape over the silver piece of fruit on the back of your phone. You're still ordering a brand new frame from the other end of the earth, made in a country that throws up power stations like apartment blocks. A "big fu" would be to build your own frame.

I don't understand why I should spend the time and money to build something myself when there are more cost-effective alternatives enabled by globalization. All I know is it makes me smile in sportives when fat old me passes fit MAMILs on a Cervelo that cost twice as much as my open mold charbon bike. I don't think I would be on the same line on a DIY steel frame.