Building a CS-036 for/with my brother

[carbonazza]

My brother inherited from my old Cannondale Rush a year ago, and wanted a 29er as an upgrade.
He tried my 062 and found it to harsh to ride. And he didn't want a plus either.

So I looked for a 29er full suspension and didn't find much than the good old 036.

This was our first full suspension build.
The build was comparable to my 3 past hardtails, although with a few surprises to deal with...

But first here are some pictures.

As usual... Any color as long as it is black.




The huge Eagle cassette. Look at that bottom jockey wheel !
We removed the front derailleur gear, and replaced it with two 5mm plastic screws.




The rear shock which gave us way more work than planned( and is still not finished )



I left 25mm of steerer tube, just in case. And will cut it in a few rides.



As he wanted a nice bike, here are the components:

• Frame, seatpost, bar, 2 spare derailleur hangers and a Neco headset from Peter( thank you for the great service as usual )
   
• The wheels as well from Peter, these are the 30mm rims without holes and DT240 hubs( unfortunately my brother got hit by the 48.5% anti dumping tax on built wheels... )
   
• Procraft alloy stem
   
• The SRAM Eagle groupset: a mix of X01 and XX1 components, very easy to tune
   
• XT brakes+KCNC Razors, my brother found the 90€ for 90g upgrade to XTR useless( to put in perspective this is 1000€/Kg! so ok)
   
• A seat from Aliexpress, full carbon with a thin gel pad, and leather finish, I love this $50 saddle
   
• Rockshox Sid XX fork and Monarch XX rear shock
   
• Rocket Ron snakeskin front and rear, tubeless
   
• A DT swiss rear axle
   

The few misses and surprises were:

• We planned an XLoc full sprint, but didn't know we needed the connectamajig thing(ordered it, but not sure how this thing even works)
   
• I never paid attention to the posts here about the 036, and brutally discovered some bushing were needed for the rear shock
  Not sure it is the same on all 036 frames but it was the 21.8mm x 8mm, and you need two of them(one for each axle)
   
• It was not possible to pass the hose of the rear shock through the hole next to the shock.
  We just pulled back the white hose guide a little inside the frame.
  Then used a round file to make the hole bigger.
  Push back the white hose.
  Connect the hoses and pull it through the frame( + bleeding the xloc )
   
• I forgot the 160/180mm adapter for the front brake
   
• The aliexpress carbon seatclamp I use on my bikes was to wide at 15mm, the 036 need a 10mm clamp
   
• The hoses are not fully internal, and some zippers or clips are needed to attach the rear shift and brake hoses to the chainstays
   
• The Rocket Ron 2.1, although TLEasy were particularly hard to inflate.
  So I used the trick of inflating a tube inside the wheels and leave them for the night.
  Then remove the tube. Put some air, to get effortlessly that gratifying double pop. Try it if you have a recalcitrant tire.
   

He did a first real ride today in our local forest and as you may imagine coming from a 26" 2010 Rush, he was ecstatic.
He was particularly impressed by the lightness of the bike and the silence of the ride( DT240 freewheel is dead silent compared to my musical Hope's hub ).
And how smooth was the ride on some of our Belgian cobbled roads.

The weight? Well, I couldn't find my scale yesterday after the build... But for a full sus, it feels very light

[Carbon_Dude]

Very nice build, I am somewhat missing my -036 for the simplicity although my new FS bike is really nice.

As for your surprises:

1)  Since Xloc is hydraulic, the line must be a little bigger.  I had no problem routing the cable Fox shock, same size as a shifter cable.  However, I think the XLoc system has much lower effort to engage the lockout.

2)  One end of the Fox shock bushings fit my frame fine, I just needed to order the other end, the one that came with the shock at that end was too big.

3)  For the rear derailleur cable, I did a little bit of drilling to open up the exit hole and run a full housing from the lever to the XX1 derailleur on my bike.

Overall it looks like you guys did a very nice job.  Are the pivots all in good shape, along with the correct length bolts?

[Jar_head]

Nice Bike guys!! Well done! 

1. What's up with that stem? 17 ° rise? Looks odd to me.. Better use a couple of spacers and a flat angle. Or turn it around and put the spacers underneath. Should feel better on climbs anyway.

2. I would have chosen the XTR uprade on that brakes, since 1€/saved gram is a very good deal!!

3. Made the same experience with the SnakeSkin tires. Very difficult to seal. Had to replace them after a while, cause they leaked on the tread (!).

[carbonazza]

Are the pivots all in good shape, along with the correct length bolts?

With the excitation of building it, we skipped that very important check. Thanks for the reminder!
I started looking around where I can buy these sex-bolts, and put some good ones directly. But we do not have a McMaster here.

17 ° rise? Looks odd to me..

For me too, but I gave up.
But your comment gives me some courage to talk again with him about it

[carbonazza]

We ran into a strange shifting trouble with the Eagle drivetrain.
It was not possible to get a clean move to the smaller sprocket, or even use the smaller sprocket.

Trying to fiddle with the tension cable didn't help.
Both problems were together, not going up properly, nor going down.

The hanger was a bit off, and straightened, but to no results.

In the end it was the chain that was too short, although we followed SRAM's documentation.
A chain too short, will make the cable pulley tip(purple arrow) touching the the cage(green arrow), preventing the derailleur to go further out.


Here is a picture of the current chain(silver) compared to a new one(black).
6 links removed to have the right length.


So if one day you can't reach the smaller sprocket, have a look there

[ebeaupre]

Nice build.  The bike looks awesome!

[tripleDot]

I had a similar problem with my XC after doing an Audax ride. While I was still able to shift to the smallest sprocket, there was a loud rubbing noise from the 13-11T. It took me quite a while to realize the problem was the shortened chain. I broke my chain during Audax and had to cut 4-6 links when reconnecting the chain.

[Midwest-MTBer]

Carbonazza, I know this thread is pretty old, but I’m considering upgrading my 036 to a GX Eagle groupset this winter. Has your brother had any weird issues with the drivetrain? Or has it been performing well? I’m concerned about crankset selection, but since I have a GXP BB right now it would seem obvious to select the GXP crankset. Thanks!

[carbonazza]

No problems to report.
He looks to be happy with his X01 groupset so far.

Just one issue, the chain was cut too short initially.
As a result the derailleur made contact with the frame in an unlucky position.
Preventing it to move the chain out enough on the smallest cog.

[Midwest-MTBer]

I’ll be sure to watch for that when I get around to my upgrade. I might consult with the LBS to see what they recommend for chain length so I’m not having to go out and purchase a new chain.