IP-256SL Build: Three times the fun.

[Vipassana]

We also ordered 4 more IP-BC5 bottle cages from Peter as were weren't convinced that the IP-BC6's would be robust enough for mountain biking.  They work great on my roan bike though.  Peter only had the IP-BC5 in 3K matte in stock.  So we took those.  They look great.



Trusty RaRa SS's arrived too.  I compared a million different tires in a million sizes and shapes.  I finally just gave up and went with the tire it seems everyone is riding and raving about.  They are entirely too expensive though for the Snakeskin version.  I was not pleased with the pricing.   I did really like the speed of the ones I demo rode.  But those were the non-snakeskin version. 




Now for some weights:

3K matte weighs the same at the UD black. - 27g


Schwable is lying about hese weights.  A lot.     I feel cheated for the price of these things. - 646g and 650g


Claimed weight of 605g... yeah...


Shimano 160mm to 180mm post mount adaptor w/ hardware - 37g


Shimano RT86 160mm rotor w/o hardware - 112g (127g w/ hardware)


Shimano XT M785 Caliper and Lever Set (w/ uncut hose and fluid) - 307g

[Carbon_Dude]

Very nice Vipassana!  Thanks for posting all those great pictures.  I like the Gulf Livery paint colors.

I've never seen Shimano brakes in anything other than Shimano packaging, like CRC buys in bulk and packages the brake components themselves.  Either way, you will like the XT brakes, they are solid and reliable.  Remember, on the lever you can push the pin to open the bar clamp all the way, saves you from sliding the lever onto the handlebar.

When I built my IP-057, I also went with the Racing Ralph, not the Snakeskin version.  I felt I spent too much money for a tire that wouldn't seal easily tubeless with Stans, yes they were light but the sidewalls were too thin and were easily punctured.  When they did hold air they rolled well.  I had to put extra Stans sealant in so that negated the weight savings.  The tread also wore out quicker than any other tire I'd used.  Never going to waste my money on RR's again.

[Oolak]

Oh man, those frames look awesome. Love the stripe apint schemes - especially the light blue.

As for the brakes, I ordered some from CRC before and they were packaged exactly as yours were. Pretty common for them to send the wrong type of Shimano olives so you might want to make sure they got that right in all six sets.

[Vipassana]

Very nice Vipassana!  Thanks for posting all those great pictures.  I like the Gulf Livery paint colors.

I've never seen Shimano brakes in anything other than Shimano packaging, like CRC buys in bulk and packages the brake components themselves.  Either way, you will like the XT brakes, they are solid and reliable.  Remember, on the lever you can push the pin to open the bar clamp all the way, saves you from sliding the lever onto the handlebar.

When I built my IP-057, I also went with the Racing Ralph, not the Snakeskin version.  I felt I spent too much money for a tire that wouldn't seal easily tubeless with Stans, yes they were light but the sidewalls were too thin and were easily punctured.  When they did hold air they rolled well.  I had to put extra Stans sealant in so that negated the weight savings.  The tread also wore out quicker than any other tire I'd used.  Never going to waste my money on RR's again.

Thank you for the compliment and thanks for the tip on the XT levers.  I was actually surprised to see the parts in their third party packaging as well.  Not a big deal at all.  Especially for the price CRC sells them for. 

We'll see how the RaRa's run.  I really liked the set I demo'd, but that was only a quick 16 mile test.  I was hoping my buddies would choose some other brands/designs so we could compare them, but they both reported to me this morning that they ordered RaRa's.    I really wanted to see the Icons among others.  Since we all have the same wheelset and drivetrains swapping wheels to test the tires would have been easy and fun.  Maybe next time.  I tend to get a lot of life out of tires, but maybe next season we can branch out.

Oh man, those frames look awesome. Love the stripe apint schemes - especially the light blue.

As for the brakes, I ordered some from CRC before and they were packaged exactly as yours were. Pretty common for them to send the wrong type of Shimano olives so you might want to make sure they got that right in all six sets.

Thank you!  I actually REALLY like the blue and wouldn't mind if the whole bike was that color.  But the orange pops.  I found a guy on eBay who makes custom fork decals to mimic the OEM decals for RockShox and Fox, but in whatever color you want.  He's local to me so I might roll over and see if he can match the blue and make me some SID decals.

I actually ordered 3 pairs (6 pieces) of the OEM Shimano inserts and olives.  Cost me like $20.  Only to find out each brake set came with a spare!  Oh well, I'll let them in the classified here if I have any extras left.

[Vipassana]

A couple more items arrived today: Crank Brothers Candy 3 pedals and carbon stem spacers.



I have a set of Eggbeater 3's on my road bike and they are decently light (~278g).  I was going to get another set for the new MTB, but went with the Candy 3's instead at ~317g.  The difference between the two is that the Candy's have a small cage on them.  I figured it was nice to have a pair of each style (platform and non-platform).  I can swap them as I see fit. 

They are on the heavy side, but I traded in my 7 year old plastic Candies for these that were completely shot (after thousands and thousands of miles). (Crankbros is running an upgrade deal where you send in your old pedals and can upgrade to any pedal in their lineup for 50% off, which is maybe a bit less than eBay pricing).  I will probably spring for a set of eBay Titanium spindles for the Candy set one of these days.  That will shave 40-60g.

The level 1 and 2 pedals are much cheaper and only a bit heavier, but they have bushings instead of bearings.  The bushings are what failed in my last Candy set after the dust caps fell out.  The level 3's have dual bearings and a threaded dust cap to keep things clean.  The level 11's are titanium goodness, but at stupid expensive.

Crank Brothers Candy 3 - ~317g


I also ordered some UD carbon spacers on eBay.  They look good, weigh nothing, and were inexpensive.  They are gloss.  Gloss UD is hot.

UD Carbon 1.125" spacers (5pcs) - ~24g

[PeterQ]

Could you share the eBay link for the carbon spacers? They look like those we make, but we don't sell these items on eBay.

We usually make 2/5/10/15/20mm

We do sell some to customers who usually order small items from us, maybe they resell them on eBay

[Vipassana]

Could you share the eBay link for the carbon spacers? They look like those we make, but we don't sell these items on eBay.

We usually make 2/5/10/15/20mm

We do sell some to customers who usually order small items from us, maybe they resell them on eBay

Hello Peter!  I should have thought to ask you if you had these spacers. I honestly didn't think of it.  I prefer to buy from you as possible.  Those sizes you listed are exactly what this set is.

Here is the link: http://m.ebay.com/itm/151090881902?txnId=1115070119005

The seller is named Gobike88 and they are shipping out of Taipei.

Thank you again for all your help with our order.  I have recommended you to several friends and coworkers already.

[brmeyer135]

I am surprised you went with the XT brakes - since you look to be concerned with weight.
The new XTR M987 would have saved you nearly 200g over the XT
Also, you won't need all those carbon spacers....you could slam your stem or have a spacer under and the cap on top - only using one of your spacers.

[Carbon_Dude]

I am also a fan of Eggbeater pedals, have three sets of Eggbeater 3's, one on each of my bike plus a spare set.  I've tried the Candy pedals and didn't really see any point in having the platform.  The platform just gets in the way of clipping in as easily, add weight, and with non-clip in shoe, the spring sticks up causing the pedal not to be flat.  So, I just stick with the original Eggbeaters.

The Eggbeater is simple, light, and easy to maintain.  Clipping in and out is easier than the SPD pedals I tried years ago, although I hear the Shimano SPD pedals have been improved.

I would have also liked to hear your comparison on tires if you guys had ordered different brands but I let us know how the RaRa work for you.  The Snakeskin version should not be so flimsy, like the ones I had.

[Vipassana]

I am surprised you went with the XT brakes - since you look to be concerned with weight.
The new XTR M987 would have saved you nearly 200g over the XT
Also, you won't need all those carbon spacers....you could slam your stem or have a spacer under and the cap on top - only using one of your spacers.

XT or XTR came down to cost. I would have loved XTR, buy they appear to be double the price of the XT.  I know there's a lot of money wrapped up in this build, and what's a couple hundred more, but we needed to stick to some sort of budget.  There's always the possibility to upgrade in the future!  We are concerned with weight, but it isn't the sole criteria driving this build.  It is fun to track it though and count those grams.  We like to joke about all the ridiculous things we will do to save weight:

Cut our nails short before the ride.
Shave all body hair.
Remove paint from all parts.
Carry no water bottles.
Carry only a $20 bill and buy tubes/tools on the trailside if you need them.
Fill our tires with helium... Or hydrogen!

The silly like gets longer by the day.


Concerning the spacers, I agree, I may not need them. But then again I might. Best to have them on hand for the build just in case. It was $17 for 15 spacers (3 sets).  Cheap enough. The ones that don't get used can find their way into our road bikes.  But spacers allow us the ability to keep the steerer somewhat long and ride for a while to figure out fit. 

[Vipassana]

I have some significant updates for you!

All of the rest of the frames and components arrived last week and we were able to build our bikes this weekend.  Basically we spent all day Saturday building the bikes while we drank beer and ate Pizza.  Despite it being hot in the garage, it was a great day with friends!

Here is one of the other IP-256SL frames.  This one is 19", BB30, painted a very subtle gloss black & matte black combination.  The paint was done at iPlay and looks very good.








My other buddy chose to have his painted by a local painter.  The paint job is of incredible quality (too nice for a MTB if you ask me!  But he said he's only going to hang it on the wall like the Seinfeld green Klein anyway... 

It is Dodge Viper Red and a Subaru metallic silver/blue.  Wet sanded and cleared.  Zero orange peel.

[Sussed.]

Wow.  That Matt / Gloss combo is awesome !

[Vipassana]

For this build I gathered some tools.  The first was a small torque wrench.  I will write review on this unit in the Components subforum at a later date.  But in a nut shell, it's good enough, but not great.  I would buy something else next time.



I also spent some time in the machine shop after work one day and made a set of tools for the BB30 bearing install.  Made from stainless steel and to very precise tolerances to make sure everything is aligned properly during install.  I also made some spacers for the rear axle so solve a slight issue we found with the nut hex bottoming out on the drop out before the face of the nut did.

[Vipassana]

On assembly day, we first started with the wheels and tires.  I purchased some American Classic valve stems.  They have incredible fit and finish and are very light.  They seal well to the rim with a double oring system in the inside.  The only issue we had was that the plastic mount for the outside of the rim is contoured for a narrow rim, but the wide rims we purchased were much more float on top.  A little bit of sanding and the plastic sat flat on the rim.  Looks perfect.







For rim tape, we used a single layer of 1" wide Gorilla Tape.  It fits the rim PERFECTLY (tape is 25.4mm and the rim inner width is 26mm).  The stuff was $260 a roll on Amazon.  Each roll can do 4 rims with a single layer and 10mm overlap at the stem.  We applied the rim tape and then cut an "X" at the valve stem hole and pressed the valves through.

Next, it was only a matter of putting the tire on the rim correctly (correct rotation direction).  We used my compressor to fill them to 25 psi with no sealant to seat the bead.  The RaRa tires seated quickly and easily on the hookless rims.  We were done in a matter of 5 to 10 minutes with 4 wheels.  Easily the easiest set of tubeless tires/rims I've ever worked with.  Even without sealant, they held air for about an hour. 

The Schwable tires and rims were a TIGHT fit:

[Carbon_Dude]

For rim tape, we used a single layer of 1" wide Gorilla Tape.  It fits the rim PERFECTLY (tape is 25.4mm and the rim inner width is 26mm).  The stuff was $260 a roll on Amazon.  Each roll can do 4 rims with a single layer and 10mm overlap at the stem.  We applied the rim tape and then cut an "X" at the valve stem hole and pressed the valves through.

That was some expensive Gorilla tape!   

Very nice pictures.  You've got me wanting some of the American Classic valve stems!  Had I known about them I would have ordered a set for my carbon wheels.