~~~~~~~~~~~~ FINISHED BUILD ~~~~~~~~~~~~
pics coming soon
~~~~~~~~~~~~ BUILD LOG BELOW ~~~~~~~~~~~
After a couple weeks of debating and research, I have pulled the trigger on a 057 frame to start my journey on my first carbon hardtail. Like many others on here, I contacted Peter from Xiamen Carbon Speed and got a response about an hour after my first email. I will be continually updating this post with what my experience will be like throughout the entire process and will hopefully be a good informative read for anyone else thinking of doing what I am about to embark on. Thanks to everyone who started a build thread on here.
Frame Purchased: 17.5", BSA bottom bracket, UD weave, Matte finish, 142mm Thru Axle
Geometry from XMCarbonSpeed website:
8/21/18: Frame paid for.
9/1/18: Frame arrived!
First impressions, the frame feels unbelievably light in its bare form (sorry no scale to weight it with). There's a few rough spots along the chainstay and seat tube, but I don't think there of any concern. In hindsight, getting a gloss finish may have been the better option for cleaning, this thing is a huge fingerprint magnet when my hands get greasy. The frame comes with a seat post clamp and adapters to switch to QR. Overall, I'm extremely happy with it.
10/23/18:Got a few things installed. Majority of parts went in smooth. It was my first time using an compression plug from the NECO headset and must say the ease of installing it makes it quite preferable over banging in a star nut. My ICAN seatpost clamp (pictured above) was sitting a little too tall for my liking, so I used the aluminum clamp that came with the frame. It's ~13.34 mm and fits fine. The AliExpress seatpost I bought was an incredibly tight fit, more than I'm comfortable with, so I used a little friction paste to help it along.
10/29/18:
Found this stuff at my local hardware store, also called rubber mastic tape. I have seen other people use it to protect their frames, so decided to give it a try. $9 for a 1" x 10' roll. This stuff feels like rubber and bonds to each other by slightly overlapping it or by laying it side by side and making sure the sides touch. I made a down tube protector that I'm quite happy with and used the left overs to wrap around my chainstay. After applying, some firm pressing, and a few minutes with the heat gun, I am really happy with the results.
11/6/18:Getting started on the drive train today.
A couple things to note about the frame, both entrance and exit holes for the rear derailleur cable are on the right side of the bike. If you are use to the rear shifter being on the right side of your handlebars, then you might have to give your cable management a little thought before proceeding. I decided to keep the shifter cable on the same side for now, instead of around the steerer tube and over the down tube. Lastly, none of the end caps that came with the SLX shifter were fitting properly in the hole on the down tube, but fit perfectly snug in the hole on the chainstay. Wrapped my housing a few times with electrical tape and called it a day.
Won't be doing much more until my wheels get here. Still need to order brakes as well.
11/14/18:Wheels came in today, so I'm going to finish up the drive train while I wait for brakes to arrive next week. Did not take much pictures while I was working on it. I was in a good groove of installing things and completely forgot. One thing however, I had to remove the bb-mounted chain guide. I had frequent chain drops on the cassette on the two largest cogs while back pedaling, so decided against it. Placed a 2.5 mm spacer on the non-drive side of the cranks and now free of chain drops.
11/26/18:Brakes installed and basically done with the bike. I did not take any pictures of brake installation as it went smoothly without any problems. Tomorrow, I'm going to do final checks of everything, torque what I need to, and line up everything on the cockpit. Maybe some finished photos?
