John's 26er Build for the Kiddo

[jwilds1]

Well, after putting together my IP-057 last winter, and seeing my son start to dwarf his 24" Trek MT220 (and him being an awesome kid), we are going to start assembling components for a 14" 26er build for him.  He's 11-years old, so I'm hoping this bike will last him at least a few years, with multiple add-ons required to make it keep fitting, like setback seatposts and longer stems.  My rough math puts this at a 24.5" standover, and he was measured having a 25.5" "biking" inseam a week or two ago.

Goal is sub-$1500 with all-new components and sub 22lbs.  Here's what we're looking at:

Frame - FASTEAM? 14" 26er - $360 shipped http://goo.gl/pDgStv  I did take a look at the CS-016 frame, but the reach is very long.

Fork - Reba or SID, if I can get a good deal on one.  $250 budget

Wheels - Anything cheap & light.  He only weighs 65 lbs.  $250 budget

Drivetrain - XT 2x10 with 165mm cranks.  Currently debating keeping 2 in the front and selecting the 38/24 setup, or removing the big ring from the 40/28 and replacing with a bash guard.  Regardless, I'm getting the Shadow+ medium cage considering it's only a couple bucks more.

Brakes - Strongly leaning towards BB7's instead of XT hydraulics.  I don't seem to have any luck bleeding brakes, although this frame is external-route, so I don't have to cut/disconnect to route.  As I type this, I remembered another plus to the XT levers - adjustable reach for my little guy's hands.  We shall see.

Misc. - Carbon seatpost (excess cut off), used aluminum bars, shorty stem I had lying around from my build.

Going to sit with him this evening to sort out his most important part - COLOR SCHEME!  Frame comes in gloss green, gloss white, gloss pink (ewww), and matte black 3k weave.  Going to be doing a lot of eBay, Amazon shopping the next few days.

[bxcc]

Awesome plan. Keep us posted on progress amd needed parts. We can share any special deals.
Speaking of special deals, are you open to the idea of a 29" Reba 120mm? Which can be set to 80 which should be close to a 110mm 26er.

[jwilds1]

This thing is going to be white, and I mean WHITE!!

He gave me two options - White w/ green (which would drive the SID fork), and white w/ red (Reba).

Pulled the trigger today on the frame, a very slightly used Reba for $175, wheelset (WTB Frequency I19 rims, SRAM X9 hubs - claimed 1785g for the pair), and the drivetrain.

For those interested, I was able to find two 26er frames in XS on eBay.  The one I purchased is branded a FASTEAM but has no logos.  Sold by dashinebike1.  There was another that popped up today, FR-902 sold by cfbstore.  The geometry looks very similar, but the FR-902 has two things going for it - internal routing and BSA bottom bracket.

I did ask the frame supplier, though, if they included headset & BB - unclear because two different areas of the listing told me two different things.  If they don't supply those items, I will cancel and go with the FR902.

[jwilds1]

So everything's ordered, and here's where I'm at:



21.7 lbs without pedals at $1400, not bad.  I'm going to go full "weight-weenie" and throw everything on the scale when I get it.

The frame comes with a BB92 and headset, but if the bottom bracket is junk the groupset comes with one.  Parts should start rolling in next week, and I'm going to try and push the frame supplier to get it shipped out prior to Chinese New Year.

[jwilds1]

Compared to my XMIPlay bike, this was lightspeed (no fault of Peter).  About a week from order to it being at my door, and that includes a mis-ship across the state.  So far, so good. 

To compare quality, I would put this bike a little bit below my IP-057, but not by much.  There are some small blemishes in the paint that are only visible from 6" away.  I was at first worried about the rear caliper mounts and the gunk that was in them (thinking I was going to have to go buy a tap to re-cut the threads), but the caliper bolted in no problem.  Headset provided was unbranded, almost identical to the Neco that came with my bike that has been flawless so far.  Bottom Bracket was a hefty, all-metal BB92 that I'm using as a spare because my gruppo (XT) came with one at half the weight.  My gruppo also came with a standard BSA bracket that now will be a spare for my bike.

I was really worried about installing the press-fit BB, but with liberal amounts of grease and a home-brew press (all-thread + nuts + wood blocks), it went in straight.  I don't have a current picture of where I'm at with the build, but bottom bracket & cranks are installed, the fork/headset/bars are installed, tires/wheels are done (tubeless on the first try!) and next step is cabling.  I could use some help here -

This bike is made for external rear brake cabling and semi-internal derailleur cabling (both cables exit at the bottom bracket).  My help needed is what to do I do with the front derailleur cable where it exits the frame right in front of the BB, and re-enters behind it, going back up into the frame for down-swing?  Do I just sheath the cable at the downtube exit?  Do I try and find one of those plastic cable spacers that sit underneath the BB?

[Carbon_Dude]

From the looks of the hole sizes, your front derailleur cable w/o housing would exit from the small hole in the bottom bracket, then you would run the cable with housing behind the bottom bracket into the larger hole and up to the front derailleur.

[cmh]

From the looks of the hole sizes, your front derailleur cable w/o housing would exit from the small hole in the bottom bracket, then you would run the cable with housing behind the bottom bracket into the larger hole and up to the front derailleur.

Not sure I agree with that. If the cable exits one of the two small holes and runs around the bottom bracket shell and up through the single larger hole behind the BB, the cable would be running over the paint, and that's no good. The question I'd ask is if there's a stop in the bigger hole, and if so, I'd think that both cables are expected to exit at the two smaller holes, immediately go into housing, and the FD housing goes into the bigger hole, where the RD housing would go back to the RD, fastened down to the provided guides on the DS chainstay. There's no provision for an under-the-BB guide like jwilds1 refers to, so I'm guessing that's not part of the design, and probably wouldn't work well if he tried to use one due to the large radius under the BB. If housings are expected to go right up against those two smaller holes, I would have thought there would be some provision for aligning them - but this is all guessing on my part.

[jwilds1]

Thanks.  It definitely is a little confusing.  The entry point at the headset looks as if it's sized to allow cable housing to be routed the entire length, but then you look at the two holes on the downtube and they definitely don't look sized that way.  I wouldn't have an issue with drilling them out a little, but would rather get closer to being 100% sure that it's the right thing to do.

I have seen a lot of FS bikes that route this way, with a small gap between the BB and cable.

I'll take care of the rear brake tonight and try and do some more investigating.

[MTB2223]

Can you show us a picture of the exit hole of the front derailleur cable at the back of seat tube?

[Carbon_Dude]

Thanks.  It definitely is a little confusing.  The entry point at the headset looks as if it's sized to allow cable housing to be routed the entire length, but then you look at the two holes on the downtube and they definitely don't look sized that way.  I wouldn't have an issue with drilling them out a little, but would rather get closer to being 100% sure that it's the right thing to do.

I have seen a lot of FS bikes that route this way, with a small gap between the BB and cable.

I'll take care of the rear brake tonight and try and do some more investigating.

I agree, I must not have explained it well in my earlier post but I was thinking the same as you.  That is how my -036 full suspension frame would be routed if I had a front derailleur.  Does seem a little odd that a hardtail would be routed that way though.

[cmh]

I agree, I must not have explained it well in my earlier post but I was thinking the same as you.  That is how my -036 full suspension frame would be routed if I had a front derailleur.  Does seem a little odd that a hardtail would be routed that way though.

Yeah, sorry, I just re-read your comment and realized it was a total reading fail on my part. ^_^ I think we're all in agreement, so I think we should argue about it some more!

[jwilds1]

Here's where we're at.  Brakes are 100%.  Cockpit is 100%.  Drivetrain cables are 50%.  I did figure out that the entry points at the frame had stops, so it ended up being identical to my IP-057 there.  I'm going to use the long-sleeved Jagwire "stops" where the cables exit at the downtube, some of the rubber "rub resist" sleeves and some 3M tape and I think we'll be good.  I also have to figure out how the remote lockout operates - I installed everything on the bars, then saw the remote in the box o' parts.

Here's the weight/cost status too.  We're changing seats - I found a youth-sized seat from J&R bikes that is half the weight, so we should be pretty close to under 20 pounds, although I feel like I'm missing something in that list.



And here's a shot of where the bare cables exit the frame - you can already see where the wear point will be.

[MTB2223]

And here's a shot of where the bare cables exit the frame - you can already see where the wear point will be.

ahhh, don't use the bare cable at this point.
Try to use a housing. When it's not possible, use a small aluminum plate, drill two small holes for the bare cable and then use the cable with housings.

[jwilds1]

ahhh, don't use the bare cable at this point.
Try to use a housing. When it's not possible, use a small aluminum plate, drill two small holes for the bare cable and then use the cable with housings.

That was never my intention.

I'm going to use this at the exit point along the downtube: 

With this:

And this:

To end up with something that looks like this:

[cmh]

Good call using the stops with the extensions, that'll help align things coming out of the holes. Should work like a champ!