I agree, in the grand scheme of things, I think most riders aren't even confident enough to buy a bike online from BD, much less a frame direct from overseas. They want to go to a bike shop and test ride, etc, and roll out with their new bike all ready to go.

It's no riding mecca, but it's awfully nice here in the fall.

So I've been putting some more miles on the IP-106, riding among other places at Caesar's Creek:


Two routes to choose:


Of course, I choose the "Most Difficult" path... Caesar's Creek is an old enough trail system that it still has a few fall line sections:


I've also hit my local trail at Alum Creek:


at Alum, I was riding the IP back to back with my other carbon frame, a Sette Razzo:


Finally, I still find the IP a little more flickable than the Razzo, but the Razzo is smoother. I like the Razzo a bit better, overall.

I've compiled most of the hardtail data I could find into a blog post some time back:

http://bikingtoplay.blogspot.com/2013/11/chinese-carbon-bike-frames.html

Why not try to the regular method (not drilled) and see if that works OK? It's been fine for me so far. You can always drill in the future if you think it's needed for some reason, but you can't un-drill.

No idea on the weight. I used to have a cheap fish scale, but it died a few months back. It's not as light as you would think, due to the heavy Knard up front, and the somewhat heavy duty wheels.

Looks good! Have you got an overall built weight?

Yeah, this is kind of a worry for me for a carbon steerer tube. With 10mm more spacers than shown in the above photo, I was able to get my bars at seat height. Since the IP-106's head tube is about as long as it gets, it's hard for us taller guys to get the bars up and use a carbon steerer.

I start thinking about steerer tube spacers limits, plus stem rise, stem length (probably more significant for loading than spacer amount, although no one talks about it), and bar rise, and it makes me a little nervous about how much factor of safety was built into these forks.

I'll give this fork a try, but it may end up being too low for me. The selection of long, rigid forks with tapered, metal steerers is very limited. Carver sells one, but only with a QR15 axle, which my Shimano hubs won't fit.

So the box came through A-OK:


And the frame was well packed:


I ship quite a few frames, due to all my buying and selling, and I have to admit the iplay does a better job packing frames than I do.

So light even a small child can lift it one handed!


I also got a fork, headset, matching spacers, and a spare derailer hanger:


Tip: the frame doesn't include a seat clamp, so order one of those when you place your order. I stole one from my Sette.

Time to break out this guy:


Also, there's some carbon paste in the background.

I spent Thursday night stripping down my Razzo and cleaning those parts, and setting up my wheels and tires. I couldn't do any real work on my new frame, since I didn't have a hex attachment for my torque wrench, and thus couldn't even torque down the seat post to clamp it in my work stand. Tonight I got the major parts set up:


Enough on there to set my bar height and cut the steerer tube, but it was already getting late at this point. I didn't want to break out the miter box with the kids sleeping above me. Save that for Friday, which also gives me time to really, really make sure I'm good with this position (or shorter). My understanding with carbon steerers is that the stem should clamp around the expansion plug, so you can't just stack spacers above the stem to have future steerer tube length like you can with metal steerer tubes. Someone please tell me if I'm wrong here.

I was happy to see that the frame had adequate clearance for my 2.4" Vee Mission 4 tire on a 35mm wide rim at the rear. I knew the fork could clear my Knard, but the drawing wasn't as clear for the rear clearance.