I know this is a little off topic, but has anyone tried carbon cranks from Aliexpress? Most cost as much as regular XT cranks and are specified to be ~300g lighter. Most people here seem to buy cranks from name brands ... is this because they're more trustworthy or were there major bad experiences with Aliexpress cranks?

I just did a quick search and it looks like you'll need a 31.6mm Seatpost instead of the 30.9mm and an 1 1/8" to 1 1/2" adaptor for your fork.
As long as you get the fitting dropouts  for your axles and the right BB style you should be fine.

That said, please don't quote me on this ... maybe someone else can add info / correct this if I wrote something wrong.

I bought a frame from Peter earlier this year and imported it to Germany. You'll have to look up how import duties are calculated in Italy. What I was told concerning the EU-wide anti-dumping taxes:

There are are anti-dumping taxes for chinese bikes (especially chinese carbon) which are enforced in the EU. However those only apply to whole bikes / purchases of more than 3 essential bike parts in a month. As a private person (i.e. if you're importing without the intent of trading the imported goods) you're allowed to import up to 3 "essential bike parts" per month without the 48,5% tax applying. A frame for example would be counted as one "major bike part". If you'd buy a frame + wheelset you'd have two "essential bike parts".

It turns out this is specific for Germany. The german ministry of finances released a statement which declares private imports of up to 3 parts per month as a "minor case" to which the anti dumping doesn't apply. I'm really sorry for the confusion I caused.

One could still save a lot of money if he payed in two payments, one very low and one with the rest (like for example 100€ and 400€) ... If the declared value matched the low payment and one had an invoice for the ordered goods for the low price, the customs office could still apply taxes, but they'd be pretty low, so it wouldn't really matter too much.

Maybe you can send the customs service an email and ask how exactly they calculate import duties aswell as if there's a way around anti dumping as a private person since you don't import the frame to sell it.

Did a quick first ride today, time for some impressions:

- It's huge but steering is great.
- It feels extremely light (especially) on roads.
- The back end is quite bouncy on roots and small to medium stones.

Also to anyone on a strict budget without bike-building experience who might read this ... Stay a little below your budget, you never know which special tool you might be missing until you really need it. In my case it was a cable cutter. Let's just say it's a bad idea to try cutting shifter cable housing without one, let alone brake lines.
 
Parts:
Reba: The 120mm Reba comes without any tokens and feels very linear. It almost uses full travel when riding down stairs, so tokens will be added.
Cassette: 11-46 is most likely overkill for what I'm riding. The steepest climb here is a street with around 14% gradient and I didn't need the 46t cog to climb it.
Stem: 40mm is very short. It's nice if you love having a short stem for descending and snappy steering, but I see why many people (especially racers) choose to run long stems.
Tyres: Mavic Crossride Tubeless Quest don't feel great ... my back wheel lost grip in a regular turn without any braking going on.

Brakes:
I read your concerns and went at it slowly. A few things surprised me:
- The bitepoint on the MT4 and MT5 is very different from each other. The MT4 grabs earlier while the MT5 starts braking with the same force with the lever about a centimeter closer to the bar.
  (Is this normal or could there be air in the system?)
- The MT4 can brake quite strong.
- Maybe the brake pads are not broken in enough yet, but atm. they grab soft enough to provide smooth braking even from high speeds (I hope they don't become more grabby).
- The MT5 seems to be not much stronger than the MT4 (if at all). BUT it feels like it offers (way) wider modulation over the MT4.
All in all I really like them and honestly, my mechanical disc brakes felt way more dangerous because they didn't offer as much modulation which lead to easier lock-ups. I will probably follow your advice and get a 180mm rotor in the front in the future just in case I get to ride some long descents with hard braking.

My decision was based on cost. MT Trail Sports are 185€ to 200€ with the main advantage over the MT5+MT4 being better levers. The MT5+MT4 combo was 129€ when I ordered it. It was more convenient to stay a little below my max. budget (my parents allowed me a budget of 1900€ of my own money) so I'd have a little spare money in case of a "bike building emergency".

Is it normal that the seatpost in a 057 can only be inserted about 15cm deep? There seems to be a thick piece of material around the inside of the screws of the rear bottle cage mount.
Also: Would it be an issue if I cut my seatpost to slide around this plate inside the seattube?

Please excuse my username, I just didn't want to bother with finding a name when I registered.