Hello

I came across a new kickstarter project while reading a "Bikeradar" article - The project basically is able to convert any older system to electric shifting, this could be interesting if shifting turns out to be that much better.

Link to project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598276649/xshifter-worlds-first-universal-wireless-smart-shi

Link to Bikeradar article: http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/xshifter-wireless-shifting-48668/?utm_content=bufferec037&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

After I upgraded both our road bikes to DI2 I must admit that from now on when buying new group sets, I will only look in that direction as I find it so much better under use and so much easier to adjust and maintain.   

Karsten

 

Hello All

Apart from Mountain biking, I do like to to take some longer rides on my road bike together with my wife and I do also find it easier to conduct some cardio training when on a road bike. My good old Trek 5500 have had a long but good life but I think it is coming to an end as there is a hairline crack developing just above the bottom bracket. My 5500 started out as a team bike for a national Pro tour team for a year when I bought it 2. hand. It came with a very good setup and I have now ridden more than 10.000 miles in 10 years without a single issue with the Dura-Ace 7800 groupset and in 10.000 miles I have only had 6 punctures and 1 exploded tire(I only ride in dry conditions) !!

Based on my good experience with my Chiner MTB frame the choice was easy, my new road bike will also be based on a well proven Chiner road frame. Investigating the market with all the different Chiner road frames, I saw numerous good feedback on the FM098 aero frame as well as dealing with Dengfu. As I like well proven stuff(I just built a 036 MTB bike) the choice was easy and as I write this, my new frame is being prepared by Dengfu and it will ship within a week. As a side note I will highlight Dengfu as a fantastic company to do business with, very friendly and extremely quick in their replies to all my questions - I can only recommend Dengfu.

Picture of my beloved Trek - As it came with a rather aggressive setup, I had to change the position of the handlebar and I also had to go for a Compact crankset:



Picture of the new frame with my custom paint job illustrated:



The only parts from my 5500 that will be reused is the wheel set, still shopping all the other bits and pieces but the groupset will properly be based on the newest version of the Ultegra DI2 groupset, that is if I cannot find a good deal on a corresponding Sram Etap kit...... More to follow !

Kind regards

Karsten

 

Hello

The last week I really started to put some km's on my newly built Ip-036 bought from Peter. After the last ride(some 30 km) I realized that there was a bit more play in the rear triangle/rear wheel and today I decided to take the linkage apart in the triangle and quickly found the culprit. On my bike all bushing bolts are 4 mm too short meaning that they only carry on one side of the "fork" they sit in. Also, the bushing bolts on my frame is quite a bit smaller than the female part, I have measured up to 0.14 mm free play..... I find that hilarious as on my rear triangle I now have 1 lower left "fork" that are partially destroyed on the inside. If there are owners out there that have a IP/CS 036 frame I would strongly suggest to check this if not done so already. I will contact Peter as I need new bushing bolts all over in the correct diameter/length as well as the lower part of the triangle. To be honest I'm not very impressed at the moment........

I had some other 8 mm bushing bolts that I could cut and fit in order to continue riding but not a very elegant fix.

Here is a picture of the bushing bolt 4 mm too short and putting all load on only 1 side of the "fork":





Here is a picture of the bushing bolt being 4 mm too short and its quite easy to see the wear marks only on the outside part:



Here is a couple of pictures of the lower left "fork" and its clear to see that the carbon is already stating to be ripped apart on the outside part of the "fork", as a matter of fact there were lying small pieces of carbon in there when I took it apart:





Here is a couple of pictures of my not so elegant fix but it clearly illustrate how the bushing bolt should have been seated in the first place:

Hello all

First of all thanks for providing this huge amount of good info, making it so much easier to choose a good Chinese vendor when in marked for a new MTB. I have just ordered a CS-036 from Peter and I'm presently collecting the few bits and pieces that I'm missing for this build. As I will use a 2 x 10 SRAM X9/X0 gear group, I would like to get a good suggestion of a front dérailleur that will fit the frame? There are so many different 2 x 10 shifters from SRAM and I'm unsure witch one that will fit the frame. Also, I have a tapered Manitou Tower fork and was looking for some advice on a quality headset that will fit.

Thanks in advance and kind regards from Denmark

Karsten