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Messages - Carbon_Dude

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1816
29er / Re: Should I get the 057 or 256??
« on: April 13, 2014, 02:38:48 PM »
The safe bet is the IP-057 but if you really like the shape of the IP-256 I say go for it.  You get a 2 yr warranty with the frame.  As long as you don't plan on taking any big drops or long knarly downhill, I would expect for it to hold up well.  The only possible weakness I see with the IP-256 is the seat post junction with the top tube and seat stays is really low making you run a lot of exposed seat post, you may want to plan on at least a 400mm long seat post.

1817
29er / IP-036 29er Full Suspension Frame - YouTube Video
« on: April 13, 2014, 09:14:08 AM »
One of the Chinese Trading Companies posted a decent video showing the IP-036 frame:


1818
29er / Re: IP/FM 056/057 Frames
« on: April 13, 2014, 08:35:22 AM »
Here is a pic of my IP-057 Chinese Carbon Hard Tail Frame.  Purchased from XMIplay, custom paint color and paint scheme.  Spec'd out a BSA (threaded) bottom bracket, UD Carbon Finish, 12x142 dropouts.


1819
29er / Re: IP-036 Full Suspension Carbon Frame Build
« on: April 13, 2014, 08:09:03 AM »
Quote from: Sitar_Ned on April 12, 2014, 10:36:06 PM
Hey Carbon_Dude!

I actually have a couple of questions if you don't mind..

1) I know you said you ran the full housing all the way through the frame.. I'd love to do that on my 057 but I've read about having to drill out a couple of spots on the frame to do so. I was wondering how you ran your rear der cable for your 056?

On the IP/FM-056/057 frames you should not need to run full housings as the entry and exit points should have the proper opening size to run cable only with a ferrule at each end.  You would only have the housing from the outside of the frame to either the lever or derailleur.  If you you are having a problem with the cables, as I guess some have, only then would you drill out the holes (hollow metal inserts) at each end and run full housing.  It really should not be an issue either way, do what you feel most comfortable with and what works best for you.

2) Wheels. Daammmnnnniitt!! You're making me seriously consider sending my charger expert wheelset back and hit up Light Bicycle for some carbon rims. Now, did you get them from Light Bicycle or Peter at xmiplay? I think he's offering them now as well?? Almost went that route but the price difference is rather high considering I payed $275 for the Chargers Experts. Too cheap for me to pass up on a respected wheelset that has 15mm front and 142 x 12mm rear. The carbons were going to be about $350 more than that depending on what hubs I went with. When you've had more time on them, I'd love to hear you thoughts on them.

I purchased the wheels through XMIplay (30mm wide bead hook rims, Sapim Spokes & Nipples, Bitex Hubs), Peter told me these are not from Light Bikes so I'm not sure where they are actually fabricated.  Yes, the pricing is in the neighborhood of ~$600 for the complete set.  It's a great price, and seem to compare favorably against other big name (or Lightbike) wheel sets.  My other choice was going to be a set of Stans Arch EX wheels but the cost would have been about the same, the weight would have been 200g more, and they would not be as stiff as a carbon wheels.  On my IP-057, I went with a set of DT Swiss Spline XR1450 wheels.  The are super light (1450g) and cost about $475 with the XX1 XD Freehub.  I've already bent the back rim and had to have it replaced.  Peter is coming out with some hookless carbon wheels in the near future.  I may consider ordering those rims and rebuilding my IP-057 wheels and reuse the DT Swiss 240 hubs in the future.

3) So... You have both of the bikes I considered building.. Went with the hardtail.. I dunno.. I just like the idea of a simple carbon, 1x10, light weight, fast, fat tired mtb. I eventually plan on building a full suss as well.. Again, after you get a feel for the bike on some proper trails.. Would be awesome to hear your comparison of the two. Which you like better and why. I know they're different types of bikes but it still be interesting.


Okay so I've done one 10mi ride on my local trails with the IP-036.  Since it was the first time out, I spent some time adjusting things while out on the trail.  Things like seat height, angle, front/back position, lever angle, etc.  I had one issue with the rear derailleur and the chain jumping off the 42T cog.  I now have all those little issues sorted and plan on doing another ride today.  Here are my riding impressions as compared to the IP-057:

1)  Geometry feels very different between the two bikes.  The IP-036 feels more like the Specialized EPIC Carbon I demoed a few weeks back.  The wheelbase feels shorter, giving the IP-036 a quicker steering response.  The front wheel just feels a little more tucked under the frame.  My relative position between where I sit on the seat and the cranks also feels a little shorter.  The effective TT length on the IP-036 is a few mm longer so I went with a 90mm Thomson stem w/ 0 deg rise.  It's possible that I may like a 100mm stem more but it's difficult to say at this point.

2)  Standing up and pedaling also feels different, I don't feel like I'm getting as much leverage as with the IP-057.  It might be the flat bars I chose to install this time.  I also purchased a set of riser bars from Peter in case I wanted to switch.  So I plan on riding a bit more with the flat bars and if I continue to feel like I may like the riser bar more, just switch out to the riser bar and see if I like them more for my riding.

3)  The obvious reason to build a IP-036 over the IP-057 is the full suspension.  I initially built the IP-057 for the simplicity of having no rear shock to service and no pivot joints to maintain.  I had a 26" Epic and it did require more of my time to maintain and having a proprietary Brain shock I would need to spend some money sending the shock into Specialized to have it rebuilt every few years.  I eventually got tired of that and just wanted something with low maintenance so I built the IP-057 and I have to say, I've ridden that bike for about 750mi and the only thing I've done to maintain it is re-grease the bottom bracket.

I would expect the IP-036 to need more maintenance over the next year of riding, but there is plenty of information online on how to rebuild the Fox rear shock, and the pivot points are pretty simple to clean and re-grease or replace the pivot bearings.

I also decided to do lockouts on the front fork and rear shock.  The Scott Scale 910 (which this bike is very similar too) has one lever to lock the front and rear shocks, I was able to do something similar using the Fox Cable Splitter, it allows you to use the lockout lever that comes with the fork to also actuate the lockout on the rear shock.  This took a bit of fiddling but works pretty well.  My biggest complaint with the lockout is with the cable routing to the rear shock, the exit point of the internal routing is very close to the shock causing a hard bend in the cable.  It works but is not ideal.

4)  Ride difference between a Chinese FS and Chinese HT:  The IP-036 rides very smoothly, you can look down and see the pivot moving and working for you while you are on the trail.  With the Fox CTD (Climb, Trail, Descend) modes you can change the suspension settings from full open "D", which gives you some pedal bob, to partially locked "T", which removes most of the pedal bob but still allows the suspension to work (this setting is good for pedaling over bumpy terrain).  When set to mostly locked, "C" mode, the front fork is fully locked out and the rear shock is mostly locked.  There is no pedal bob, and the bike feels very stiff and efficient.  Having all these settings allows you to taylor the ride for the varying terrain, it just adds another dimension to your ride that you cannot get with a hard tail.

I will post more on my riding impressions once I get some more miles under me on this new bike.

1820
29er / IP-036 29er Full Suspension Carbon Frame Build
« on: April 12, 2014, 09:28:16 PM »
General build order that I did:

Prior to build, I found I should have disassembled frame and greased all pivots.  Go ahead and do this before you get started.

1) Install headset, fork, spacers, stem.
    1a) Size fork and cut steer tube
2) Install bottom bracket
3) Install crank
4) Install bars
5) Install rear brake
    5a) Mount brake caliper on frame
    5b) Mount lever on bars
    5c) Route brake line through frame (IP-036)
    5d) Shorten brake line as needed (use no-bleed method)
6) Install front brake
    6a) Mount brake caliper on fork
    6b) Mount lever on bars
    6c) Shorten brake line as needed (use no-bleed method)
7) Install rear derailleur.
    7a) Mount rear derailleur to hanger
    7b) Mount shifter to bars
    7c) Run cable (IP-036 thru frame)
    7d) Cut cable housing as needed, for the IP-036 I ran the cable with housing through the frame.
    7e) Connect cable to rear derailleur (don't cut cable yet)
8 ) Install front derailleur (not needed for 1x setups)
    8a) Mount front derailleur
    8b) Mount shifter to bars
    8c) Run cable
    8d) Cut cable housing as needed. Install ferrules at each end of cable housing.
    8e) Connect cable to front derailleur (don't cut cable yet).
9) Install seatpost & seat
10) Install rear shock
11) Mount tires on wheels
      11a) Install disc brake rotors
      11b) If needed install free hub (for XX1 a XD hub is needed)
      11c) Install rear cassette
      11d) If tubeless, apply rim tape & sealant
12  Install wheels front & rear.
13) Install chain
      13a) Shorten chain as needed, per mfr instructions
14) Install pedals
15) Install remote rear shock lockout
16) Install remote fork lockout
17) Install Fox cable splitter
18) Adjust front and rear derailleurs for proper shifting, cut cables to final length.
19) Check and torque all bolts
20) Check brakes, go for a test ride

Okay, bike is finished, just took it for a quick test ride around the neighborhood.

Brakes:
I was able to shorten the rear without needing to bleed the brake line, not so lucky on the front, some air got in the line, will bleed the brake tomorrow. Still these XT brakes are amazing, noise free with great stopping power.

Shock Remote Cable Routing:
Ended up putting the hard bend in the cable so the shock body is installed facing forward. Things are working fine but I don't like the bend in the cable. Oh well, it's not like I paid $3k for the frame.

Rear Derailleur Cable:
This took much longer than expected. I originally cut the cable housings and rand bare cable through the frame. As I was setting up the rear derailleur I kept having problems with cable tension, then I noticed the ferrules slipped into the frame (I though son-of-a-b8$ch!). I pulled the housings but had two ferrules stuck inside the frame. Luckily I was able to feed a long piece of housing fully into the frame and knock out the ferrules. At this point I determined I could run a full housing all the way from the shifter, through the frame, and to the rear derailleur. This worked great, XX1 shifts flawlessly.

Fox Shock/Fork Cable Splitter:
This took much longer than expected but got them working nicely. One lever sets Climb-Trail-Decend for both the fork and the shock at the same time. Works really nice, just took a bit of time to figure out cable lengths, and such. Fox has a really good installation guide online.

Wheels:
Wheels look amazing, so happy I decided to go carbon. The XD hub was preinstalled from XMIplay so that saved my from having to purchase an XD hub and throw the standard hub away. The 3K gloss finish on the wheels is flawless also. Applied a layer of Stans rim tape, mounted the Geax tires, added some Orange Sealant and the tires aired right up very easily. Just a test ride but the feel really smooth and stiff.

Issues:
1) Issue with shock corrected with 220psi to set sag properly.
2) Issue with a creak in the lower pivot resolved with some grease.  Recommend disassembling all pivot points and applying grease prior to assembly of components.

First Ride Feedback:
1)  Tires have a lot of flex, guess it's the 120tpi casing.  The GEAX Sugauro tires are soft and grippy.
2)  Bike rolls smoothly, suspension works very well.  Bike is fast and smooth on downhill section.
3)  Bike seems to need a bit more effort to climb than my IP-056.
4)  Lockout works well, CTD lever works as advertised.
5)  XX1 rear derailleur gave me some trouble.  The chain dropped off the 42T cog on me twice, came home and adjusted the High Limit Screw.  I think that issue is resolved.

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