Chinese Carbon MTB > 26er & 27.5 (650b)
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?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version