IP - 036 by Sussed.

[carbonazza]

I had a hard time removing the Eggbeater plastic caps too.
And replaced them with these Ti ones:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/251325275052?_mwBanner=1

My experience with BB ceramic bearings so far:

They seem to be harder to spin initially. And need some break in.
I didn't notice any real difference with the steel, and stainless steel bearings I tried before.
But we'll see if they resist better the wet/mud starting in October.

[Sussed.]

Great write-up.  So much good information!  I can't believe how bad your bearings were!  Living in a wetter location seems rough on bike bearings.  What is the advantage to the Ceramic BB30 kit over standard?  Mine are due for an upgrade.

The rear suspension odyssey is information I will certainly be passing on to my riding partner with the IP-036.

Im sure my religious washing of the bike after every ride was probably a big factor with the bearings.  Something I don't do any more  .  The bike did see a lot of rain in its first few weeks and a lot of mud Autumn onwards.  I guess with Ceramics and Stainless there is less rustable material.  I doubt whether the high prices of ceramic bearings is justifiable, I just saw a bargain on eBay and went with it.  Long term I reckon I will be buying cheaper bearings and replacing them often !

[Sussed.]

I had a hard time removing the Eggbeater plastic caps too.
And replaced them with these Ti ones:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/251325275052?_mwBanner=1

My experience with BB ceramic bearings so far:

They seem to be harder to spin initially. And need some break in.
I didn't notice any real difference with the steel, and stainless steel bearings I tried before.
But we'll see if they resist better the wet/mud starting in October.

Love the end caps ! I did have a look at some but as the service kit came with plastic ones I went with those.  I had to use a blow torch to heat up the flat blade screwdriver to create a new slot in the end cap to get it off    !!

In the future tho I don't think I will buy the service kit as the bushings and seals were in perfect condition, so I will just buy the bearings and some blingy caps !

[RS VR6]

Interesting that the rebuild kit comes with plastic endcaps. My 3's have aluminum ones.

Those Ti caps look nice. I just might have to pick up a pair when I service the pedals.

I took mine apart a couple months ago. Everything looked clean so I just applied some fresh grease.

[Sussed.]

Ok, so thinking I had sorted the play on the top tube pivot it turns out that its still there after rechecking post ride !! 

The videos below show the play after removing the shims and back to square one.  The second vid sows that it’s the bearings that are moving in the linkage.  So after playing around I have substituted one of the existing spacers for the shims to create a thinner spacer.  This has allowed the bolt to pull the bearings back into their housing and keep them there !

Again I have pushed and pulled on the linkage and bolts and it seems to have worked, I have also used some Loctite 641 on the bearing as an added precaution.

Hopefully this now has sorted the problem but will check again after its been out for spin !

[carbonazza]

Sometimes I envy my friends. Their bikes get clunky with time too.
But they don't notice it really, and get a reset once or twice a year by their LBS.
While poor of us can't stand a mm play here or there and are urged to fix it.

[Sussed.]

Nah, I dont envy them at all !  I much prefer to try and do the work myself, not always with success tho. 

[Carbon_Dude]

I just checked my IP-036 and luckily the only slop/play that I have in the pivots of my frame is the rear shock mounting point.  I probably could look into either getting a different rear shock bushing or maybe go with the RWC bearings that have been talked about earlier.  However, the approx 0.5mm of movement isn't felt while riding, probably because the shock is always loaded with my weight.  If I want to seek perfection, I may look into it a bit more at some point in the future.

My only other issue is with some slop/play in the headset.  This I do feel while riding.  Not sure why, I have tightened the stem up, in the correct order, with as much preload as I can.  I checked the spacers, however, it just seems like I can't get that last bit of movement out of the system.  Compared to my IP-057 which has no play whatsoever, I wonder if there is a mis-match of one of the angles of the headset bearings and the cup in the frame.