Finally Madam Ling-Ling is complete… I started following this thread from the early beginnings and with the help of some of you as well as the guys over at mtbr forum fell in love with the concept of a Chinese Carbon build. I got a great deal on a brand new 2012 Momsen SL929 which I used as the base for this build, stripping and selling the unwanted parts off to other hubbers. The frame I went for was 1 of the first generation IP-256 frames from XMIPlay, Peter’s service was great and no communication issues there. Because I ordered the frame before they started advertising or manufacturing them there was quite a wait but the turn-around time on recent orders has now improved hugely. Otherwise, after a whole lot of “hub-hunting”, “ebay swindling” and “crc scouring” I had the rest of the parts I wanted. The LEGEND that is BogusOne did all the custom paint for me on the frame, bars, stem and fork. Because I wanted to go 1x10 without a chainguide I did quite a bit of research around chaindrop and best ways to avoid it. This motivated me to go with the Hope Retainer Ring, has a more defined narrow-wide tooth shape than the Wolftooth or RaceFace chainrings and combined with the ZEE Clutch type derailleur because the ZEE has a shorter cage than the XTR but still capable of the 11-36 range of my cassette…so shouldn’t have any issues there. My initial plans of a weight-weenie/gravel-racer style build will be pretty attainable just by swopping over to some lighter tyres, can lose around 500g – 700g if I go over to Spez/Geax rubber. I’ll let you all know how she rides soon enough… oh...and yes the rear brake cable has now been internally routed and no longer taped to the downtube...
