Originally Posted by fronesis

My previous posts here were based upon my experience putting together a size 53 Whipshot Ti for my wife. Today I put together a size 55 Whipshot Ti for myself.

1. The brake pads, and particularly the brake pad retaining spring was specced incorrectly. Once again the spring did not hold the pads tightly enough, allowing the spring and pads to bounce up and down, and when this occurs the rotor hits the retaining spring. I made a video showing the problem. Replacing the pads and spring with a brand new set of SRAM Road pads/spring solves the problem entirely.
2. The chain was again too short when sizing by the SRAM Force 1 manual. On my wife's bike the chain was 2 or 3 links too short. On my bike the overlap of the original chain showed two internal and one external link (SRAM manual says overlap 2 external and 2 internal links). I counted the links: the bike came with a chain that had 54 external links, plus the master link. When sized according to SRAM's instructions, my chain has 55 external links, plus a master link. This is a very slight difference; I'm sure it had no real effect. (But it might have on my wife's bike). But I figured since I was redoing everything else, might as well do it right.
3. The supplied SRAM master link was incorrect. The two "halves" of the master link both pointed in the same direction, so when installed together one would point in the right direction and one in the wrong direction. I replaced this.
4. The brake hoses were again far too long. I removed about 5 inches from my front hose and almost 8 inches from the rear.
5. The RD housing was also a bit long. It would have been totally workable, but I resized it anyway.
6. When doing so I had to pull the RD cable from the housing, and I discovered that they used the wrong housing ferrule at the lever. They used the same kind as they used at the rear, which has a short nipple sticking out, but this won't fit in the lever and it had been smushed down and basically destroyed (it was really ugly). I replaced with a proper ferrule.
7. The brake hose connections were made with no grease whatsoever, and I suspect there are a number of places on the bike where grease is missing. The headset was greased, so I'm hoping the BB and crank were as well. That's the only part of the bike I didn't redo.

I'll post the video of the brake pad spring tomorrow if anyone cares to see it. All the other issues are totally minor and are to be expected. But the incorrect pad spring leads to the rotors rubbing, and it's very hard to diagnose the problem. I wonder why others haven't had this problem, because I got it on 2 out of 2 bikes. Even with the caliper centered perfectly on the rotor, if you bounce the front wheel on the ground, the pads and spring will slip down and it will rub...badly.

Bottom line: GREAT BIKE, but unless you like doing your own wrenching, take it to your LBS for assembly, and ask them to go over quite a few things.

Putting everything back together on my bike took me about 8 hours total...