Zipp 2001 Part 4: The Build Starts

It’s finally time to start building up the Zipp!

Before assembly I had to figure out how to stuff a 1 1/8" disc fork into a frame with a 1" head tube. The steerer does actually fit, but there isn’t much clearance. I turned some custom thin-walled headset cups out of 7075 to adapt the head tube and clear the steerer by a fraction of a millimeter. I don’t love this solution (a bit sketchy with tight clearance and thin wall in shear), but this is temporary: I’ve gotten most of the way through designing a completely custom fork for the bike with a real 1" headset, but it’s not quite done yet and I really wanted to put the bike together.

Extra large headset cups installed:

The one-piece stem is also a bit chunky looking on the narrow head tube. I think this will look better once I design a cable guide for the entrance into the frame that transitions into to the headset and stem shape. Under the stem is a custom 3d-printed ABS-GF spacer that lofts the stem shape into the round headset cup shape:

The bike with a wheelset I had kicking around installed. This aren’t deep enough or Zipp-enough; if anyone from Zipp/SRAM is reading this, this project could really use some deep-dish Zipp rims :)

The eagle-eyed reader might notice that I’ve got 28mm tires installed front and rear and think “wow, a bike from 1996 cleared 28’s, how ahead of its time”. Technically they do clear, but you wouldn’t want to ride them. Rim clearance is also a challenge: most disc rims are wider than their older rim brake counterparts, and the rim to chainstay clearance on this wheelset is almost as tight as the tire to chainstay clearance.

Here’s how the rear brake hose routing works. Not the most beautiful, but it works. The hose runs to the bottom side of the chainstay to a cable tie-down point I bonded on, and up the original rim brake cable exit into the frame.