Building a bike

Raam

Hey there, as the title would suggest, I'd like to build my own bike. I already have a good one (mbk) but just for fun, I want to build another mbk.
Ideally I'd like to do this for under a grand. I'm thinking that the most expensive bits would be the frame and then the suspension forks (it will be a hard tail). Now, I can order all the parts from the interweb, that's the easy part, but the hard part will be putting evrything together.
Has anyone here ever built their own bike? If so, how did it work out? Any tips/tricks? I will, of course, be looking up every link I can find on the web to see what other people have done, but if anyone here can offer any advice, then please do!

thanks for listening!

KR

seamus

Try to plan it out before you go buying anything. Make a list of absolutely everything you needs, down to the tubes in your wheels and the allen bolt for your seattube.

Then price it all up, including delivery, and make sure you're not over (or over by too much). The last thing you need is to have most of the bike sitting there, and to be short a €100 part, and also short €100.

Also make sure parts are compatible, particularly - buy the right-sized headset, bottom-bracket and seatpost (both in length and diameter) for your frame. Buy a compatible rear hub, cassette and chain. Different amounts of gears have different cassette sizes. If you buy your drivetrain in a groupset, you won't have any problems.

If you plan on building it yourself, and aren't too familiar with bike maintenance, then get familiar. Most bike shops won't be overly crazy about you turning up with parts and asking them if you can use their tools, without having bought anything there. So you'll need some of your own tools. Don't skimp. Cheap tools wear out very quickly, and damage your bike.

What you'll need to build/maintain a bike (properly):
Screwdrivers, both type of head.
Full set of metric allen keys (2mm-8mm)
Full set of metric spanners (6mm-19mm)
Large Adjustable Spanner (1.5"-2" max opening)
Small adjustable Spanner (not necessary, but uber-handy)
Crank Extractor
Bottom Bracket Tool
Chain tool (chain breaker)
Cassette tool (used when adding/removing the rear cogset)
Chain Whip (used in conjunction with the cassette tool)
Spoke key (if you are building your own wheels, it would very advisable to buy a proper mount* designed for wheel building, but they're expensive)
2 x Hub spanners* (very specific, good-quality thin spanners designed for properly dealing with axels)
Wooden/Rubber mallet (for attaching the headset cups to the frame)
Headset Ram** (for attaching the headset cup to the forks)
Lots of grease.
Lots of Wd-40 or similar.

That's all I can think of at this moment in time.

*These have a real name, which escapes me at the moment
**This is a one-use tool, that will only come in handy when you are changing headset. You won't use it for maintenance or anything like that. It's also quite hard to come by. If you're friendly with you local shop, they may oblige, and add the cup to your forks for you.

Raam

Thanks Seamus,
I have added some of the stuff you mentioned to a list I had already started. I had completely forgotten that I will need some specialized tools.
Some of them I already have so that's a start.

KR

Raam

OK, here's my list so far. I already have the things marked with an asterisk, looks like I have a long way to go! Have I left any obvious parts out?

frame
forks

group set
crankset
bottom bracket
chain
cassette
front disc brake
rear disc brake
gear shifters
front mech
rear mech

* pedals
* seat
* seat post

wheels x 2
tyres x 2
tubes x 2
rim tape

headset
stem
handlebars
grips


Tools

---

* Screwdrivers, both type of head.
* Full set of metric allen keys (2mm-8mm)
* Full set of metric spanners (6mm-19mm)
Large Adjustable Spanner (1.5"-2" max opening)
Small adjustable Spanner
Crank Extractor
Bottom Bracket Tool
* Chain tool
Cassette tool
Chain Whip
* Spoke key
2 x Hub spanners
Wooden/Rubber mallet
Headset Ram
Grease
Wd-40