Building your own bike, whats involved?

fear_bocht

Can anyone tell me is there much work involved in this? I was thinking of giving it a go? Does it work out to be much cheaper?

And can many things go wrong?

It would also give me a better understanding of how my bike works?

Any comments appreciated.

Thanks

mockerydawg

It really depends on what you're building. I built my commute bike for about €400-500 and have been adding parts over time. Certainly its alot better than the what I could buy for the price new, but it takes some patience.
If you are building a bike I'd suggest not starting out with brand new parts, initially I just got a new frame off ebay and took parts off another bike to make this one.
Depending what you are making up take a look at http://sporting-goods.search.ebay.com/fetish_Sporting-Goods_W0QQcatrefZC2QQfromZR10QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsacatZ382QQsubmitsearchZSearch
for a decent frame for peanuts.

randomname2005

Building a bike can be a very rewarding experience and very stressful too! There are some parts that you may not be able to fit yourself - the headset for example. You 'can' hammer it in but if you don' t have it straight it can ruin the frame, so the best option is probably to bring it to a shop.
R

-Blanco-

Go for it! It's a rewarding process, but it can get quite frustrating at times!
As mentioned before ebay is a great place for picking up parts, price really depends on what kind of bike you want to build? Also you'll need unique tools to install some parts...a torque wrench helps too if you have one but I've never used one on any of my builds and nothings fallen apart yet!:D
There's plenty of sites offering help if you get into trouble on any aspect of your build...

Also don't forget grease!! Always comes in handy;)

seamus

Yeah, as said it's well worth it. I did it when I was a kid. There are always going to be certain things which you don't have the tools or expertise for - I would recommend having a shop build you wheels, or buy stock wheels. Unless you've built a wheel before, it's a very tricky process that can go very wrong. Ditto with the headset - I've found that fitting the headset to the frame is easy enough, but you can't fit it to the fork, no matter how hard you try and getting it all to fit together snugly and correctly can be tricky.

Always use the correct tools for whatever part you're putting in. If you're trying to bodge together a tool, or trying to force a metric bolt on with a US spanner, it's going to end in tears If you find you don't have a tool, always just go out and buy it, and save yourself the headache.

It will definitely give you a much better understanding of how the bike fits together, and will help you in your day-to-day maintenance and repairs.

cunnins4

seamus wrote:

Yeah, as said it's well worth it. I did it when I was a kid. There are always going to be certain things which you don't have the tools or expertise for - I would recommend having a shop build you wheels, or buy stock wheels. Unless you've built a wheel before, it's a very tricky process that can go very wrong. Ditto with the headset - I've found that fitting the headset to the frame is easy enough, but you can't fit it to the fork, no matter how hard you try and getting it all to fit together snugly and correctly can be tricky.

Always use the correct tools for whatever part you're putting in. If you're trying to bodge together a tool, or trying to force a metric bolt on with a US spanner, it's going to end in tears If you find you don't have a tool, always just go out and buy it, and save yourself the headache.

It will definitely give you a much better understanding of how the bike fits together, and will help you in your day-to-day maintenance and repairs.

Would you save much money building your own? Or is it like the guys who build their own guitars etc... ya don't save money, but it's more fun!

mockerydawg

My most recent bike is a dh bike, and i built it for under and grand. The same specced bike in the shop would be pushing 3 grand. So you do save money, but it also helps if you know what you are doing

fear_bocht

Thanks everyone for yer help. Im gonna give it a shot anyway. Hopefully it will all work out after taking some of the above advice.

cunnins4

fear_bocht wrote:

Thanks everyone for yer help. Im gonna give it a shot anyway. Hopefully it will all work out after taking some of the above advice.

Keep us updated, i'd be very interested to see how ya get on man!

randomname2005

fear_bocht wrote:

Thanks everyone for yer help. Im gonna give it a shot anyway. Hopefully it will all work out after taking some of the above advice.

Good stuff, if you need some help there are good resources:
http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/index.htm
http://www.parktool.com/

and of course at you local friendly boards->sports->cycling forum!

roughdog

I am going too build my own bike i have a workshop backround.

I want to build a road racer that to use for tryatalons and Iron man events.

Can someone sugguest what make of frame i should go for from there own experence?

Icyseanfitz

budget would be important