Build thread: cheap fun light. Ish.
Discussion
This'll be my first build from scratch. I've previously bought whole bikes mostly secondhand and upgraded them.
A couple of people have asked for a bit of a build blog so why not. It might be of use to others thinking about what they could do instead of buying something complete in a bike shop or wherever. And it'll help me deal with not being able to ride much at the mo as I've injured myself a bit climbing bloody hills. Which I do usually like doing.
Once you've been riding a bit, bought a few bikes, you can get a clear picture of what you need from the next+1 and inevitably that will be difficult to find off the shelf. Currently I ride:
2012 Giant Anthem X2 FS 26" SLX 1x10, XC and a bit of trail riding, even a day of uplifts in the alps!
2010 Giant Rapid winter road bike was flat bar now drops, Sora
2014 Ventura CP50 Argos carbon special, 105, all the nice bits off the Rapid swapped over, summer road bike
So I need something for winter riding, potholed lanes and bridleways, something for the dodgy Sustrans routes, riding with the kids or up t'pub, oh and something to build fitness up on the south downs and to try a bit of bikepacking with. Something fun and capable, tough, but not too heavy, oh and cheap.
Under £500 and 'around' 10kg, defo under 11. Not much of an ask then.
I lurk on STW and have bought and sold a few parts on their classifieds which is quite busy. I realise I need a 29er, rigid, singlespeed in steel in my life. Obviously I've never even ridden any of these things before. Suddenly someone's put up an On One Inbred 29er with matching carbon fork and headset for cheap, and it accidently gets delivered to me whilst the missus is away for a week. Whoops.
This whole exercise will be about compromise of weight vs quality vs price and I enjoy doing a bit of research on all the components. I'll try and explain my thinking for each part as they arrive over the next few weeks whenever the wife isn't looking. All weights are as accurate as my cheap ebay postage scales allow. I've got to find everything, except pedals and chain which I've got.
Frame, headset (On One) and fork (On One ali+carbon rigid) costs me £130 and weighs 3680g. So not that light at all really, but it's the right size (18"), well regarded, strong, fun, incredibly versatile and silly cheap. It's hardly been used, the ltd edition pearl white paint is lovely. It's much better than I expected.
Suggestions & questions welcome, I've not made my mind up for sure on some stuff
Running total £130 3680g.
A couple of people have asked for a bit of a build blog so why not. It might be of use to others thinking about what they could do instead of buying something complete in a bike shop or wherever. And it'll help me deal with not being able to ride much at the mo as I've injured myself a bit climbing bloody hills. Which I do usually like doing.
Once you've been riding a bit, bought a few bikes, you can get a clear picture of what you need from the next+1 and inevitably that will be difficult to find off the shelf. Currently I ride:
2012 Giant Anthem X2 FS 26" SLX 1x10, XC and a bit of trail riding, even a day of uplifts in the alps!
2010 Giant Rapid winter road bike was flat bar now drops, Sora
2014 Ventura CP50 Argos carbon special, 105, all the nice bits off the Rapid swapped over, summer road bike
So I need something for winter riding, potholed lanes and bridleways, something for the dodgy Sustrans routes, riding with the kids or up t'pub, oh and something to build fitness up on the south downs and to try a bit of bikepacking with. Something fun and capable, tough, but not too heavy, oh and cheap.
Under £500 and 'around' 10kg, defo under 11. Not much of an ask then.
I lurk on STW and have bought and sold a few parts on their classifieds which is quite busy. I realise I need a 29er, rigid, singlespeed in steel in my life. Obviously I've never even ridden any of these things before. Suddenly someone's put up an On One Inbred 29er with matching carbon fork and headset for cheap, and it accidently gets delivered to me whilst the missus is away for a week. Whoops.
This whole exercise will be about compromise of weight vs quality vs price and I enjoy doing a bit of research on all the components. I'll try and explain my thinking for each part as they arrive over the next few weeks whenever the wife isn't looking. All weights are as accurate as my cheap ebay postage scales allow. I've got to find everything, except pedals and chain which I've got.
Frame, headset (On One) and fork (On One ali+carbon rigid) costs me £130 and weighs 3680g. So not that light at all really, but it's the right size (18"), well regarded, strong, fun, incredibly versatile and silly cheap. It's hardly been used, the ltd edition pearl white paint is lovely. It's much better than I expected.
Suggestions & questions welcome, I've not made my mind up for sure on some stuff
Running total £130 3680g.
Edited by richardxjr on Friday 31st October 00:56
Wheels. Tricky when you've not got much money. The achilles heal of all off the shelf bikes.
I am a recent convert to tubeless on mtbs. It's brilliant. Saves weight, no more punctures, less faff. But it restricts the rims and tyres you can use, and you won't want to be swapping tyres over too often.
So I need easy tubeless. Strong, light and cheap. Easy, pick any two. Nothing's happening in the classifieds.
Merlin. Stans ZTR Flow rims handbuilt onto Shimano QR hubs for ... £95 + delivery! As long as you don't mind white rims. That's fine by me. The rims are very popular and designed for tubeless.
I've decided on a wheelset with a regular Shimano freehub, and use a singlespeed adaptor that uses the freehub, instead of a purposebuilt SS hub. Loads more choice and future upgrade/saleability.
The catch is the hubs. Deore 525. They're heavy and need looking after. But they are easily looked after and can last forever. And they come with Shimano QRs which seem to be the strongest QRs out there, so I can happily use these instead of a bolt, so I won't need to carry a bolt spanner with me in case I need to whip the back wheel off.
The wheelset is heavy. But it's new, strong and wide and tubeless will save me 300-400g in tubes and I'll be saving weight in the tyres to make up for it. And cheap. 2272g + 124g for the QR skewers.
Running total £231.49 6076g
Crikey! 6kg already, need some light stuff to get 'around 10kg'. Good job there's no gears!
I am a recent convert to tubeless on mtbs. It's brilliant. Saves weight, no more punctures, less faff. But it restricts the rims and tyres you can use, and you won't want to be swapping tyres over too often.
So I need easy tubeless. Strong, light and cheap. Easy, pick any two. Nothing's happening in the classifieds.
Merlin. Stans ZTR Flow rims handbuilt onto Shimano QR hubs for ... £95 + delivery! As long as you don't mind white rims. That's fine by me. The rims are very popular and designed for tubeless.
I've decided on a wheelset with a regular Shimano freehub, and use a singlespeed adaptor that uses the freehub, instead of a purposebuilt SS hub. Loads more choice and future upgrade/saleability.
The catch is the hubs. Deore 525. They're heavy and need looking after. But they are easily looked after and can last forever. And they come with Shimano QRs which seem to be the strongest QRs out there, so I can happily use these instead of a bolt, so I won't need to carry a bolt spanner with me in case I need to whip the back wheel off.
The wheelset is heavy. But it's new, strong and wide and tubeless will save me 300-400g in tubes and I'll be saving weight in the tyres to make up for it. And cheap. 2272g + 124g for the QR skewers.
Running total £231.49 6076g
Crikey! 6kg already, need some light stuff to get 'around 10kg'. Good job there's no gears!
Edited by richardxjr on Friday 31st October 00:58
Inbreds are pretty heavy and I'm not sure you're going to save any weight going tubeless - rims & tyres are a bit heavier and a couple of cups of sealant will negate most of the saving of no tube. Much better for punctures though - what tyres are you going for? I got some cheap Onzas from Evans, fairly light and only £16 each.
My In-bred. Frame was £70, Exotic carbon forks were £65, the wheels are now second hand Hope ProII (£50) with new Pacenti rims, £80, and DT Swiss spokes, £40. Tyres were free, but should have been £50. Brakes were £55. Cranks and new chainring were £35. Single speed spacers and sprocket £20. Chain, saddle, post, bars, stem, headset and grips were stuff I had kicking around, as were the pedals.
I'll get a weight for you when I get home later today.
I'll get a weight for you when I get home later today.
Edited by gazza285 on Friday 31st October 09:22
richardxjr said:
What gearing gazza? I'm thinking 34:16 to start Don't forget that it's actually a three speed bike, sit down, stand up and push.
Probably 32:16 now.
Serviced the headset bearings that came with the frameset. Remove, take apart, clean, regrease, re-assemble. Serviced the hubs too as is recommended with new Shimanos: pack a bit more grease in as they can be stingy in the factory, and grease up the skewers. MUCH better than the Giant sealed jobbies which need drifting out and renewing.
Serviced the headset bearings that came with the frameset. Remove, take apart, clean, regrease, re-assemble. Serviced the hubs too as is recommended with new Shimanos: pack a bit more grease in as they can be stingy in the factory, and grease up the skewers. MUCH better than the Giant sealed jobbies which need drifting out and renewing.
Nice. Following this with interest as I briefly had a SS Inbred a few years ago.
Richard - if you're after some cheap parts for the build I might be able to help. I have a pair of functional Formula RX brakes, in white
, 2 x part worn but never punctured 29er 2.4 EXO Ardents that work great tubeless, and they size up big which helps with cushioning on a rigid build. Also got a scruffy pair of XT hollowtech crank arms doing nothing, and a Kinesis Strut 750mm carbon bar which is super light at 175g. I’ll never get round to advertising them on STW, and I doubt I’ll use them again so I’m happy to let them go for a decently low price to a fellow PH’er. Can send pics over the weekend if you’re interested.
Richard - if you're after some cheap parts for the build I might be able to help. I have a pair of functional Formula RX brakes, in white
, 2 x part worn but never punctured 29er 2.4 EXO Ardents that work great tubeless, and they size up big which helps with cushioning on a rigid build. Also got a scruffy pair of XT hollowtech crank arms doing nothing, and a Kinesis Strut 750mm carbon bar which is super light at 175g. I’ll never get round to advertising them on STW, and I doubt I’ll use them again so I’m happy to let them go for a decently low price to a fellow PH’er. Can send pics over the weekend if you’re interested.gazza285 said:
Mine weighs in at 11.2kg, most of which will be that heavyweight frame. It gets ridden more than my geared bike.
Want!!!Loving this thread although it's going to start costing a lot of members money. I really need to stop spending your budget on bike bits and clothes and build a new bike instead.
Herman Toothrot said:
456 would be horrid on a rigid fork. Inbred good.
I bought our youth a 26er 456 on the strength of my Inbred build, it's a bloody horrible thing. Heavy, slow steering with a 100 fork, I dread to think how slow it would be with a 5 or 6 inch fork. I think my 29er build works because I used a 26er fork, which sharpened the steering up no end.
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