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
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.
Looks awesome Gazza, and I've now got a weight target to beat.
I had a paypal 'spend £40 get £10 off' voucher for CRC. Got Shimano BB and Shimano hydros for ... £31!
I swear by Shimanos brakes. Got SLX on FS and BR-M395 on the HT. These are BR-M355 which are an OE jobbie, although they came with olives and barbs for shortening. They look identical to the 395s, which, despite the price are fantastic proper brakes. At 600g the pair they weigh about the same as Deore/SLX/XT too.
My used XT cranks arrived too, £25 & 615g with chainring bolts. Just bare cranks, I'll be putting on a ss chainring of course and sliding it into the BB-51B 93g
I had a paypal 'spend £40 get £10 off' voucher for CRC. Got Shimano BB and Shimano hydros for ... £31!
I swear by Shimanos brakes. Got SLX on FS and BR-M395 on the HT. These are BR-M355 which are an OE jobbie, although they came with olives and barbs for shortening. They look identical to the 395s, which, despite the price are fantastic proper brakes. At 600g the pair they weigh about the same as Deore/SLX/XT too.
My used XT cranks arrived too, £25 & 615g with chainring bolts. Just bare cranks, I'll be putting on a ss chainring of course and sliding it into the BB-51B 93g
Just been out 'fixed' and 'ss' on the FS 26er to get a feel. Locked out 1x10 30T 11-36. I think I'll be starting with 32-18, that should fall between 6th and 7th gear once I've allowed for bigger wheels, shorter cranks, faster rolling tyres and less weight.
Just hope my hamstring heals well, this ain't going to help!
Just hope my hamstring heals well, this ain't going to help!
Postie's been 
Tyres.
Heard lots of good things about Specialized tyres, so I'm giving them a go here. £25 delivered worn in for me. Easy tubeless, roll well, grippy but not mud clogging, cheap and light
F: Ground Control 2 Bliss 29x2.1 666g
R: Fast Track Control 2 Bliss 29x2.0 591g.
I reserve my right to swap to bigger heavier tyres if these are a bit harsh rigid
For reference my front 26" Bontrager Rhythm wheel tubeless with a Chunky Monkey 2.4 on feels light enough to me, and that weighs 1850g.
My 29er front wheel & tyre comes to 1630g plus whatever the tubeless gubbins comes in at, so I'm happy with that.
Rotors.
I like the Avid HS1. Lighter and less rubby (a tad thinner) than XT. 160mm for £7.60 the pair with bolts from a Chinese ebay seller with a UK mailing address. 115g each with bolts.
I imported some identical and run them on the HT with no problems. The look and feel identical to the more expensive UK HS1s so I cannot tell even if they are fakes. They're a lump of steel with holes drilled in either way.
Stem and Bar
OK, I've got to try these out. The £15 unbranded carbon bar has to be tested right? £21 delivered from, again, a Chinese ebay seller with a UK mailing address. 158g for my 680mm riser.
Stem, similar story, carbon/ali? Anyway, £9.49 delivered and 129g for 80/31.8mm.
Seatpost
I was all set to go the same route with a seat post, unbranded carbon, but couldn't find what I want from a UK seller. So an OE On One Ali jobbie, unused from STW classifieds for a tenner. 242g is perfectly reasonable for this in 27.2x350mm.
Pic doesn't show my matching single plain carbon 5mm headset spacer. £1 and 2g
A few more bits to buy, my spreadsheet is forecasting a total of £486 and 10.76kg.
Tyres.
Heard lots of good things about Specialized tyres, so I'm giving them a go here. £25 delivered worn in for me. Easy tubeless, roll well, grippy but not mud clogging, cheap and light
F: Ground Control 2 Bliss 29x2.1 666g
R: Fast Track Control 2 Bliss 29x2.0 591g.
I reserve my right to swap to bigger heavier tyres if these are a bit harsh rigid
For reference my front 26" Bontrager Rhythm wheel tubeless with a Chunky Monkey 2.4 on feels light enough to me, and that weighs 1850g.
My 29er front wheel & tyre comes to 1630g plus whatever the tubeless gubbins comes in at, so I'm happy with that.
Rotors.
I like the Avid HS1. Lighter and less rubby (a tad thinner) than XT. 160mm for £7.60 the pair with bolts from a Chinese ebay seller with a UK mailing address. 115g each with bolts.
I imported some identical and run them on the HT with no problems. The look and feel identical to the more expensive UK HS1s so I cannot tell even if they are fakes. They're a lump of steel with holes drilled in either way.
Stem and Bar
OK, I've got to try these out. The £15 unbranded carbon bar has to be tested right? £21 delivered from, again, a Chinese ebay seller with a UK mailing address. 158g for my 680mm riser.
Stem, similar story, carbon/ali? Anyway, £9.49 delivered and 129g for 80/31.8mm.
Seatpost
I was all set to go the same route with a seat post, unbranded carbon, but couldn't find what I want from a UK seller. So an OE On One Ali jobbie, unused from STW classifieds for a tenner. 242g is perfectly reasonable for this in 27.2x350mm.
Pic doesn't show my matching single plain carbon 5mm headset spacer. £1 and 2g
A few more bits to buy, my spreadsheet is forecasting a total of £486 and 10.76kg.
Ta
Whilst the tyres appeared to inflate alright, it looks like the front isn't seating quite right. Looks a bit lopsided, although the telltale lines just above the rim edge indicate it's seated correctly, and it made reassuring popping noises whilst being inflated. It has a pronounced kink when spinning it in the frame, even with a tube in, as if it's out of true. Some investigating & swearing to do.
Whilst the tyres appeared to inflate alright, it looks like the front isn't seating quite right. Looks a bit lopsided, although the telltale lines just above the rim edge indicate it's seated correctly, and it made reassuring popping noises whilst being inflated. It has a pronounced kink when spinning it in the frame, even with a tube in, as if it's out of true. Some investigating & swearing to do.
Tried lots of different things, it's shagged. Oh well 'twas only a tenner.
A new one on it's way, lighter S-Works variant @ £22.49.
Halfords are handy at the mo - next day del to store and price match. A bottle of stans fluid had leaked a bit on it's way to store - thimblefull I reckon - so we settled on half the matched price.
Headset top cap for a quid, and, after a lot of looking, a saddle. £32.99 for a Bioflex Carbon Ti @ 208g. Keeps with the black n white colours too and even looks like it should fit me - not a million miles away from my Aliante road perches.
Polished XT cranks fitted in to the BB51B. Pedals I already had - A530s, spd 1 side, slippy flat the other. Quite surprised they only weighed 382g the pair.
Chainring arrived off the STW classifieds. Barely used Hope 32T, £18 & 35g.
Total so far pictured £401.52 & 9.432kg.
About £80 and 1.1kg to go, on brakes & adaptors, chain & tensioner, sprocket kit, grips.
A new one on it's way, lighter S-Works variant @ £22.49.
Halfords are handy at the mo - next day del to store and price match. A bottle of stans fluid had leaked a bit on it's way to store - thimblefull I reckon - so we settled on half the matched price.
Headset top cap for a quid, and, after a lot of looking, a saddle. £32.99 for a Bioflex Carbon Ti @ 208g. Keeps with the black n white colours too and even looks like it should fit me - not a million miles away from my Aliante road perches.
Polished XT cranks fitted in to the BB51B. Pedals I already had - A530s, spd 1 side, slippy flat the other. Quite surprised they only weighed 382g the pair.
Chainring arrived off the STW classifieds. Barely used Hope 32T, £18 & 35g.
Total so far pictured £401.52 & 9.432kg.
About £80 and 1.1kg to go, on brakes & adaptors, chain & tensioner, sprocket kit, grips.
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