Building your own - rewarding or nightmare?

[Woody]

Guys,
Have any of you built your own bikes?
How did you find it?

Thinking this maybe an option instead of just buying a new bike as I don't have the cash right now.

Looking at building another MTB, but at a better spec than my current Saracen.

I used to build/maintain bikes when I was student working at (don't shoot me please.....) Halfords, and am still fairly handy with a hammer - sorry meant spanner.

There seem plenty of decent quality used bits for sale on several forums etc. so hoping to keep the cost down and the spec reasonable.

Any hints or tips?

Thanks

Chris

[LewisBH]

Great idea, and have always fancied doing a self build myself. But to tell you truth I'm not much of a mechanic! Best of luck to you sir.

[graememac]

I have 3 bikes that I've built myself. with a bit of shopping round and the odd second hand bargain you can get a well specced bike for not a lot. However you can also start with a budget and get carried away like I did building a mountain bike recently....

[kenno78]

I've built a few bikes in the past. Its lots of fun, but you'll end up spending much more than if you were to buy a decent S/H bike.

[Glideman]

I've built a few & the best way to do it is to buy all the bits from the same store & if it's your first build try to use a full group set instead of mix & match. It's very straightforward if you do it this way and have the right tools. The tools can be bought in a full kit from someone like park or a cheaper tool makers to fit the group set you are building.If you do get stuck you can always use Google. Oh and if you are going to do it a torque wrench is a good idea, it's the skill part of being a mechanic which takes some getting used to. The torque wrench will take out the guesswork.

[castex]

I had lots of fun putting mine together. Nothing too difficult (i didn't build the wheels), and the bike is unique. Go for it.

[CoolC]

I built my daughter's bike last year.

I spent quite some time (too much really, it was supposed to be a Christmas present but ended up being a birthday present) watching Ebay auctions picking up bits and bobs until it was just the consumables (cables etc) I needed which I bought new.

Building the bike only took a few evenings once I had all the parts.



Including getting the frame and forks powder coated it came in at under £200 all in. I couldn't have got anything as good for that money new.

[Fluffsri]

Loved it. It's youres then, no one else has the same.

[Celtic Dragon]

Ive done it for 2 now, and its fun!

The MTB I bought for the frame, and have replaced everything but frame and seatpost. I even had the frame powdercoated.

The roadie I'm building I've done the same, boguht the frame and wheels 2nd hand, and now just have £444 parts from Chain reaction to buy (complete groupset plus a few other bits). I'm looking forward to spending a day building it up.

[SkinnyBoy]

The positive - you get the exact bike you wanted. The cons - that budget, double it!

I love building bikes!

[shalmaneser]

It's a piece of piss.

You'll need to buy the odd tool, but as man old man always said (maybe..) tools aren't an expense, they're an investment!

Get the headset/disc mounts and BB faced at a decent local bike shop though, those tools definitely are just an expense!

[Woody]

Cheers guys.

I was thinking of this frame and going disk brakes and probably shimano gear. Just need to decide on forks.

[Justin S]

Not many bikes of mine over the years I haven't bought the parts and built myself. All production bikes have hidden cheap bits, which pack up early on in its life like headsets, bottom brackets, cheap stems, handlebars and seatposts, which is why I think I get better value of getting the right bits on first time round. Over time, you build up tools spares you need. Got a mates new Turner Burner to build up in 650b guise in the next week, which should be fun. I enjoy doing it and the majority is very basic engineering. I have my own headset press, bottom bracket taps and wheel jig for wheel building too, which are lifetime tools.

[Woody]

Fluffsri said:

Loved it. It's youres then, no one else has the same.

Was looking at the on-one frames; what's the quality like?

[Fastpedeller]

Woody said:

Was looking at the on-one frames; what's the quality like?

I just taken delivery of an On-One Pompino frame (now built it up and ridden it ) A superb frame - I'm sure I wouldn't have got better if I'd got one built by a framebuilder. In the past I've had frames built by a master 753 builder as well. So their design/manufacturing processes must be good.

[gazza285]

I have eight bikes.

Seven have been built by myself and one new shop-bought one. I do not ride the shop bought one as it doesn't feel like my bike at all. I've built the kid's bikes as well.

You don't need that many specialist tools, I have a cheapo Aldi kit, an Ice-Tools external BB tool, cone spanners and a decent chain breaker, everything else is just normal spanners, screw-drivers etc.
I build wheels using an old set of forks for the front and I do the rears in a cut down old frame.

I would definately give it a go, there's nothing complicated about a push-iron, and I get some peace and quiet in the garage while I'm doing it.

[walm]

I built one.
DAMN it was expensive.
Also, to be honest, not much of a challenge since all the bits just fit together.
A sort of grown up meccano.

Now building a wheel... that's a challenge.

[Batfink]

I bought all my bike bits in the sales. If you are not too fussed on specific parts then you can get some cracking deals. I think virtually every part was 50% off on my bike

[anonymous-user]

Not sure where people are buying their components but every time I have built a bike using new parts, I have ended up with a bike that cost much less than the equivilent bike would be were it an off the shelf bike. The BFe was under £2k the BFe had XT throughout, Revelations, Hope hubs, Mavic rims and Easton finishing kit.

Overseas places like bike-discount.de, Rose and bobshop.de are good for components and the usual suspects here in the UK are always selling stuff cheap. Hunt around, anyone who cant build a bike of equivilent spec for less is not doing it properly... or just walking into their lbs and buying boxed OEM cost at a stupid mark up.

[Justin Cyder]

You should totally do it. You'll end up with the bike you want & then see that under £1k at least, most mass produced bikes are usually compromised in one way or another in terms of their componentry.

The hardest part I found was working out exactly what would fit with what. It really pays to suss out the exact spec & fit of parts before you part with cash. The actual screwing together part is relatively easy. As others have said, knowing what to torque & how much is a big help, I have found more than one loose part on mine post build, including the bar riser which could have been catastrophic. Anyway, I built this & I'm loving riding it.