building a bike ?.

muz250

Iv been trying to convince a friend to get into road cycling, hes into mountain biking and is always skint. The biggest issue for him is the price of a new bike if it wasnt that pricey to get a half desent bike Am sure he,d get one I even said to him get a carrera bike from halfords for like £250, but still to much for him. The next step down would be buying a cheap one of ebay but thats what I did and know its not worth it.

Am going to keep pestering him to get one, mainly cause I bought a mountain bike to go along and ride with him, also to use as a crap weather bike. But once your used to riding road bikes on the road the mtb dose feel slow.


So I was woundering if say you new what you were doing Could you build a bike to the same quality as the entry carrera bike for less money, (new parts)?. Best bet would be a 2nd hand bike for my mate I think realy, but I was also thinking about it as a personal project.

gundersen

Just built up another bike for myself. Used a Tommasini frame I had lying around. The idea was to scrape up parts from ebay but ended up buying new kit from the internet (probikekit - como). Ebay is just too expensive today. Especially for me who knows what I want. I suppose if you buy Shimano or any other junk you could get parts cheap enough. So I guess its a question of what you will accept in the end. And used parts are not always up to standard.

And to be honest I think a package would be cheaper than doing it yourself.

redddraggon

If you built a bike it would more likely cost more than £250, probably a lot more. The bike would be probably be a lot better as well.

I'm building a winter bike up, the frameset alone cost £140 delivered (and that's the cheapest I could find), getting the rest of the components for less than £100 would be a struggle.

All the parts on my Carrera have lasted me less than a year, but I have used it a lot and it has n't been taken care of perfectly.

krakow

Is building up a bike yourself feasible for a pretty mechanically incompetent beginner? For example, without knowing anything much about it I was able to build myself a computer after buying the bits, as it all more or less just slots together. Is a bike broadly similar? If one makes sure to buy compatible parts is it reasonably doable, or is it a lot more complicated and fiddly than that? I can fix a puncture and can just about replace and sort out my v-brakes (though I struggle there). Is it foolish to think that Zinn and the web could guide me through the perils of fitting a BB, or a headset etc. etc?

mr-ed

A friend of mine recently wanted to get a cheap road bike and as I'd just built one asked me if I could put one together for cheap. I had a look round but it was basically impossible to do it within their budget. For example if you look at the ribble winter bike at 399 (i know its clearence) but then try to price all the parts up. I spent about £1400 on building my bike and in that price range I'm really glad I did as I defiantly got more for my money.

As for building it, I had never built a bike before and am not the best bike mechanic, my dad built his last bike back in the early 80s and hadn't done much cycling for years. So things had changes a little. It was fairly simple, theres plenty of good websites with help. If you can build a computer and you know how the bike should look I doubt you'd have too much trouble putting one together.

gkerr4

krakow wrote:

Is building up a bike yourself feasible for a pretty mechanically incompetent beginner? For example, without knowing anything much about it I was able to build myself a computer after buying the bits, as it all more or less just slots together. Is a bike broadly similar? If one makes sure to buy compatible parts is it reasonably doable, or is it a lot more complicated and fiddly than that? I can fix a puncture and can just about replace and sort out my v-brakes (though I struggle there). Is it foolish to think that Zinn and the web could guide me through the perils of fitting a BB, or a headset etc. etc?

i think so and certainly with a manual like Zinn you could do it.

The one thing stopping people is you do need a handful of specialist tools such as bottom brcket tools, cassette tool etc - that said, they are usually only 5 - 10 each and useful to have for the ongoing maintenance

the really big jobs like pressing headsets in place (assuming the frame doesn't just have drop-in integrated bearings which are well easy!) are best left to a shop.

it's a very satisfying experience - building and riding your own bike - i'd recommend it to anyone, but do beware that it can easily run over budget as you slip in a few "upgraded" parts over the original planned spec

heavymental

Surely it must be possible to get some old racer from the local free ads and maybe spend some money on sprucing it up? Is our sport so prohibitive to entry on a budget? Thats a bit of a shame really isn't it. I bet you could get something half decent second hand that'd give him the bug and mean he starts saving for something better. Scour all the classifieds sections of cycling sites on the net or maybe post a wanted ad in the classifieds here. Ebay isn't the only place to source second hand kit.

muz250

I wouldn,t have a problem building a bike (or I shouldn,t have trouble I should say, as I am a mechanic by trade) , it would be the fine tuning of the gears and making wheels true that would cause me the most trouble am sure. And grip tape!.

The point about getting the frame set for £140 is a good point also. dosnt leave much money for everything else. As far as my freind getting a bike Am going to start looking at 2nd hand options Am sure there are plenty of people out there with a decend bike not being used that would take £200. biggest issue would be getting the sizing right.

Am well into the idea of building my own bike, but there wouldn,t be much point in me going for a realy cheap build as I already have a very good starter bike, my trek 1.5. I could spend money on up grading this but I think I should leave it as it is and turn it into a winter bike when the time comes. I could say give myself the buget of say max £1000 over the rest of the year / next winter, make a plan of what am looking make and stick to it would definatly have to be a double and have better gears than sora. I could try and build a cheap one but It probably wouldn,t be as good as the bike I already own.

muz250

well after spending about 20 mins on ribble this is what Ive got so far if I were going for a cheap bike build.

Frame
Forks
hidden head set
wheels
tyres (got inner tubes here at home)

£221.26.! not so cheap.

I thought they would offer complete groupsets e.g levers, crank, cassete + derailurs.
This is were my underpinning knowladge falls flat.

Need to vary the serch a bit I think.