Building HT Bike

carbonfiend

I've just bought an On One Scandel frame with the purpose of building a training HT/Winter bike. I have all the spare parts etc from up grades I've done over the years and was wondering if building this bike up myself is a realistic possibility considering I have no experience in the slightest of doing this. My 'mechanic' skills are limited to re greasing a headset, changing gear cable on road bike and a bit of indexing. I would obviously buy all the relevent the tools that I don't have and I do have a stand already. Is this gonna be beyond my reach or just give it a proper mechanic, has anybody else tried this who has similar of even less experience??
Cheers

topsey_turvey

Easy peasy. Check out the Park Tools website for guidance.

Take your time, it's not a race. Always check lengths twice or three times before you cut anything. Make sure that any bolts turn smoothly and are not crossthreaded before you start spannering them tight. Use decent grease/threadlock/copperslip as appropriate. Read the instructions that come on any bits of gear. If you get confused go into the kitchen, make a brew and leave the build for 20 mins. It will be so much clearer when you go back.

If all else fails ask on here; many of us build our own bikes and it will be difficult not to get a solution.

Furbes

Topsey Turvey wrote:

Easy peasy. Check out the Park Tools website for guidance.

Take your time, it's not a race. Always check lengths twice or three times before you cut anything. Make sure that any bolts turn smoothly and are not crossthreaded before you start spannering them tight. Use decent grease/threadlock/copperslip as appropriate. Read the instructions that come on any bits of gear. If you get confused go into the kitchen, make a brew and leave the build for 20 mins. It will be so much clearer when you go back.

If all else fails ask on here; many of us build our own bikes and it will be difficult not to get a solution.

Exactly as Topesy said , take your Time . My Kona was my 1st ever ground up build , took me ages as i didn't want to mess anything up ... The Lads here (&lasses) have a wealth of experience with them & also , if you have a decent LBS , they'll be happy to answer any Questions . What i done when i was finished , was i brought it down to my LBS , just to give it a going over to make sure everything was safe , i haven't looked back since :!: I'm even looking forward to my next build :!:
Happy building

craker

It's all really straightforward, if you can change gear and brake cables & adjust them afterwards...

Gotcha's that you might need to be wary of -
bottom bracket length
crank to b/b attachment (always used to be square taper but the times they are a changin')
fork steerer tube diameter vs headtube diameter (1 1/8" is pretty universal on mtbs)


When I built my racer the only job I was unwilling to try myself was to mount the headset bearing cups, you ought to have a proper headset press to do that or the cups may end up jammed in the headtube out of square.

However I did do it on my mongrel mountain bike / commuter (heat + hammer = diy heaven). No problems as far as I can tell.

Good luck, it's a good little challenge.

dave_hill

Don't forget that bottom bracket cups and pedal threads have left- and right-hand threads depending on which side they fit! Drive side is usually LH thread (i.e. turn it anti-clockwise to tighten).

Probably the only specialist tools you'll need to start with are the correct tool(s) to fit the BB with; a headset press (although if you ask me nicely I'll describe the, ahem, less subtle method ( :shock: ) and a lockring tool for the cassette. Oh and a chainwhip.

It's always nice to have cable cutters and a suitable torque wrench too, but these can come later. The rest is all pretty basic - a decent selection of allen keys, torx keys, screwdrivers and pliers is about all you'll need.

Might be an idea to visit your LBS anyway and ask them to face the BB shell and the rear brake mount too. Oh and fit the star nut into the fork steerer if you're using one.

Northwind

Scandal comes faced already so that should be fine... No real hiccups that I can think of with building one up, other'n that it's a full-length cable outer job, so some cable kits are no good. All the sizes for clamps, front mech etc are on the on-one website too. There's a first time for everything

carbonfiend

cool & cheers thats all the encouragement I need so will give it a go or at very least do what I can and use the experience to educate myself on the workings of a bike a bit more.

This is what spares I have to build with, complete XT group set, hope mono mini's, hope and chris king headset, SID forks , seat post and seat and of course two wheels! Need stem and bar.