What do i do?! building a bike

Anonymous

right, how's about this...
You stop being a whiney little girl. You're only 14, you have not found the "ideal" pedals, saddle, bar width (750mm at 14, seriously?)

As I said earlier, the kit that comes on the bike might be just to your liking.
1x9 is rare, but there's a very simple answer, don't use the granny.

CowboyBob

hbrashaw - I'm not suggesting that you will be hitting the pies and become a salad dodging fatty who's sheer weight will crush the bike under you giant arse. I'm pointing out that MTBing leads to bikes hitting trees/rocks/midgets.

As for theft, Some scroat will find it easy to get a 7 stone teen of a £1600 bike or break in to your shed.

It's good that you have a dream bike to aim for but priorities change.

What wrong with your current ride?

Ryan Jones

hbrashaw wrote:

and ryan jones, as i've said before, many complete bikes don't have the coponents i want and i'd end up spending what i originally bought the bike for in upgrades (which i have with my current bike) and ones which don't score well aren't normally very good. i will look on ebay for some parts particularly forks as there expensive.

It's not necessarily about what components you think will fit right, yes they might have all served you well in the past, however i know this first hand through building up my bmx's when i was your age (not too long ago i'm 18 now) parts i thought would be nice just didn't stack up on a different frame or build. Complete bikes are specced to suit the overall ride that the manufacturer want to create so the components should be a good selection with no real weaknesses, and even if a part isn't really to your tastes on the spec sheet, give it a try cause parts are that good now on the whole. And 750mm bars.......LOL

I had a scott nitrous 20 on finance (through my dad) at your age too, but that was 'only' 55 pound a month for 18 months

hbrashaw

i don't know if you realised, but the whole point of this thread was that it'll be 16 months before i'm finished, so i'll be 15 and 4 months, probably 10 stone+ and 750mmbars won't seem so unreasonable, and i don't genrally get chavy scrotes hanging around my trails nicking bikes off 15 year olds anyway. Also, i might like the components that come on a complete bike, but what would be the point? i'd have to wait 16 months before i got anything, and not all the components would be to my liking, and it probably wouldn't be any lighter/stronger/cheaper. My current bikes ok, but it's fairly XC based (100mm ht), the frames too big and i'll keep it afterwards for cycling to school/around town etc. and a bit of cross country. cowboybob, i'm not really worried about breaking anything through riding, and my current bike, which is weaker, i've never broken anything on.
yeehaa, if the complete bike wasn't 1x9, what would be the point in buying a front mech, shifter and cables but never using them?
i'll just build it up how i like it, but thanks for your 'input'

Anonymous

well, I'm what you might call a monster of a bloke, and 750mm bars are still too wide for day to day use.

Northwind

Bit by bit makes no sense at all to me tbh. Start looking for the parts you want at great prices, sure, but you're spending money now for a goal over a year away that might shift in the meantime. Cool new parts might come along etc. Also, if you're buying parts new you're going to waste the warranty with them sat in a box.

If you can actually build up a working bike on day one, ie buy the frame and transfer bits from an old build, that works, I've done that.

Northwind

"ok then, please can you find me a trail/am bike with sram gears, 1x9 or 1x10, charge spoon saddle, wellgo b-45's, 750mm bars/50mm stem, forks with 20mm maxle or fox/marz equivalent and travel adjust, and it has to be less than £1600 and weigh less than 28lbs"

Pitch Pro or Wolf Ridge and change the bits you don't like, selling anything that's left over. Might not hit your weight target but will otherwise give you performance which will be incredibly hard to match on your budget. And will also give you the chance to appraise some of your choices in the real world and realise that they might not make sense.

Though also, my Hemlock pretty much hits exactly what you're after and cost me under your budget (er, I think) apart from the daft handlebars. But I got enormously lucky on some of the parts.

legin

build it bit by bit its exciting and gives you a sense of value at the end.good choice i love mine.im buying myself a bike part every month so when things wear out im not left wanting.
try cutting peoples lawns or cleaning cars for extra cash.or see if your local bike shop has any odd jobs and if they will pay you in parts.

hbrashaw

I might just save up actually, not really sure, but it makes more sense keeping my money and gaining interest on it than having parts in my room, losing their value.

Ryan Jones

Save. build at once. ride a fresh bike in 16 months. run your current bike into the ground in the meantime.

hbrashaw

Probably do the above, but i'll try not to destroy my current bike! and i'll probably spread out the building out over a month, so i still have a fun build, waiting for parts, doing a your mtb's thread etc. but it's not to much of a wait, and parts aren't losing their value/warranty much.

gingerninja_17

the best way to do it would be as u said to get all the money and wait, because places like merlin cycles do gear kits which save u a fortune and offers for seatposts and saddles and things like that so that way you can buy it all in one go as opposed to not having enough then to take advantage of the offer

yh gettin a job helps, bike shop = discount :P, thats wt i did, im now 19 and have 4 bikes all of them built, wouldnt buy another new one, unless it was an orange 5 :P

Torres

£1600? I'm sure you could build something similar that did the job just as well for less -

NS Core Frame - Ebay - £150
RS Domains U-Turn - Pinkbike - £160
Halo Freedoms - Wiggle - £190
Hope Minis + Flaoting Rotors - Ebay - £140
Sram X7 Shifter and Mech - Ebay - £25
Sram Cassette and Chain - Merlin - £30
Raceface Evolve DH Cranks - Ebay - £70
Maxxis Highrollers - Ebay - £25
Raceface Evolve Bars - CRC - £15
Raceface ride stem - Ebay - £12
Charge Sponge Grips - Wiggle - £9
Charge Spoon - Ebay - £21
Fireye Seatpost - CRC - £15
DMR V8's - Wiggle - £20

Total - £882

That's what i did, and it comes in nearly half your price and ticks nearly all your boxes; however, it works for me.

Just keep in mind; products that everyone raves about may not suit you; have you tried a charge spoon? or 750mm bars? Or even the ragley frame? [The geometry's meant to be "different] Don't follow the sheep, find what wors for you brand names aren't worth jack if your bike doesn't ride right.