Building my first bike - pointers?

Monk@

hey guys, have had bikes all my life, and while i have a mountain bike, its not great for commuting so i looked into getting a second bike.

looking around ebay i found a good, cheap carrera subway 2 2011 frame, and thought i'd get it.

always wanted to build a bike, so thought why not, lets learn.

anyway, need a few pointers now, as in what to buy etc, i've got a rough idea, but dont know if what i'm looking at will all work with eachother etc, also, i think/know some of the stuff i'm looking at is probally overkill, but i tend to be that way, lol

handlebars.
what size stem etc do i need, been looking at these, but dont know which size
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Full-Carbon-M ... 3cbd348a32

brakes/gears
i'm looking at getting the shimano alivio integrated shifter/brake lever units,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-Alivi ... 20c0d2ae68
would they work ok with a set of avid bb7 mechanical brakes? (its a disc frame)

i'm looking at going 8 speed, wise move?
also in terms of compatibility, what goes with what? ie, as the shifters are 8 speed, so long as everything else is, it shouldnt matter?

and anyone got any experience with the schwalbe city jet tyres?

stanarchist

Obviously a lot of what I'm about to say is opinion based, but they are opinions formed over many many years experience. So here goes.

First the facts - you will need a stem to fit a inch and eighth steerer. Length and rise is a personalthing but I'd personally be looking at approx. 80mm

The brake lever/shifters will work with the BB7 brakes but make sure they (the brakes not the levers) are the MTB version and not the road - like these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AVID-V-Brake- ... 2c5f403381

However, I'd go for 9 speed over 8 - 8 is harder to get hold of (not impossible but far less common) I'd also go for brake levers and shifters as seperate units. Not essential but it will allow you to set the position on the bar to suit you better. If you do go for 8 speed you will need 8 speed compatible shifters, chain, cassette and possibly chain rings.

The bar/stem combo you are looking at is overkill in my opinion. It is more of a race set up and willput you in a very 'flat' position , which is not ideal for commuting or comfort. Plus its a set position so you won't be able to adjust the bars to your preference.

Schwalbe city jet tyres are OK.

Monk@

kl cheers,

one the bars front, what would you suggest, more of a mountain bike set up? for ref. i'm 6'1''

The Rookie

On a Subway I'd stick with flat bars (a la MTB) you can lower them by flipping the stem or putting spacers above rather than below the stem until you get it right for you.

Simon

bails87

Look at carboncycles.cc for cheap, light stuff.

A stem and some flat bars should be under £25. you can get seatposts and pedals from there too.

MichaelW

The quality level of the "finishing kit", ie post, stem, bars makes little difference to the actual performance of a commuter bike. As long as the size and shape is good for you, it really doesnt matter if they are pimped carbon or low end aluminium, except that low-end alu is more resilient to the kind of scrapes and gouges that commuter bikes suffer. On-one make a nice selection of bars that are more comfortable than classic straight MTB style.

Commuter bikes are high mileage so you want the most durable bottom bracket and headset and fairly good hubs built in a std wheel pattern to "light touring" grade.

With Shimano groupsets, the best price/performance for commuting is generally around Deore.

Monk@

kl cheers guys, can anyone recomend a wheel set? was looking to around £60-80 really. but i've never really brought parts for bikes before, so dont know if thats a realistic price.

jejv

MichaelW wrote:

On-one make a nice selection of bars that are more comfortable than classic straight MTB style.

Yes, on-one do some thoughtful handlebars.

I'd suggest Raleigh RHN361 "trekking" bars. Perhaps upside down. Google: raleigh trekking bars
[not the butterfly things] With the sweepback, you'd want a longer stem than with straighter bars, for the same reach.
Perhaps with: http://bbbcycling.com/bike-parts/grips/BHG-27/
- which can be cut to the length that you want.

The sweepback makes them a lot more comfortable for the wrists, arms, and shoulders than straighter bars, and the position of the inner bends allows the controls to be quite close together, so the distance between the grips is more like shoulder width - like drop bars. A practical, but unfashionable halfway-house between drops & straight bars.



8-speed could be OK. 9-speed gives you more choice of gears at the back. I don't like the cassettes shimano & sram want to sell me, so I make up cassettes like 12-28,13-30,13-32 8-speed, 13-34 9-speed, by combining cogs from different cassettes. If you go for 8-speed (I wouldn't unless you mash up cassettes, or want road cassettes), 8-speed EZ-fire dog-leg shifters are cheap, and nice to use. EZ-fire is a bit non-U, though, on bike forums.

A nice thing about these non-U Hybrid frames is they take wide tyres. If you have a spare set of wheels, you could have a 12-23 cassette with 28mm slicks one day, and an 11-32 cassette with 57mm knobblies the next. Err - OK, you have an MTB already.

You should be able to work out from how you use the MTB on the road what front gears you want. 48-38-28 cheap, but if you are spinny, or go up steep hills, maybe 44-32-22 MTB gearing. MTB front + road rear gears can make sense.

We can't tell you what stem length - it's somewhat a matter of preference - the relationship between your feet and your bum is more important. We don't know how tall you are.

jonnyboy77

It's a lot of fun building your own bike. I did this last year for the first time, started with me buying a second hand frame (bare, no components at all) and then I spent a month or so researching compatible components and built up a spreadsheet with links to items, my budget, the cost and then any savings over and above those figures (I wanted to track spending too!).

I found a few decent suppliers along the way (some are cheaper for certain items, where others become more expensive, so shopping around really paid off). The For Sale forums/threads and eBay also worked out well, along with a couple of Wanted posts on here or STW.

In the end I managed to complete the build, performed all the work myself (headset was the trickiest!) and now I have a fully functional bike, built to my spec and my budget - it's a rewarding feeling!

With regards to drivetrain, I already had an 8-speed setup from an old bike, and for now I'm running 1x8 using this, but I plan to upgrade some time in 2012 with a road based group (keeping an eye out for deals!) and will look to go 1x9 or 1x10 (although the latter will require a new rear hub/freewheel I think ...).

- Jon

Edit - this was my build list: http://goo.gl/jzjjw

The Rookie

When I built mine I sourced a lot of stuff second hand, either on here (classifieds) or via ebay, you get better parts for less money that way! In a few places i bought stuff that wasn't exactly what I wanted, but allowed me to get the bike finished and then upgrade them later to what I wanted, especially useful as my commuter build was followed by my new MTB and then the wifes and daughters new bikes, so 'cast offs' were put to good use on those bikes. For example when I went SRAM on my commuter, the shimano shifter went on my daughters bike I was still building, the XT rear mech went on my MTB and the LX off that went on the wifes bike and I sold the Tourney that I had put on to get it running.

Simon

wyadvd

I'd make it a fixie. You wont regret it!

frame from the council dump etc etc. Full instructions from SHELDON BROWN:

http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html

some parts here:

http://www.velosolo.co.uk/

can particularly recommend their ready spaced shimano disc hub fixed conversion (no lockring to strip)