Building a bike myself!

miss notax

Yes, I know, crazy idea for a girl eh

I am the soon-to-be proud owner of a new bike courtesy of Ebay, that I would like to tweak and refine to make a lightweight bike for xc racing (within limits and bearing in mind that it's not carbon and I am not that fast anyway!). My cunning plan is to force myself to get to grips with bike mechanics by dong all the work myself - I am actually quite a practical person, but laziness has made the bike shop an easy option in the past :oops:

We have lots of tools and any that we don't have, I can borrow. I work best by reading how to do something, looking at the pictures, and then doing it. So my question is what book / App or other form of information do I need? It needs to be idiot proof :?

(I will be getting a friend to check all of this, to hopefully prevent some kind of hideous 'didn't tighten it enough' injury!)

njee20

Park Tools website and YouTube are your friends!

miss notax

Indeed!!!

Is there a book though? I guess I am rather old fashioned (ie old :? ), but I much prefer to physically HAVE something than to read about it on the web and then dash outside - by which time I will have forgotten it all anyway

1mancity2

You tube is your friend but also this book is brilliant, Zin and the art of mtb maintenance.
I read first watch second and if still unsure, wing it.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalo ... GMQ8wIwAg#

1mancity2

Ohh and make sure you use a torque wrench

miss notax

1mancity2 wrote:

You tube is your friend but also this book is brilliant, Zin and the art of mtb maintenance.
I read first watch second and if still unsure, wing it.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalo ... GMQ8wIwAg#

Thank you - just ordered from Amazon

nicklouse

miss notax wrote:

1mancity2 wrote:

You tube is your friend but also this book is brilliant, Zin and the art of mtb maintenance.
I read first watch second and if still unsure, wing it.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalo ... GMQ8wIwAg#

Thank you - just ordered from Amazon

Sorry but that was a waste of money.
Parktools and Sheldon are all you need.

Sheldon for all things historic and a great database of info and Parktools for anything and everything.

There is very very little that needs referring to.

Print out the Park pics of which way he BB and pedals are fitted and removed and you will be sorted.

Also download the manuals fr the kit on or to be fitted as that is often he best ino and it is free.

Chunkers1980

I wouldn't bother with a torque wrench either. More important tools to have first. Learn to feel.

1mancity2

Chunkers1980 wrote:

I wouldn't bother with a torque wrench either. More important tools to have first. Learn to feel.

Really?
how can you learn to feel when you don't know what say 5nm feels like....

cloudynights

most good tradesman and engineers can work by feel if your tighten a bolt up or a screw you just know when its enough, comes with years of working with different materials, and of course over doing it and snapping a few, you can use a torque wrench and still snap stuff if bolts faulty

Chunkers1980

Yes, get yourself a proper set of allen keys too - they have an in-built 'torque' measure in their length.

benpinnick

Yeah, you know when you are tight enough. No torque wrench here either. That said, I did once over-tighten a set of Sunline carbons, or so I thought (they cracked). I complained, extolled my skills as a bike mechanic etc. but admitted to no Torque wrench, said they must be faulty... no joy on a replacement. Two weeks later they recalled them all due to manufacturing issues which might cause failure at the stem clamp.