Building a Hybrid...

twist83

Looking for some help.

I am a MTB person always have been and always will. However I recently bought a Boardman for the commute as lugging my full sus Santa Cruz to work every day and then worrying if it would be there on my return started to grate.

Anyway the other half tried the Boardman briefly (MTB girl as well!!) and loved it. She wants one now for a commute and also so we can go for a blast on the roads at the weekend for a few miles.

I said to her I would build one as I fancy a challenge and can get good Value for money. The problem is where to start... I have built plenty of MTB over the years and I know what Spec/groupsets etc etc to use or not to use. However when it comes to Road/Hybrid I have no idea.....

Only stipulations it has to be a disc compatible wheelset and frame and the rest can be whatever. Budget wise I guess £300-400 using second hand bits.

So could you guys suggest to me some parts as per below. She is a 5ft 3, 8 stone little thing as well so nothing burly needed.

- Frames & Forks? Not bothered about carbon as not going to be in budget. Rigid front
-Groupsets? What is good? I am guessing a double up front? What about rear?
- Brakes I am fine on
- Wheelset & Tyres - Mainly being used for commuting on concrete, maybe the odd path chucked thats a bit more rough.
- Finishing kit like bars, saddles, stems etc?

t4tomo

Hybrid covers a multitude of sins from flat bar road bikes to MTB with slick tyres. If you "know" mtb why not head down the MTB with rigid (and hence light) forks with some tarmac biased tyres.

supersonic

I don't think you'd get very far with that budget unless you stumble on some real bargains - and that's the key, have to keep looking. Nothing there I can help you much with I am afraid! Your budget would get something like this new:

http://www.ashcycles.com/site/giant-rapid-4-2011

And they are great frames.

flimflam_machine

I'd agree with the advice of simply buying a new bike unless you're planning on doing it really cheap (<£175). I recently built a hybrid/slicked-up MTB (non-disc) as a scruffy alternative to my road bike, I think my total spend was less than £150 and it's a lot of fun to ride.

It was based on a Carrera Subway frame (a surprisingly decent frame from an otherwise mediocre bike) that someone threw out. It provided me with frame, forks, cranks, seatpost and saddle, stem, handlebars and brakes. The rest came from bits that I had lying around and purchases from eBay and the classifieds here and at retrobike.co.uk. The classifieds were particularly good for getting good quality 2nd-hand stuff, but I did invest in new (or tried-once-and-taken-off-again) drivetrain. If you're in a hurry to get it built you'll have to pay, but if you can wait for bargains to come along and don't mind mixing and matching you can do it cheap, for example:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zoom-220-Hand ... 4cff74fa41

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CANNONDALE-HA ... 1c24ffa874

The only specific advice I'd give is that I'm really enjoying riding a 1 x 9 setup (42-tooth front, 11-32 cassette). This gives me all the range I need and has a pleasantly minimalist and lightweight feel, plus it saved me the price of a front mech.

Initialised

Gator skins on a rigid's Hybrid enough for me.

twist83

Well doing well so far. Picked up the below

Kona Dr Dew frame complete with Headset, Seat collar for £23 off Ebay
Brand new Kona P2 700c Front forks for £30 of retrobike
Picked up the lot below for £125 as well
SRAM X5 rear mech
SR FD950 front mech
SRAM 18 speed shifters
Avid BB5 mechanical disc brakes
Truvativ Touro 48/34T compact chainset (plus super smooth BB)
Lightweight double wall alloy 700c wheel set with discs + 9 speed cassette + Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres
9SP Chain

Total so far is £178. I have spare bars and stem and cables. Just need a post and saddle and we are good to go for what I think is a pretty good spec for the ££££ spent

The Rookie

Not a bad effort, my commuter cost me just under £400 and is based on a Carrera Gryphon frame with mostly MTB components, I stuck to 26" wheels, disc brakes and all up it weighs just under 10Kg, I use a single ring up front (no more needed on my commute) and runs an X9 mech with an X0 grip shifter (chosen to declutter the bars and for lightweight).
We built a real budget one for the daughter having lucked into a near complete bike that was far to big for her at a good price, so it was mostly a re-frame, we ended up building it for £85.

Shem

t4tomo wrote:

Hybrid covers a multitude of sins from flat bar road bikes to MTB with slick tyres. If you "know" mtb why not head down the MTB with rigid (and hence light) forks with some tarmac biased tyres.

This was my set up for many a year. I bought a fairly basic MTB and added semi slick road tyres, narrow seat and aero bars. It made for a good commuter because the front shocks took most of the punishment the roads could throw and the aero bars gave me a way to get out of the wind for the straights/ downhills.