Building a bike

Kerrjohn1983

Hello guys am in to road cycling and currently have a Trek madone 2.3 alloy bike. I really want to upgrade and have come up with the idea of buying a frame and moving my groupset across, was wondering if people had any tips on this as am sure its not as straight forward as it is in my head. any help would be greatly appreciated

topdude

Hi, it is certainly possible but there are many pitfalls. There are many different standards and sizes of components which may or may not be different on the old and new frames.
For example :
Headset
Bottom bracket
Crankset
Front mech mount
Seat post
You need to do a lot of homework to work out what will and will not fit.

dgunthor

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19657221#p19657221]Kerrjohn1983[/url] wrote:

Hello guys am in to road cycling and currently have a Trek madone 2.3 alloy bike. I really want to upgrade and have come up with the idea of buying a frame and moving my groupset across, was wondering if people had any tips on this as am sure its not as straight forward as it is in my head. any help would be greatly appreciated

that's a very expensive way to perform an upgrade (framesets are very expensive), would be cheaper to buy a new bike and sell yours

markhewitt1978

I did pretty much the same thing as I had a Trek Madone 2.1 which I swapped out the frame for a Scott CR1, which I still ride now. Although the bike shop did the work for me.

Although I ended up upgrading all of the rest of the components, at least I did it over a period of time - I wouldn't have been able to get away with buying a new bike outright!

The most notable thing from my experience is that I had the same wheels for a while, and they were the stock Bontragers which are pretty terrible and heavy. It was only when I switched to my current Shimano RS80 that I properly realised the benefits of the new frame, and indeed I would suggest getting new wheels first - before a new frame, as if you do eventually change then you've already got good wheels to go with the good frame.

The main pitfall I think is tooling, it does seem almost everything needs a specific tool!

Compatibility may well be an issue, for me the new frame had a BB and headset so that wasn't a problem. All the rest of the parts swapped across ok except the seat post, which was entirely a different size.

keef66

I did the same thing with the CR1 frameset. Snapped it up because it was a bargain, I wanted to see what the fuss was all about with carbon frames, and I'd never afford a complete carbon bike.

As soon as it arrived I whipped everything off my old alloy bike except the BB and headset which came with the frame, and the seatpost which as Mark found was a different size. So I got a carbon bike for the cost of the frameset and a seatpost!

Then over the following 12 months I accumulated enough extra bits to build 2 complete bikes. The better / lighter stuff going on the CR1 and the chunkier, heavier stuff on the Racelight Tk which has become my wet weather bike.

Matthewfalle

Its a fine cheap way of doing it - framesets can be had for £100 from somewhere like Planet X - naturally the sky is the limit though.

Throw is some new cables for=, say, £30 all in from somewhere like CRC, a pot of grease and some degreaser and anything is possible on a budget.

Its all really simple to build up as well - just look long and hard at everything before you start and do some Youtubing if you're not sure.

The first time I did it I put both bikes next to each other and literally lifted one component off one and put it on the other - simple as. Take your time and its no effort at all.

Remember - its a bicycle not the space shuttle.

Any problems post in here and we'll sort it.

If you're after a frame, I have a brand new never used Planet X Team superlight with full uncut carbon forks, new headset (fitted), brand new carbon seat post, brand new carbon stem available.........