Build your own bike

"Brendo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am expecting a rather large amount from the ATO at the end of this
financial year, and was wondering what are the benefits of buying your bike
in 15 different bits and pieces from 10 different place?

Obviously financially it is far better to buy your bike fully assembled
from your LBS, but there must be some satisfaction gained from buying your
parts and building 'your' bike yourself, a totally unique piece of work.

Any opinions as to the worth of building your own?

It is a recommended strategy for hiding the fact that you are spending heaps
on a bike from the missus. If you can get a good frame past the missus, you
then gradually acquire your parts from various sources and then put it
together. My dual suspension mtb has bits from various Aust states, NZ, US,
Hong Kong, and UK.....most were opportunity buys that were on a closeout
deal or a weekly special.

It's a lot of fun (I even built up the wheels myself so I learnt something
as well!!!).

Gags

Brendo said:

I am expecting a rather large amount from the ATO at the end of
this financial year, and was wondering what are the benefits of
buying your bike in 15 different bits and pieces from 10
different place?

Obviously financially it is far better to buy your bike fully
assembled from your LBS, but there must be some satisfaction
gained from buying your parts and building 'your' bike yourself,
a totally unique piece of work.

Any opinions as to the worth of building your own?

Cannondale's come as a bag of bauxite, a lump of iron ore and a set of
instructions to put it all together, getting one of them together is
pretty satisfying! Putting 10 of them together ... sucks ... It's
kinda fun building a bike from parts the first few times at least.

As to unique? What's going to be all that unique about it? You'll be
using commonly available bits (shimano, campag or sram, most likely),
and probably a consistant frame & fork combo (so the rake/trail works
in expected ways and it handles predictably). Sooner or later most
bikes end up as bitzas as parts wear out and you replace them with
different bits. I have a 'unique' 2001 Trek 1400, it's got 10sp
Ultegra on it and hand built wheels. It didn't come like that from
the factory, that's for sure. They're just bits ... If you have a
hankering for a particular frame and a different groupset to that
which it normally ships, go for it. But unique? No more than any
other bitza. A custom paintjob is the (IMO) best way to make your bike
unique, it'll look different.

Brendo said:

I am expecting a rather large amount from the ATO at the end
of this financial year, and was wondering what are the
benefits of buying your bike in 15 different bits and pieces
from 10 different place?

Obviously financially it is far better to buy your bike fully
assembled from your LBS, but there must be some satisfaction
gained from buying your parts and building 'your' bike
yourself, a totally unique piece of work.

Any opinions as to the worth of building your own?

I once built a tourer from bits.

The only thing I had made up was the frame, and I chose Tange
Champion double-butted chrome-moly steel. I did a lot of
research beforehand, and gave the framebuilder the frame
dimensions I wanted, optimised for touring (angles, chainstay
and fork lengths, etc).

Everything else was individual parts of my choice, hubs, rims,
spokes, etc. So lots of individual bits. All assembled by
yours-truly, so I got exactly the bike I wanted.

It's a great bike, and building it and touring on it was a great
experience.

John

I always prefer building bikes up myself. In fact, with the only fully
assembled bike that I have bought in the past 20 years or so, the first
thing I did was to completely strip it down and reassemble it before riding.
I did this a) to ensure it was correctly assembled, b) to framesaver the
inside of the frame tubes (it was a steel frame), and c) to face and chase
the fork crown, headtube, and BB shell to ensure correct alignment.

"Brendo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am expecting a rather large amount from the ATO at the end of this
financial year, and was wondering what are the benefits of buying your bike
in 15 different bits and pieces from 10 different place?

Obviously financially it is far better to buy your bike fully assembled
from your LBS, but there must be some satisfaction gained from buying your
parts and building 'your' bike yourself, a totally unique piece of work.

Any opinions as to the worth of building your own?

Bleve said:

A custom paintjob is the (IMO) best way to make your bike
unique, it'll look different.

http://hired-goons.net/2x2

Even non riders can tell there's something different about that bike, and
it's still a real rideable bike.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack
of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses"
- Elwood Blues

Brendo said:

Any opinions as to the worth of building your own?

It will cost you at least double, plus a lot of time.

Building your on from pieces is what you do when either you can not
afford to buy a new (decent?) bicycle, i.e you gradually upgrade a
clunker, or when you get a bit here and a bit there.

If you want satisfaction, teach yourself maintenance, right down to the
level of being able to disassemble a cluster completely and rebuild it.
Hint, start with front whell bearings first, headstem, bottom bracket,
rear wheel, then cluster, then cassette hub. Then try wheel building.

If I had the money, I'd rather buy two bicycles for different purposes, e.g.
a ;ightweight commuter,
a atb fun bike
a shopper with trailer,
etc.

Terryc said:

Brendo said:

Any opinions as to the worth of building your own?

It will cost you at least double, plus a lot of time.

Building your on from pieces is what you do when either you can not
afford to buy a new (decent?) bicycle, i.e you gradually upgrade a
clunker, or when you get a bit here and a bit there.

If you want satisfaction, teach yourself maintenance, right down to the
level of being able to disassemble a cluster completely and rebuild it.
Hint, start with front whell bearings first, headstem, bottom bracket,
rear wheel, then cluster, then cassette hub. Then try wheel building.

If I had the money, I'd rather buy two bicycles for different purposes,
e.g.
a ;ightweight commuter,
a atb fun bike
a shopper with trailer,
etc.

And the more I look at prices for various items, the more I think
that I will go down that route. By the time you buy a decent
frame and then a 105 groupset, your already in the $1600 - $2000
range, with a whole lot of things still to come.

My reason for this was to get a cracker of a bike, and then keep
my other roady locked into the trainer. But it may be cheaper to
buy a larger frame (>60cm. I'm 6'4" with long legs) with [censored]
parts (Sora or Tiagra), and switch the parts on my current frame
(mix of 105 and ultegra) to the larger frame. Then I can leave
the current frame (60cm standard frame) with the newly fitted
[censored] parts on the trainer, and hit the road with the larger new
frame and the older but better parts. Do you follow?

And maybe to get something to toodle around on with the kids on
the weekend. ($5-600 mountain bike with road slicks).

Dave said:

Bleve said:

A custom paintjob is the (IMO) best way to make your bike
unique, it'll look different.

http://hired-goons.net/2x2

Even non riders can tell there's something different about that bike, and
it's still a real rideable bike.

That's one funky bit of kit! How's it work?

In aus.bicycle on Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:12:18 +1100

Terryc said:

If I had the money, I'd rather buy two bicycles for different purposes, e.g.
a ;ightweight commuter,
a atb fun bike
a shopper with trailer,
etc.

That's 3 purposes. at least. Don't you mean "I'd rather buy n+1
bikes for n purposes"?

Don't forget the recumbent in case you get tibial band problems.

At least thats what you can tell the others....

Zebee

Bleve said:

That's one funky bit of kit! How's it work?

Just fine!

The outside is 32:16, the inside 22:11, so they're the same ratio. The 11
required a bit of Dremel action to let it actually get far enough onto the
freehub. The chainstay is the perfect length to let me run the 32:16, and
the inner required a tensioner - I used the ghost ring to look different.

The best part is that the two chains move at different speeds, which means
the ghost ring spins at a different speed to both the crank and the wheel.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
"Forty-two" - Deep Thought

Zebee Johnstone said:

In aus.bicycle on Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:12:18 +1100

Terryc said:

If I had the money, I'd rather buy two bicycles for different purposes, e.g.
a ;ightweight commuter,
a atb fun bike
a shopper with trailer,
etc.

That's 3 purposes. at least. Don't you mean "I'd rather buy n+1
bikes for n purposes"?

You have to lead them gently into these things. I can see from his other
reponse that he is already thinking this way.

Quoted message said:

Don't forget the recumbent in case you get tibial band problems.

I already have enough musculo-skeletal problems that I do not need any
such excuses.

Besides, I always though the reason for buying a bent was so you could
judt rock into camp, throw a tarp over the top and go to sleep {:-).

In aus.bicycle on Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:37:09 +1100

Terryc said:

I already have enough musculo-skeletal problems that I do not need any
such excuses.

You obviously need a 'bent then! very good for your back.

Quoted message said:

Besides, I always though the reason for buying a bent was so you could
judt rock into camp, throw a tarp over the top and go to sleep {:-).

Only the trikers can do that. Us 2 wheel types have to lean it
against a tree first.

Zebee

Dave said:

Bleve said:

That's one funky bit of kit! How's it work?

Just fine!

The outside is 32:16, the inside 22:11, so they're the same ratio. The 11
required a bit of Dremel action to let it actually get far enough onto the
freehub. The chainstay is the perfect length to let me run the 32:16, and
the inner required a tensioner - I used the ghost ring to look different.

The best part is that the two chains move at different speeds, which means
the ghost ring spins at a different speed to both the crank and the wheel.

Apart from looking weird, does that set-up do anything with the physics
of pedalling?! Does the 'ghost ring' flop about at all? Nice bit of work.

--
Bean

Remove "yourfinger" before replying

Bean Long said:

Apart from looking weird, does that set-up do anything with the physics
of pedalling?! Does the 'ghost ring' flop about at all? Nice bit of work.

Once it's set up there's no real issues with pedalling other than a bit of
extra resistance caused by the extra teeth/chain interfaces. That's
probably less than jockey wheels.

The ghost ring bounces a bit, and I've got some gaff on the chainstay to
ensure that I don't lose too much metal, but it's not normally noisy. If
anyone else thinks it looks vaguely familiar you may have seen it at the
Scott 24hr last year.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
We're standing there pounding a dead parrot on the counter, and the
management response is to frantically swap in new counters to see if
that fixes the problem. --Peter Gutmann 18/06/1998

Dave said:

The ghost ring bounces a bit, and I've got some gaff on the chainstay to
ensure that I don't lose too much metal, but it's not normally noisy. If
anyone else thinks it looks vaguely familiar you may have seen it at the
Scott 24hr last year.

Ah, that explains why a friend of mine didn't think it was that
extraordinary. He rode the Scott and must have seen you.

--
Bean

Remove "yourfinger" before replying

Bean Long said:

Dave wrote:

Ah, that explains why a friend of mine didn't think it was that
extraordinary. He rode the Scott and must have seen you.

Said friend = Darryl Cram. He remembers you Dave!
--
Bean

"I've got a bike
You can ride it if you like
It's got a basket
A bell that rings
And things to make it look good
I'd give it to you if I could
But I borrowed it" Pink Floyd

Remove "yourfinger" before replying

Bean Long said:

Said friend = Darryl Cram. He remembers you Dave!

Aaah yes. Darryl has seen a few of my sillier projects through the years,
generally posted to another forum.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
If you drink Real beer, you become horizontal... so, if you
drink Imaginary beer, you become vertical... -- Thorfinn

Brendo said:

I am expecting a rather large amount from the ATO at the end of
this financial year, and was wondering what are the benefits of
buying your bike in 15 different bits and pieces from 10
different place?

Obviously financially it is far better to buy your bike fully
assembled from your LBS, but there must be some satisfaction
gained from buying your parts and building 'your' bike yourself,
a totally unique piece of work.

Any opinions as to the worth of building your own?

I have just been down the 'build your own' path - see
http://groups.google.com/group/aus.bicycle/browse_frm/thread/e97ae0490a370836/#

If you are patient and know what you want, and perhaps don't mind
getting 'last years model' there are some great bargains to be found.

phillip brown

Dave said:

Bean Long said:

Said friend = Darryl Cram. He remembers you Dave!

Aaah yes. Darryl has seen a few of my sillier projects through the years,
generally posted to another forum.

Meeting him for coffee this arvo to pick up my half of a PBK order.
I'll say Hi. :-)
--
Bean

Remove "yourfinger" before replying