A Cycling & bikes forum. CycleBanter.com

Go Back   Home » CycleBanter.com forum » Regional Cycling » UK
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Building your own bike



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old April 4th 09, 04:58 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Brown Cat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 62
Default Building your own bike

I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together myself.
This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better prepared to
make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this?
Is there any books specially for doing this?
Any potential problems doing this?
Ads
  #2  
Old April 4th 09, 05:08 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Roger Thorpe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 433
Default Building your own bike

Brown Cat wrote:
I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together myself.
This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better prepared to
make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this?
Is there any books specially for doing this?
Any potential problems doing this?

You won't get good value for money this way I'm afraid. The bike
companies buy in bulk and get much better prices than the shop can.
In my experience people, even smart well informed ones also make poor
decisions about components giving problems of compatability.
Sorry to be discouraging, but that's the way it is
Roger Thorpe
  #3  
Old April 4th 09, 05:16 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Simon Mason
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,174
Default Building your own bike


"Brown Cat" wrote in message
...
I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together myself.
This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better prepared to
make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this?
Is there any books specially for doing this?
Any potential problems doing this?


Get a bargain on e-bay instead.

--
Simon Mason
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/

  #4  
Old April 4th 09, 05:23 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Brown Cat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 62
Default Building your own bike

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:16:53 +0100, Simon Mason wrote:

"Brown Cat" wrote in message
...
I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together
myself. This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better
prepared to make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this? Is there any books
specially for doing this? Any potential problems doing this?


Get a bargain on e-bay instead.


I was more interested in learning how a bike goes together. Reading a
book doesn't work well for me, I have to have a go to learn. I could
always take my own bike apart and put it back together I guess.

  #5  
Old April 4th 09, 05:54 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Rob Morley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,173
Default Building your own bike

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:58:39 GMT
Brown Cat wrote:

I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I
was thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together
myself. This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better
prepared to make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this?


Only if you have very specific requirements for the bike that no
manufacturer comes close to matching. I don't know if it's still the
case, but it certainly used to be true that sometimes you couldn't buy
the component package (at regular retail prices) without the frame for
the cost of a complete bike.

  #6  
Old April 4th 09, 06:09 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Rob Morley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,173
Default Building your own bike

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:23:15 GMT
Brown Cat wrote:

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:16:53 +0100, Simon Mason wrote:

"Brown Cat" wrote in message
...
I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one
I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together
myself. This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better
prepared to make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this? Is there any books
specially for doing this? Any potential problems doing this?


Get a bargain on e-bay instead.


I was more interested in learning how a bike goes together. Reading a
book doesn't work well for me, I have to have a go to learn. I could
always take my own bike apart and put it back together I guess.

I think he means that if you get an eBay bargain you'll have plenty of
opportunity to practice your mechanical skills - it was certainly true
of the bike I bought unseen for £50, but I was prepared for that and
happy to spend another £70 on parts and a few hours of my time to get
it sorted.

  #7  
Old April 4th 09, 06:45 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Just zis Guy, you know?[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,166
Default Building your own bike

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:23:15 GMT, Brown Cat said
in :

I was more interested in learning how a bike goes together. Reading a
book doesn't work well for me, I have to have a go to learn. I could
always take my own bike apart and put it back together I guess.


It's not actually possible to buy components retail for less than
the cost of an assembled bike, but if you are fussy about what
components you want then you can buy a frameset and build it up
easily enough. I bought a frameset for my tourer years ago, I had
already upgraded pretty much everything on my Super Galaxy so I
transferred it all across and put the old stuff back on the Super G
as a hack.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Contents packed by intellectual weight and may settle
after posting. May contain traces of irony.
  #8  
Old April 4th 09, 06:45 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Phil Cook
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 741
Default Building your own bike

Brown Cat wrote:

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:16:53 +0100, Simon Mason wrote:

"Brown Cat" wrote in message
...
I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together
myself. This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better
prepared to make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this? Is there any books
specially for doing this? Any potential problems doing this?


Get a bargain on e-bay instead.


I was more interested in learning how a bike goes together. Reading a
book doesn't work well for me, I have to have a go to learn. I could
always take my own bike apart and put it back together I guess.


That's one way of doing it. I'd suggest getting a well used cheap hack
off e-bay, freecycle or similar in case you make a mess of putting it
back together. Then of course you may have problems getting it apart
in the first place. ;-/
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"
  #9  
Old April 4th 09, 07:07 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Martin[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 551
Default Building your own bike

Brown Cat wrote:
I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together myself.
This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better prepared to
make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this?


Like others have said, it will be more expensive doing it this way.

If you do it would probably be worth buying a groupset which has most of
the turny clicky bits, e.g.

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=ca...categoryId=159
I have never used this company, so don't know what they are like.

You would probably need a lot of other stuff like cables, seat,
wheels(1) tyres etc. You would also need to pay for some specialist
tools if you don't already have them.

(1) If I was going down this route, I would build the wheels myself.

Is there any books specially for doing this?


I would have thought that a decent maintenance book would do.

Any potential problems doing this?


The thing that would really put me off is the idea of putting the thing
together, and finding that the frame was the wrong size for me.
  #10  
Old April 4th 09, 07:13 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Peter Grange
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,170
Default Building your own bike

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:23:15 GMT, Brown Cat wrote:

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:16:53 +0100, Simon Mason wrote:

"Brown Cat" wrote in message
...
I was thinking of getting a new bike and rather than buy a new one I was
thinking about just buying all the parts and putting it together
myself. This would help me learn how it goes together so I'm better
prepared to make repairs / maintenance.

Would I get better value for money doing this? Is there any books
specially for doing this? Any potential problems doing this?


Get a bargain on e-bay instead.


I was more interested in learning how a bike goes together. Reading a
book doesn't work well for me, I have to have a go to learn. I could
always take my own bike apart and put it back together I guess.


Just remember it's the second part of that exercise that's the more
difficult, and for all of that exercise you don't have a bike :-(
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Building your own bike Mark[_4_] Techniques 25 September 30th 07 07:38 PM
Building a trailer/bike RV Mark[_4_] Techniques 8 September 29th 07 04:56 AM
BMX Bike building Bob McCarthy Techniques 7 February 11th 06 02:51 AM
Building a bike? TAKennelly Techniques 13 June 6th 05 09:35 PM
Building a bike? TAKennelly Techniques 4 June 5th 05 10:01 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:57 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 CycleBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.