Hi everybody! After maintaining my bike and the bikes around me for some time and recently building my first wheel, I feel like it’s time for me to build my first bike. But I don’t know where to start as I never had to think about the choice of components and never had the chance to really chose a frame in the past.
I’m thinking that it might be better to start with a single speed in order to make things simple (and to have a reliable B bike for the northern german winters) but not sure if it’s actually a good move.
What should I research or know before I start this project?
How should I go about selecting the parts?
What are the lessons you learned when building and that I should know about?
The first thing I’d suggest considering is how many (potentially expensive) tools you’re prepared to buy, versus getting your bike shop to do things like pressing in headset cups, or dealing with assorted proprietary gizmos. What tools and knowledge you have could usefully factor into the frame and parts selection.
I feel like building a wheel is harder than building a bike. Building bikes is generally pretty straight forward particularly if you have maintenance experience.
Great advice above about having a shop do the steps you don’t want to buy tools for. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. The other piece of advice I would offer is just be patient and enjoy the process.
You could start single speed but I see no reason not to just jump in with gears. The front derailleur is usually the most fussy part (other than getting the bar tape perfect) but you could always just do a 1x build.
Research all the components specific tools you will be needing for the bike you are building up and then evaluate whether or not it is viable to own the tool. e.g. A bottom bracket tool is likely only necessary if you are going to do the maintenance of the BB yourself or if you are going to be building up more the one bike with said BB as there are way too many different standards.
For all tools you will be using repeatedly and/or regularily, go for the best quality you can afford or at least justify as stripped bolts are no joke.
Get a torque wrench fit for your application. Something that covers the range of 2 to 20Nm ist definitely necessary. Something that covers the 40 to 56Nm for BBs and cranks may only be necessary very rarely and can therefore often be skipped as an expense and you can have that specific part mounted by you LBS (just like Stephen proposed).
Edit: As a personal recommendation, do not skimp on the torque wrench and the repair stand. You’ll thank me later.
Components-wise:
Think (realistically) about what you will be using the bike for and how sure you are about dimensions and things. E.g. a powermeter crank costs a fortune. Should you discover at some point that you need a different crank length you can get the crank arms for a current SRAM Force crank separately for around 150€, while a Shimano powermeter needs to be replaced as a whole.
Very similar things go for integrated cockpits. While they look very nice, a replacement comes with a hefty price tag attached. So separate bars and stems might be the way to go to dial in your fit.
Counterpoint: I worked as a mechanic for ~30 years, and my “repair stand” at home is some cord hanging from the rafters in the shed. One piece has a padded loop that goes under the saddle nose, and the other has a large rubber-coated hook that goes around the bar/stem intersection. A fancy stand is not needed.
Re torque wenches: Some things are delicate (for instance lightweight handlebars, and some seat clamps, etc) and for these a torque wrench is indeed useful. If you have some experience and acquired “feel” most things can be safely done without needing a torque wrench, with exceptions. If however you’re either 1) hamfisted, so tend to break things, or 2) paranoid about damaging things so don’t always tighten them enough, a torque wrench can be a useful aid. If in doubt it’s safer to use one.
Helpful and necessary are not always the same thing.
Sylvain. You can do this. If you’ve built wheels then a bike’s a doddle. Don’t fuck around with a single speed - go the full catastrophe. My advice would be (1) it will take longer than you think (2) it will cost more than you think (3) tool acquisition is fun (4) dream big. Think in your mind’s eye what your perfect bike would be, then meticulously curate it. Make your build a serious logistical project. Sequence, selection, and bringing it together. Heaps of advice on the web and on these pages. I have built up both my bikes from the frame and eyeing off a third - maybe one of those raw Cannondale frames built up with EQUAL components. It’s got to be yours, unique and weird. Do it!
To chime in on point 1 (it will take longer): when in doubt, double-check. When getting nervous, pause. When you want to finalize and only have a short time to spend that day: stop, and resume when you have the time.
a steel MTB commuter was my first build and I enjoyed every moment. no fancy tools needed, nice cheap durable frame, mudguards for the weather, different rack options for carry-shit-olympics.
it can get expensive-ish if you add many new parts, but gears & drive train can be had cheap second hand - everything else as well actually.
keep us posted, would love to see what you went for
Frame prep: Making sure that surfaces are square and/or parallel and that threads are clean will save headaches down the road. Facing the bottom bracket shell and/or caliper mounts, if needed, are tasks you might want to give to a shop because of the tools required. Chasing normal bolt size threads with a tap is easy to do yourself.
Thank you so much everyone for your tips and recommendation! I’ll try to address everything as best as I can:
@Stephen_Poole I have a decent set of tools but it’s based on the bikes I fixed so far so it’s not covering everything and it caters more to low-medium cost shimano-centered bikes (from Sora up to 105 level of components). I don’t mind buying more tools if they are useful on the long run but I would like to avoid buying super specialized tools just for one build if possible. I’m just not sure yet what fits in which category!
@Nick I’m also considering the single speed option to have a bike with close to zero maintenance for winter riding/commuting as I already have a bike with front/back derailleurs for everything else. But then I never built/drove one so not fully sure if it’s the right call!
@Martin_I I am clearly not sure you about dimensions and things so having a way to modify the bike and the fit at a reasonable cost would be welcome. I guess I’m going with SRAM then! Although I don’t plan on having a powermeter crank on this one as it is going to be a commuter/winter bike normally. I will definitely go for separate bars and stems, that I know!
@Pete_Chesworth thanks for the encouraging words! I am mostly worried about the point (2) about budget. Already looking at pretty frames is bad for my bank account!
I’ve been trying to think about what I would want on this bike but I have such a limited exposure to high end parts and to different setups that I struggle to know what I want. Would you recommend starting with a pre-built list of components and then fine tune it piece by piece to have a starting block?
@Jack_Leville do you have a ballpark idea of how long I should expect for a first build done on the weekend hours?
@lucian_stanescu I have not really considered second hand options yet because I wanted to avoid the issue of being stuck because something is not set how it’s supposed to or a small part is missing but I like the idea in general. I will definitely update this thread! Just don’t expect me to be fast, I first need to budget it and probably then need to save more than anticipated ahah.
@Peter_Burghardt I looked up the prices of ParkTools for facing BB shell and caliper mounts, wow that’s costly! Are there cheaper decent options? I already own a tap for general mechanics but I imagine that I need one for bikes specifically?
I’m definitely a don’t measure, cut many times and buy cheap buy many times sort of person so please take this advice with a large pinch of salt.
As said above it will see definitely take longer and cost more than you expect. Don’t aim for perfection on the first attempt. Build something fun that you can learn from and then improve on the next build. There are so many projects left unfinished in search of the perfect parts etc.
Finally, do research any custom parts needed for the frame. Having just made the mistake of buying a second hand frameset missing parts it’s very frustrating to chase around trying to find small bits from 10 years ago.
Already looking at pretty frames is bad for my bank account!