building your own bike

for a beginner, i strongly suggest buying a bike that already built for several reasons:

1) it's generally cheaper unless you spend a lot of time researching and bargain shopping
2) there's a lot of quirky things that take a fair amount of experience to get right (i.e. chainline, cable length, derailleur adjustment)
3) there's a lot of specialized tools involved
4) getting the right parts in the right sizes can be challenging and confusing

my recommendation is this: get a complete bike, and as things break and wear out, which they will, teach yourself (or better yet have someone teach you) how to maintain/repair your ride. when it's time to upgrade to a new steed, you'll be ready to build your own, and you'll have accumulated most of the tools you require.

all of that said. i've built my own bike, and it was a wonderful experience. i'd suggest getting a complete tool kit like the Park "advanced mechanic ak-37." expect to pay in the neighborhood of $200 to $300 and have application-specific tools that you don't need.

or you can buy individual tools to fit your applications. off the top of my head, the must-haves are:

- bike stand (not included in a tool kit)
- brake cable cutters (no. regular wire cutters won't work well enough)
- cassette lock ring tool
- bottom bracket tool
- chain breaker
- chain whip
- good, complete set of metric allen wrenches

good to have: cone wrenches, headset press, spanners

as for what parts you need, the fact that you aren't sure reinforces my initial warnings, but a good guide is going to a site that has a custom build worksheet. lots of online retailers will have these, but for a really good one try:

http://www.universalcycles.com/bikekit.php

good luck, and feel free to contact me if you move ahead and need some help.

We have a small team in Los Angeles and we are building some new XC bikes... check out our blog over the next couple weeks as we document our process. Granted we have some awesome team sponsors, but its fun to geek out on stuff!

sweet idea!

like NV said get a compleat bike if you want to know how to build one (dont recemend this it puts me out of a job) go to your local shop and ask we dont mind a question every once in a while

it`s clearly the best choise!if you are lucky you can find a bike cheaper then bulid it!

sorry!bilding it!

This Site is a cool site, for building bikes. But I have a prob opening up the rear casset file