From The Ground Up..

Hi,
Apparently had posted this in he wrong thread.. But here it goes again..
Very recently I've been wanting to build my own bike from ground up after seeing my friends work in progress. I am hoping for this to become a hobby outside of my full time job at the moment and just would enjoy any advice this community can offer me about parts, getting to grips with the bikes and all the related stuff as at the moment I know very little. So any useful information would be great.
Also, I would like to be pointed in the right direction for starting out stuff as I've surfed the classifieds and sometimes I'm unsure what I'm reading.
Any information at all would be appreciated for this new guy!
Thanks!

I have acquired a bike frame, which measures 53cm. I'm wondering what crank setting would I use? What are the differences?
Also, any forks that could be pointed my way? Looking for a 1" fork set.
Thanks

For the cranks I would set them on Medium though if you are careful you could push them to Super- just don't expect them to last as long.

What...?

You're mad @salmonchild.

I'd go a for quarter off 13 or even a Csharp.

Oh yeah, you're right I (incorrectly) assumed that the frame has a Spanish threaded BB.

My bad, sorry OP.

Thank you @salmonchild and @WjPrince, now just to get that sorted!

However, it could be helpful if you explained what you mean by quarter of 13/Csharp. As I'm still learning at the moment. @WjPrince, my bad, should've stated this in the previous comment

Are you familiar with ruthless internet piss-taking?

Start here

I'm teasing mate...

Have a read around.

@WjPrince Ha, that's how clued in I am.

Thanks @Yukirin.

before you start talking cranks, are you building this single speed or geared?

Might be easier to post a photo of this frame you have and let us know what you hope to do with it.

Have a read around the existing projects and you'll get an idea. For me I also looked in the classifieds to pick up the parts I need for my build relatively cheaply.

Also google and YouTube are you friends; if you don't know how to do something post here but also take a look and you'll certainly find a video showing how on the web.

The Sheldon brown site is also good but i find it can be confusing if you're new to this.

That would be important because, I'm thinking of going single speed so I can get used to riding it and stuff but then fit it with a flip flop wheel as it can be changed to fixed. I'm unsure if this affects what crank you're having though.
Hopefully these pictures suffice, but the frame needs some cosmetic work to it.

2 Attachments

With regards what to do with it. I'm just wanting to build this and hopefully get to grips with fixed gear/single speed with the logistics of it all. Nothing hardcore, just standard, beginning logistics as then I can build on them myself. Whatever help I receive is appreciated though.

sounds good, its pretty straight forward.

I'm unsure if this affects what crank you're having though.

same cranks ;)

Before you begin your intrepid journey. One couple sentences of advice..

The first bike I built, by total chance, was made from nice steel. Every bike I've built since has been made from the same stuff. A friend of mine built a bike, starting like you are with a fairly tidy looking frame - got it all the way to the end and it rode... like shit. Really heavy, crappy steel and nasty-as-shit geometry resulted in a super metallic clangy ride. The geometry bit can probably wait but creating a bike from a frame which has been set with good fuckin steel is the difference between loving your new machine and enduring it coz you built it.

Granted, you already have the frame (minus forks by the pic), but consider that. The frame is the fucking nucleus, teh kernel! If its crap - everything is crap, regardless how much care and attention you put into choosing everything else.

The good news is, there's plenty about. Run an ebay search for Reynolds 531 - there's plenty of decent frames made from that which won't cost you the earth.

Good luck!

ps. lots of other questions you might have (best/budget wheels, which stem? etc) are probably quite well served by the Search ^^

Ah I see, I suppose that's true. But the frame feels fairly light when holding it and lifting it. But hopefully it rides decently when it comes down to it! But yeah I'll keep an eye out for the Reynolds 531, as a safety precaution ha! Thanks for the advice.

Weight it and report it, so we can help guess what steel this was made from.
The lugs look lovely, so it could be a nice one to ride.

Yerrr but... Even if the frame does ride like shit, the chap has still learned how to put a bike together and can polish his skills by taking it apart again and rebuilding the parts on a better frame - he'll probably be looking for a frame with track-ends sooner or later anyway.

As long as the frame you have is safe (get someone to look it over if you aren't sure), then get stuck in.

"Make cheap mistakes" would be my advice to a first-time builder: you don't want to cut your teeth on anything fancy.

Difficult to tell from the photos, but it looks to have cast dropouts, so it's not a POS. Either way, there's no reason that it can't be built into a perfectly serviceable Winter/commuter/daily/hack/beater: mudguard eyelets at the rear and in this context the weight of the frame is irrelevant.

Have a browse through the Park Tools blog and Sheldon Brown to get familiar with terminology and compatibility issues.

Lastly, even if is not great tubing, it may still ride great and there's one way to know: build it up!

My Carlton Continental with Truwell tubing rides as smooth as butter.

^ Exactly! "Lighter" does not necessarily mean "better": a heavier frame will have a more planted feel on the road and smooth out the ride.

My daily ride is 531ST and the "fast" bike is Columbus Max: by anyone's standard Max is a better tubeset than ST. However whereas I can ride the 531 bike all day, if I tried the same on the Max I would be exhausted.

If the frame builder was good it will be a decent frame even if the tubing is low quality. If the frame builder was bad but it has amazing tubing it will ride like shit.

build the bike!