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well, building is fun, but is tricky if you haven't sort of led up to it in incremental steps.
£100 might get you an ok frame, maybe even a bit less. or you could get a chainring and crankset instead. or you could buy a new wheelset for around 130. buying all of these might prove tricky.
go for an old style five-speed and you won't have to change the front. there are ways of cutting costs, you can keep as much of the original as possible.
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Hi all,
cool to finally find a place where fixed gear and single-speed nuts hang out!
I've been a lazy-arse since coming to London, using public transport, but I'm so sick of the tube by now (and don't get me started on buses!) so I'm now very keen to get back on a bike.
Left my last bike back home, so need a new one.
**
Might seem a stupid question, but waddya all reckon - buy or build my first bike?**Buying would be easier, but ... I think building would be more satisfying - I've been keeping tabs on ebay, gumtree and loot for old bikes/frames etc. 53-55cm frame, as I'm 183 cm tall, 74 kg.
Rode mainly mountain bikes back home, heavy clunkers, lots of gears. A friend of mine suggested going for a single speed (he works in Soho and sees all the couriers everyday).
But I have no idea how to put together a bike. Or what specialist tools I'd need.
I'm fairly handy with a spanner, fixed plenty of punctures etc.
I've set myself a budget of £100 for my first bike - any idea if this is realistic?
Thanks! R
Most people would quote you a price of roughly £450 for a new bike.
Off the peg stuff is generally a bit cheaper than buying new parts from a shop and putting them together.
All the recently released trendy off the peg Singlespeed bikes, range from £350 (giant bowery, fuji track) to £600 for the fancier ones like, surly or rock mountain boroughs.
Charge plug is somewhere in between a firm favourite it seems.
So if you were looking for a NEW bike for £100, its pretty impossible unless your going on sterlingdirect
Thing more like £250 minimum for anything reliable.
Even secon hand, if your not an experienced hoarder/bike builder, putting together a reliable bike for £100 will be very hard unless you find a nice complete bike at a market/carboot etc.
But with everyone getting into bike commuting anything worthy is getting super rare.
It will probably be easier these days of your working off a mtb/hybrid as a base.
But you will still need either a new SS rear wheel OR a SS convertor for the cassette.
Probably a chain & chain ring too. ANd a bit of tidying up. Itll quickly add up, but if you are as much of a tight arse as me. Its do-able.
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if your budget is that small then you'll have to patient, plenty of people on the forum are selling complete bikes for upwards of £250, stretch the budget and you'll get something nice, you get what you pay for in all things. Be realistic about what you want and what you can afford, but don't do yourself a disservice by being too cheap, if you're after a stolen bike from brick lane (bad karma) then your budget will be enough if you want to get a foot on the ladder spend some more and get a bike which you'll be proud to call your own.
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Cool. Thanks guys.
After sleeping on it and reading some of the suggestions from you good folk, I think I will build a bike.
I guess I was half made up, just wanted some opinions from those who've been there, done that...
Scrounging, saving, and searching for the parts is part of the fun, I reckon.
Re: using a mtb frame - aren't they so much heavier? I like to look of those old steel road bike
frames...cheers
Rudy
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Cool. Thanks guys.
After sleeping on it and reading some of the suggestions from you good folk, I think I will build a bike.
I guess I was half made up, just wanted some opinions from those who've been there, done that...
Scrounging, saving, and searching for the parts is part of the fun, I reckon.
Re: using a mtb frame - aren't they so much heavier? I like to look of those old steel road bike
frames...cheers
Rudy
working with an MTB or hybrid is a bad idea.
We all love old steel road bike frames,
but they are getting harder to find.
What once was free or a fiver, old raleighs, peugots, dawes etc
is now pushing £100
Its still possible to find a nice frame to work with for free or a few quid, you just have to look hard.
And although I dont like the look of mtb fixies myself, theres alot of decent hybrids out there which can be had for very little.
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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=180247753056
Not steel but could be a good start point -
I say definately build your own.
Almost finished building up this old peugeot-frame-based (Reynolds 531c steel) bike. Its the first time I've been there but used to ride BMX so I'm pretty used to modding bikes. Its not hard though right, compatability appears to be the main issue i've come up against, the rest is just choice. Also tools i guess.. there've been quite a few tools i've had to add to the box. Costs wise, there's a few parts that i've bought cheap but plan to replace in the next couple months with money I'll be saving from not riding my vespa (insurance, petrol etc).
Its great doing it yourself though as you dont have to rely on any bike shop or handy mate when shit goes wrong. Plus theres gotta be endless satisfaction in the knowledge that each part of your bike has been hand-picked by you :D
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Building your own is good experience, and worth it in the end, but don't underestimate the length of time it will take to get all the parts together and overcome the various problems you will face. Don't forget to budget for tools - you need a fair few specialist bits and pieces to build something up from scratch. It's not the quickest or cheapest way to get something running, but having it unique at the end is nice.
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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=190226790831&Category=33503&_trksid=p3907.m29
BIN £80
approx 42 teeth, so it could be more or less...
if i were you i would build it up, that way you learn new skills as well. -
I decided i'd build my own out of an old dawes i've had for ages. That was about 9 months ago! Powder coated it, got a nice saddle for free, bought some nitto drop handle bars for cheap when i was in Japan, getting hold of some nice hubs and mavic open pro's this weekend (finally)... then getting someone to build up the wheels up for me soon i hope...
In trying to do it as cheap as possible, and happening to have wildly oscillating funds and time on my hands I could have had a baby by now. It also didn't help that I replaced my back wheel, cassette and chain on my geared tourer. As soon as i'd done that, a lot of the urgency drained away from the build project because cycling on the old tourer suddenly felt like flying...
but i wouldn't have it any other way, buying a complete bike would feel like a cop out.
the story continues,
good luck!
pj_(pj)
DFP
cornelius_blackfoot
Shinscar
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Wanted: Newbie - Buy or build?
Posted by
Hi all,
cool to finally find a place where fixed gear and single-speed nuts hang out!
I've been a lazy-arse since coming to London, using public transport, but I'm so sick of the tube by now (and don't get me started on buses!) so I'm now very keen to get back on a bike.
Left my last bike back home, so need a new one.
**
Might seem a stupid question, but waddya all reckon - buy or build my first bike?**
Buying would be easier, but ... I think building would be more satisfying - I've been keeping tabs on ebay, gumtree and loot for old bikes/frames etc. 53-55cm frame, as I'm 183 cm tall, 74 kg.
Rode mainly mountain bikes back home, heavy clunkers, lots of gears. A friend of mine suggested going for a single speed (he works in Soho and sees all the couriers everyday).
But I have no idea how to put together a bike. Or what specialist tools I'd need.
I'm fairly handy with a spanner, fixed plenty of punctures etc.
I've set myself a budget of £100 for my first bike - any idea if this is realistic?
Thanks! R