Fixed ideas

sorry i just realised that i misread the tyre part... good for you! yes, that is a start.

I'm begining to wonder if it's worth building up this "good bike" after having my rear wheel stamped on by arsholes last night whilst it was locked up.

It was save by my mate in the LBS. It took an hour to true it. £12 well spent

I think that building a bike is a rite of passage for any fixed rider. At least that's what I used to think when I discovered the whole fixed gear riding on fixedgeargallery a few years ago. Most of the pictures had a story about how they found this old thing in a "dumpster".

The first thing I did was to get myself measured up. I didn't get a custom frame in the end but at least had an idea of how the frame would fit me. So if you haven't done that yet, then that would be a good place to start. When the bike fits really well you won't want to get off it.

When you have that frame then the rest just falls into place. For me the difficult bit was deciding on a budget and weighing up choices for various parts. You can always upgrade parts later on. But if your frame doesn't fit you then you won't find it comfortable and keep wondering what is wrong with it and why you keep getting aches and pains.

My first self build took months getting all the bits together and the tools. My second took about six weeks from having the idea to amassing the parts and building it. I kept a spreadsheet with a list of parts and prices.

Unless you're going to build another bike you should be able to borrow tools as people on here have put their names down for the tool library. There are many wheel builders on here so you can ask them if they will build a wheel set for you. Some will do it for beers and others will charge.

I reckon you should go for it. You'll feel proud of yourself for having done it and whenever anything goes wrong or you want to upgrade a part you'll be able to sort it.

Good luck with the build.

My advice is that you should try a Pista out first, the geometry is more track like than other frames out there.

Personally I like track geometry for commuting and urban rides and am looking for a good stiff alu frame for next years project.

Any suggestions?

Get your Pista and then pick a colour scheme...paint stripes on your seatpost and then match your rims to them, then match your saddle to you bartape/grips and if you fancy match your tires too, should look quite nice!! Or get your anodise on á la Edscobles Bianchi

I say bugger building and rites of passage - who has the time or money?
OTP is the way to go and add a few personal touches.

I'm a step closer. Yesterday, I dropped into that LBS that I mentioned before. My mate was having a clear out of the workshop and had two handlebars that he wanted ot get rid of. One of them was from a 30+ year old custom build. He very nicely asked if I wanted them and I naturally said "Oooh, I don't know, cycling's not my thing" Bollocks, I jumped at them sure I said!He gave me an old Cinelli bar with quill stem attached (Cinelli too) and it had brake leavers attached. Also anonther box standard road bar.