Commuter

the bolt and nut tricked worked for me, though after soaking the cup for a while. I mounted the nut in a vice and used the whole frame for leverage

Or if the cup is alright, just whack a shorter axle in there and save yourself the bother.

Or if the cup is alright, just whack a shorter axle in there and save yourself the bother.

That's what I thought at the beginning, but three axles later I couldn't get a result. Now it's done, though. The cup that was never coming out is gone, thanks to a welder close to my work. Will post a pic tonight, thanks for the advices.

Now I need to find a new bb that'll do the job.

Crappy phone shot, but this is how it was done — thanks dammit for the tip. I might take a proper shot over the weekend and leave on a 'stuck bb cup' thread so it's easy to find.

Now that I'm optimistic that this might work out, I spent the weekend doing small bits, fitting brakes, adjusting mudguards, trueing the wheels — after I changed the rear hub it needed some service, and I'm still to learn how to make it perfect.

Today new bb arrived, this one is 107mm and fitted right. The alignment is much much better, so I'll give this a go and check with a chain tomorrow.

This is how the build is looking at the moment then:

bits needed:

seatpost
saddle
sprocket lock ring
pedals + retainers

needs drops

needs drops

not on this one, I find these bars suit me well on the city.

Looks good.

What saddle you putting on there? A black Turbo would suit.

not on this one, I find these bars suit me well on the city.

all bikes need drops!

all bikes need drops!

orly?

orly?

judging from the saddle height...

Looks good.

What saddle you putting on there? A black Turbo would suit.

There's the unicanitor for an ok price at chain reaction, was leaning towards that. Black.

A brooks would suit it. Shame they melt in the rain, that has always put me off them.

There's the unicanitor for an ok price at chain reaction, was leaning towards that. Black.

Can't go wrong with a plastic saddle in wet weather!

I love my (old) Unicanitors.

I forgot to take a finished picture, I don't have a camera at home to do it soon but it'll come eventually. I've been riding it single speed through the winter and it's pretty much what I wanted. The frame is better than I could expect, but the cheap fork lets it down, so maybe it'd be worth upgrading for a proper light one in the future. Anyway, I thought it'd be a useful reference if I listed the costs.

With a bit of luck this will end up at £250

Oh well. Even though the parts are cheap beater stuff, my lack of patience made me go for new stuff. Also I had a fair amount of it 'lying around' but I tracked back how much I paid for it originally and included here.

Part .................... Brand .............................. Source .................... Price

Frame ................. Viscount ........................... lfgss ....................... £50
Fork .................... Generic Steel ................... eBay ...................... £12
Wheels ................ Open Pro / Planet X hubs . lfgss ....................... £80
Tyres ................... Marathon Plus ................. JMJ ........................ £42
Rim Tape ............. Generic ........................... LBS ........................ £2
Inner Tube ........... Schwalbe ......................... LBS ........................ £17
Mudguards .......... SKS ................................. Spa Cycles .............. £27
BB........................ Shimano .......................... Chain Reaction ....... £14
Freewheel ............ Shimano .......................... LBS ....................... £20
Sprocket .............. Generic ............................ LBS ....................... £11
Lock Ring ............. Mavic .............................. Chain Reaction ....... £8
Cranks ................. Spa Cycles XD-2 .............. Spa Cycles ............. £20
Chainring ............. Stronglight Dural ............... Spa Cycles ............. £14
Pedals ................. Wellgo 964 ....................... Chain Reaction ....... £15
Clips .................... Evans .............................. Evans ..................... £15
Straps ................ Evans .............................. Evans ..................... £9
Calipers ............... Alhonga Long Drop ........... Spa Cycles .............. £21
Levers ................. Generic MTB, used ........... Bike Kitchen ............ £5
Headset ............... Miche .............................. Spa Cycles .............. £23
Stem ................... Kusuki .............................. lfgss ....................... £10
Bars .................... Generic North Rd .............. Push ...................... £15
Seat Post ............. Generic ............................ eBay ...................... £7
Saddle ................. Cinelli Unicanitor ............... Chain Reaction ....... £25
Cabling .......................................................... Bike Kitchen ........... £8

Extras
Calipers ............... Tektro short, didn't fit ........ lfgss ....................... £5
BB ...................... Assorted spindles+cups ..... eBay ...................... £8
Welding to remove stuck BB cup .................................................... £10

Which totals £470, plus £23 of unused stuff. I made my calculations as I was typing, so forgive me if I feel seriously depressed now. What an idiot.

Taking the frame out, I spent an average of £18 per component. Is not so bad, but at the same time is quite bad because I end up with plenty budget parts on a £450+ bike. Now I'll spend the rest of the day sulking over what I could have bought with this money.

I think it's just a good eg of the fact that if you're building a bike by buying parts completely from scratch its not actually a cheap way of doing it. I don't really know why people think it is. Other than the saddle and the handle bars there's nothing that strikes me as particularly excessive.

Budget builds really work IMO where you've already amassed a parts box worth of bits that you've either collected for nothing, or just forgotten when and what you paid for them... most people omit what they originally paid, where as you've actually track down the cost.

Still now you've got the parts you can ride and enjoy it and use them again on another build if needed... and ultimately it still looks like it does what you want, so I wouldn't worry too much about the extra cash.