Hellooo
I’m currently planning a long-distance cycling trip and I’ve decided that I want to know my bike inside out before I head out. I am giving myself a few years to do that, learn and earn enough money to give it a go. To me, that means either building it from scratch or stripping a frame and rebuilding it maybe entirely.
For now I only know the basics of bike mechanics, but I am really interested in knowing more than fixing a flat, and adjusting a derailleur.
I'm aiming for a Gravel/Touring setup. My logic is that if I build it, I’ll know exactly how to fix it when things go south in the middle of nowhere, hopefully.
So here are a few questions for the community :
– Has anyone here started a build with almost zero experience?
– Should I start from a bare frame or buy a used bike and swap the components?
– What are your go-to resources for learning?
– Any specific tools I should absolutely invest in vs. things I can just borrow from a local DIY shop?
Also, I am open to bike recommendations that would suit my needs of easy replacement (I might travel to far away countries 😁)
Here is the bike I traveled with until now (up to 3 weeks) 🙂
Thanks for any advice !
by tabourte
2 Comments
Im currently in the process of building one up, i have enough mechanical experience but it was my first time building one fully. For me it started with figuring out what i wanted to do with it. For me that would be long distance packing with a bike that can go more offroad if needed. I went with parts that where replacable more easily.
For me there are 2 ways of thinking. Building a bike that has low chances to break, but hard to fix in the field i.e pinion or Rohloff. Or you can go with chance to break easy to fix with derailleur.
You also have to take into account parts availability, for you 1×12 might be available, but in rural Poland for example it isnt. For that i would recommend set ups like 3 x 10
Component range i would not trust the producer. For example xtr might seem good cus its the best. However, since its made to be so light it might be less durable long term then xt/slx. Mix that with added microspline hubs. Because of that i went with a mix of deore, slx, and xt parts
Then comes lighting. Battery, or dynamo
For me this led me to choose a 1994 giant granite frame.
With Thorn tandem fork. Deore rear hub, derailleur, shifters. Son 28 dynamo, Andra 40 rims 26′, slx casette, xt chain, xt bb, b&m toplight + Axa Blue Line 50t, Chrome Velo Orange fenders, deore v brakes, tange cartridge headset
Total Cost for me was 1700 ish euros. Take into note i had a lot of the tools already
At this point it’s pretty easy to build your bike up from the frame. There are a million great YouTube videos out there. I destroyed a frame and decided to swap all the parts over to a new one with no previous experience. The bike has held up great and I’ve built a bunch more bikes for myself and ended up working part time at a bike shop building up even more.
The one thing I don’t do is build my own wheels for my bikepacking bikes. I’ve done it before for commuters, it’s not rocket science but I want something reliable to take into remote places and I don’t have a proper tension meter or trueing stand, so I leave wheel building to the professionals who do it all day.
Park Tools videos are fantastic.