First custom bike

[rweakins]

I'm looking at building my first custom bike. I was wondering as far as materials and such if anyone would have any suggestions on finding possibly pretty cheap steel tubing or cheap cheap road frames

[dannyg1]

Ah, the old saw: Have your cake and eat it too! There are people who are starting out and will be willing to make you custom stuff for less than the typical 'arm/leg combo' money these frames are actually worth. I'd suggest that you look for a talented guy building his fourth or fifth frame (ask around).

That said, I really am short on cash this month and need to pay some whopping bills. Does anyone know where I can find some really cheap, precious metals? I won't tell anybody else, swear

Danny

[ZenNMotion]

Nova Cycle supply has inexpensive house branded tubing and a cheap set of stamped lugs for practise or building your first commuter or thrasher. Aircraft Spruce sells straight gauge 4130 pretty cheap. I just started doing a bunch of practise joints by cutting up some junk bikes rescued from the trash, then my first frame with decent Reynolds 531- a full tubeset including fork blades (old style, make sure you have a vintage crown that fits) cost $100 from bicycleclassics.com Once in awhile someone is selling a NOS tubeset or old lugs on Ebay, but prices are generally pretty high, people must be people bidding that don't know where else to find the stuff- and it's risky as the tubes may be warped, the reason they were sitting around for a long time unused in the first place. Dealers will generally replace defective tubes, and its not uncommon to find one.