Originally Posted by
ubermensch84
I have not ruled out any bikes but 2 have stood out to me maybe for the simple fact that their names seem to frequently pop up, the trek520 and the Surly Long haul Trucker.
I, personally, don't understand the perpetual appeal of the LHT. My Nashbar touring frame was one-quarter the price and seems to work pretty darn well...
but I have several questions. If you build the bike yourself from the frame up will you end up with a superior product for the same/similar price as the trek520?
In my experience, this is difficult. Trek buys components by the boat-load and gets
very good pricing on them. When you're buying things one or two at a time, you'll end up paying quite a bit more than Trek... and that's assuming you spend quite a bit of time shopping around.
I realize a flaw in this is I have no experience so I don't know what parts I prefer and w/o buying a bike to ride I am not going to gain this experience
If you don't have a lot of riding experience, you'll save time and money by buying a complete bike.
-What are all the parts required to build the bicycle when all you have is the frame? their range in price?
Here's a quite likely non-complete list:
- frame
- fork
- handlebars
- handlebar tape
- stem
- headset
- seatpost
- seatpost clamp
- wheels (rims + hubs + spokes + nipples)
- tires
- tubes
- brakes (front & rear)
- front derailleur
- rear derailleur
- levers (shift levers, brake levers, or "integrated" shift+brake levers)
- chain
- cassette
- crankset
- pedals
- bottom bracket
- saddle
- cables (brake, shift)
Plus all of the stuff you might need for touring: front rack, rear rack, front pannier, rear panniers, fenders, lights, etc.
Don't forget the specialty tools you might need: pedal wrench, bottom bracket wrench, cassette lockring tool, pump, tire levers, headset press, etc.
Honestly, I don't have time to give price break-downs for all the stuff. Do some Internet searching and I'm sure you'll come up with something...
It is a drawback that I don't know what I prefer. However, I think building my own bike would be a benefit because I would learn all about the parts of a bike with my purchases and the building process so I would learn fast.
No doubt you'll learn a lot by building your own bike. If you don't know what you're doing however, you may make mistakes that leave you stranded. And if you're anything like me you'll end up making at least 3 trips to the local/internet bike shop to get parts that you didn't realize you needed. You'll also need to buy some specialty tools that will increase the cost of the build.