Originally Posted by bmichaelx
Sory to rain on your paraid GreenRamper, but if you don't know how a bike goes together, and you don't have simple compatablility knowledge, then maybe a custom bike is not the way to go.
My friend got into biking about 2 months ago, and he realy liked it and he was learning realy fast, then he felt like he needed a custom bike. well, he got it together(with a LOT of help) and it was all good for a while, but then he didn't know how to do the maintenance on it, and his 1000+$ bike started to fall apart. He didn't know how to tighten loose spokes in his expensive wheelset, he didn't know how to maintain a euro BB, it was bad.
Well, moral of the story is, "don't get ahead of yourself".
Thanks for reading my compelling story, and I hoped it has swayed you.
So...what are you getting at? Your friend just threw it all in the trash and bought a Haro? All of that stuff can be fixed, I don't understand the point of the story. Your friend was a rookie. So what. Rookies learn if they keep at it.
You can avoid stuff coming loose if you grease everything that's got threads on it. And even if you don't know how to true a wheel or you don't have a proper truing stand, if you've already spent $1000 on a bike, what's 20 bucks to take it to the LBS and have them true your sh*t? I'm confused. If you take your time, ask (the right) questions (of the right people) and genuinely listen to experienced advice you'll do fine. You're not dealing with carbon or Ti or other exotic materials and delicate components that require special handling and can REALLY get f*cked up if you do something wrong...everything on a BMX bike is pretty easy to maintain and generally hard to bugger.