Originally Posted by
bonsai171
I built a road bike a few years ago ground up, and could probably help (and also built during the winter!). Do you have a good set of tools to work with/any bike specific tools? A torque wrench is very helpful esp if you are doing a carbon build. Have you picked out a frame yet? If not, nashbar has a pretty sweet 29er carbon frame (on sale today $399, with 22% off is $312
Nashbar Carbon 29er Mountain Frame
They also have a carbon mtb fork:
Nashbar Full Carbon 29er Fork
I would suggest getting the fork professionally installed if you've never done it before (there's a lot involved with installing threadless forks, including cutting the steerer tube to length). If you want, you can also start build as time/cash allow, and just do a little at a time.
Dave
Thank you Dave, Bonsai!
I used to have lots of tools, gave them away when i went minimalizm :-/ so I will have to buy some tools. I am also fully prepared to outsource lots of the build if needed to a LBS; just got a quote yesterday from a LBS for $180 to do a complete build if I gave them the parts, so that seems really cheap, reasonable. Main thing is pickout out a frame and fork, I don't want to mess that up or i would be left with a $500 piece of carbon good only for a bonfire (as in charcoal carbon, lol). Too expensive to muck up buying a frame, so I would love to run a link to a frame here before I buy one.
I so wish I could find a bike to just buy, but I can't. Picture this-- would you buy and ride a PINK bike (this is to guys here, not gals)? Probably not. So my issue is the same just on a different level, the color and color scheme of a bike. I would thus rather just buy a frame and carefully paint it myself, put on my own 'brand' decal or no decal.