Originally Posted by
HuffyMaster3000
I
Why is it bad to build a bike from scratch as long as the bike is less than 25 years old there should be plenty of parts. I just don't always know how to mix and match parts..based on quality. I have frankenbiked a wally world kent into a slightly nicer aluminum pacific. I wasn't light but better than the Kent with better parts. Also built up a trek that was being thrown out.
...I think maybe you've answered your own question. It's not "bad" in the sense that you seem to want to learn about bicycles, and what makes them go together, to work better or worse. It's just that it takes a lot more time, and in almost every case, it costs more money than looking for a used bicycle, complete with components and wheels. If you look at the various replies, I'm not the only person giving you this advice. This goes especially for someone who has not worked on a vast array of bicycles, in order to familiarize himself with the various standards and measurements that components and frames have used over the years.
The parts stuff at the co-op comes from a large and varied selection of bicycles. If you are not familiar with that variety, and what will fit with which (and work well), you will inevitably spend more money on the stuff to build up your frame, and often end up with something that works less well, than a bike you bought that had the original components and wheels still together with it in a single package. If you want to learn, look for a reasonable quality complete bike that is exactly your size. Take it apart, service and clean everything, then reassemble and adjust everything to spec. Cheaper, and you usually end up with a better finished product.
Originally Posted by
HuffyMaster3000
IAlso why is $100 to little money for a frame with no fork? I assume that if the coop did have any TI that they weren't building on it would be about $100 since most of their frames are under $40.
BTW one reason why I want to build the bike is because I also want to build the wheels. Last I check they had some ultralight rims but they were unbuilt. I think they will let me have some for extra cheep just to get rid of them.
...I think it's great that you want to learn to construct wheels. But even with cheap rims, you still need to come up with a set of decent hubs (that have the same drilling as the rims). And unless you have a source for spokes, decent spokes for a 36 spoke wheel will run you about 40 bucks, with brass nipples. That's per wheel. Building wheels used to be something that everyman could do, and maybe get a nicer set of wheels and save some money. Then spoke pricing went gradually from 10 cents per spoke to almost a buck per spoke. They are very good spokes, at that price level. And you can shop around and find them cheaper. But it still costs more for an individual to build wheels now, than to just buy something already put together and then work on them to even out the spoke tensions, stress relieve the bends at the hub, and maybe pull up the tensions a little higher. Most machine built wheels won't have that done already.
It's a learning process, and I guess part of the process is learning how this turns out to cost more and take longer. I wish you all the best with it.