Originally Posted by
Kontact
That's a big topic. If you stick to a fairly well defined kind of bike (road racing or gravel) and the most current version of it, and you buy the fork/headset with the frame, your main compatibility issues come from bottom bracket type. Which may or may not be an impediment (some BB types can be adapted to any kind of crank). Then the other issue are bikes set up for electronic shifting only, vs either mechanical or electronic.
But if you get an older frame, or one of the many less defined kinds of bikes, then you'll run into issues with brake mount type, chainline/bb width/hub width etc.
So before this thread gets out of hand, why not narrow down what you're thinking of getting.
Gravel, planning to do bikepacking some point down the line. In the short term it's going to be more mixed surface checking out trails while I build some more fitness.
Gearing is part of what made me ask this question 1x vs 2x.. I've pretty much already set my sights on SRAM rival AXS for a groupset. But I'm still pretty short along deciding whether I want to go the eagle mullet route, or a 2x with slightly more road oriented gearing, or straight up 1x12 xplr.
I've heard a lot that mullet or 1x is often preferred the more off the path you go whereas 2x gives you more gear range especially on flats to find the right cadence.
Part of what made me start thinking in the build direction is lynskey offers 2x but with more traditional road ratios instead of xplr. So I'm not sure if 2x is just unnecessary for gravel or if I'm just misunderstanding gearing, but in a perfect world I'd like to have incremental range 2x offers with the extra climbing from gravel gearing.
Hopefully that makes sense and isn't just.. wildly uninformed.
Originally Posted by
shelbyfv
Asking the question is a good indication that you'll be best served buying a complete bike. Buying a frame and building it up from parts sourced separately requires both knowledge and mechanical ability. Even then it only makes financial sense if you need something not available off the shelf. Specifically, if you are buying a Lynskey their complete bike prices are not out of line and you usually have group choices.
This is valid and I'm definitely leaning that direction but figured it was worth investigating anyway.