Originally Posted by newbojeff
You should think about what you would use this bike for. I built up my old Bridgestone hybrid frame into my snow/winter/rain bike. I had the LBS put in and cut the new fork and the BB, I bought a new wheel set, and I bought and put the rest of it together. Very doable and I learned a lot. Enjoy.
I want to make this bike a bit faster (by removing the 'comfort' parts of it that I don't need any more and using more road-oriented components), and use it during rainy/yucky days. I also want to learn how to do some of my own wrenching. I'll have the LBS install the fork and cut the steerer, and maybe have them swap the cranks, too. I'll do pretty much everything else.
Gearing wise, I'm going from a 48/38/28 11-32 triple to a 52/42/30 12-25 triple. The shifters are a matched set with the FD, and according to Shimano's website, the crankset, RD and cassette are a good match, too.On the existing drive train, I've never been below a 1X4 on the existing 8-speed cassette, so I should be OK on the new setup. I don't expect to do any more climbing than I do on my commute, which is about 850-900 feet each way.
In any case, this should be a learning experience (even if I only learn not to do it again....
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