prairiepedaler

I brought this book home recently from the library out of curiosity.

After cursory skimming, it seems a reasonable reference for someone wanting to cobble together a bike from parts gathered from here and there. The book is nicely illustrated (no photos) in a shaded line art manner. I noticed that some build operations require specific bike tools (like a headset cup press and fork race setter) but the author uses his hands for tensioning the rear derailleur cable rather than use a third hand tool, which is about a $10-15 tool compared to the others which are much more expensive.

I'll add more here as time progresses if thread readers want to hear more about it.

HillRider

Some bike tools can't be improvised but others, specifically a headset press and crown race setter, can be. Also, some headsets (e.g. Velo Orange's Gran Cru) come with a "split" crown race that can be installed by hand with no tools.

cyccommute 

Jeeze! How can people work that slow?! This topic came up on the Classic and Vintage so I decided to time my build. 2:07 (h:m) to strip parts from one frame and swap them over to the other frame.

HillRider

The last bike I built up from a bare frame took me about three months from the time the frame set arrived at my house in the fall of 2020. About three days was waiting for Frame Saver I applied to the frame and fork to dry. Then about 10 days for the parts I ordered to arrive, about two more months for the remaining parts to arrive (thanks Covid) and maybe four hours of actual work to put the whole thing together.

ThermionicScott 

Sometimes things are just so enjoyable, you want to stretch out the time you do them. I personally spend years building up bikes.

spelger

but you have probably done it a hundred times...right? my most recent and first build took all day and a bit of the next, and that was only the full drive train and shifters. it was my first time. i went slow to do it right the first time. i love the results.

Camilo

Building up a bike is measured in beers.

HillRider

I've built up a couple of dozen new bikes and a lot more if I include the ones I rebuild after complete disassembly for cleaning and overhaul. I still take a long time to be sure everything is right as I go along. I'm not on the clock and I enjoy the work. Why hurry?

cyccommute 

’Cause the point is to ride ‘em.

guy153

Depends how many curveballs you run into along the way: unanticipated incompatibilities between parts, things that are stuck or turn out to be knackered. You might need to mess around fabricobbling spacers or, in the worst case, waiting for new parts. But for someone who's never done it before a weekend is quite fast I think.

hokiefyd 

I never have sped through a bike build. The nuts and bolts, the ball bearings, the grease in all the right spots...the sheer simplicity and efficiency of the machine is artful to me and I relish creating it as much as I enjoy using it. Interacting with the mechanics of the bike is as theraputic to me as actually riding it.

The good part about bicycles is there's not one correct way to do it, especially if you're doing it for recreation or pleasure.

cyccommute 

Go look at the link. I had to chase the threads of the bike. Not shown in the post: I discovered that the bottom bracket was a rear 73mm rather than a 68mm. The seatpost on the two bikes are different sizes.

My post was more tongue in cheek but I’ve instructed lots of people on putting together bikes and a weekend (or weeks or months) to do a build is excessive. Oft times, I think that analysis paralysis in bike building is a larger problem than actually doing the work.

guy153

So what did you do about the BB shell? You'd didn't take 2.5mm off each side with the facing tool?

I once built a bike with a new frame (I had made) and all new parts (in boxes) in one go because the person it was for wanted to join in and see how everything went together.

I had already built the wheels. But this was everything else including cutting the fork steerer.

​​​​​​It took probably about four or five hours. Was more work than I was expecting actually. This was a 1x road bike.

Recently I rebuilt my touring bike with a new frame. Probably took longer, but over a few days, because I wanted to clean everything up properly while it was off the bike.

Yes weeks and months is excessive. You should be able to build a car in that time! I think sometimes people are taking their time getting the exact parts they want from eBay etc.
​​​​

spelger

i guess we are all doing it wrong then.

cyccommute 

External bearings. Just removed spacers.

Ironfish653

For a new bike, with all new parts? A weekend (call it two 8-hour days) seems like an awful lot of time, unless it’s your very first time in the garage, or you’re doing something like lacing the wheels from scratch.
Truthfully, few of us enjoy the privilege of full days of uninterrupted shop time (particularly at home) so the actual time spent turning wrenches is only a fraction of the ‘clock time’ start-to-finish.

The last R&R I did took about 3 hours per bike; stripping down the donor bike, swapping everything to the ‘keeper’ then building up the donor frame with the take-off parts to get it out the door. It wasn’t a straight-through jam, though; a couple hours after work over a couple-three days.

The Raleigh C-40 adaptive bike I built with my son was about 8 hours total; done a hour or two at a time in the evening after dinner (and homework) over a week; probably 3 hours of actual assembly; the rest was repacking and truing the wheels and cosmetic stuff like paint correction and polishing all the aluminum bits.

Doing a restoration/rebuild on an old and /or neglected bike is a whole other animal. My 76 Bridgestone was at least 40 hours of work, but it had been abandoned for about 20 years, and I rebuilt or refinished almost every single piece of it; it’s about 90% of its original parts

guy153

OK that would have only added about 30s to the build time then The problem is you have a road crankset that needs a 68. I don't think there's any way to fit that to a 73.

cyccommute 

I don’t have a road crankset. I can’t see any reason to put a road crank on a mountain bike frame any way. I’ve put mountain cranks on road bikes but not the other way around.

guy153

You might be making a touring bike with a classic 90s MTB frame. Actually a likely project as those frames are ubiquitous and close to ideal for touring.

Rage

Sometimes a build will take me a day and other times it will be years and counting.

cyccommute 

Go look at the link. I was making a mountain bike for my tiny wife.

I also disagree that 90s mountain bike frames make “ideal” touring bikes. The geometry is all wrong. A mid80s might work but they have issues as well. By the 90s, mountain bikes had shortened significantly making them poor touring bikes.

guy153

Close to ideal. Of course not perfect but so much more common than touring bikes it's much easier for someone on a budget to find one. TBH I don't think geometry really makes that much difference beyond not slapping your heels on the panniers. Whatever trail etc you have you very quickly get used to riding with it.

prairiepedaler

In the section on choosing a frame by material construction, the author makes a claim that all Aluminum frames will eventually start to crack and fail with normal use (accelerate that demise with extra loading, hard riding etc). He also says that steel will last forever, providing it doesn't rust.

"Sadly, an aluminum bike will always be mortal"

So can be steel though! I've gone through three steel frames in the last decade, unfortunately.

I think the statements he makes here are very generalized.

guy153

There is a kernel of truth there. In theory a steel frame *can* last for ever because steel has a fatigue limit (even Cromoly) and aluminium doesn't. But in practice either can fail, often due to a welding defect, and the aluminium frame might last your whole life anyway. So I don't think it makes much difference in practice.

guy153

Well I stripped a bike to the bare frame yesterday in order to repaint it and, remembering this thread, thought I would time it. It took 26 minutes, the last 11 of which were spent removing a barrel bolt adjuster that had rusted into place.

Then many hours working on the paint, with more to come!