Considering that lawyering would mean a pay cut, I doubt it. How much can a bike thief possibly make?

Building is also kinda fun.

It depends, how many bikes can you steal?

Probably not too many. Never tried it. Probably couldn't steal and then fence nearly enough to meet my salary needs; plus benefits. Do bike theives have 401K and health benefits?

That is the only reason I personally would consider building one. Problem is that I like to just ride in my free time, or else I am doing the quality family time thing. I also don't do my own car maintenance or prepare my own taxes.

if you're new to bike mechanics, i think that would be a great idea. buy a complete bike and use it as a platform to develop good maintenance skills and mechanical understandings of the parts, etc.; meanwhile, you can build up a new bike, part by part. or with your complete bike replace the low quality parts with better ones. hold on to the cheaper parts and use them to build up another bike to give you the building experience.

building bikes is fun. riding bikes is more fun. if buying a bike gets you riding one sooner, then do it. i've built all of my bikes. that has meant starting with a completely bare frame to taking an existing bike and replacing some to all of the parts. get a complete bike and start evaluating and prioritizing what parts can stay, and which parts could use replacing or need to be replaced. wheels come to mind when considering the special ed wangster (gasp!)

buy cheap, buy twice. you get what you pay for. pick two: cheap, reliable, light.

PLEASE make sure you DO NOT clean the chain while it is still on the bike (on a fixed gear bike)

agree. agree. agree.

ouch! i've done that. i had to back pedal to get my finger out. it wasn't pretty.

oh and in defense of the wangster to avoid the bunching of panties:
specialized is a decent company with decent products, imo. the wangster frameset has nice looking welds... of course it's made in taiwan in one of the factories that are owned by trek/giant... just like everyone's newer bianchi, khs, fuji, iro, surly, etc. but the welds on all of those bikes are quality. the frameset is light, and nice looking, imo. and the bike comes with everything you might want for a price that is hard to turn down. (a lbs here sells them for 420 retail... one of the people i know with one works there and bought it for cost + 10% which came out to like 120...) i think it would be a great starting point though. if the price helps you get started riding, do it. i just think for complete entry level ss/fixed/track bikes, there are much better options out there...

I've done that. Didn't so much have to pedal back to get my finger out.

Well I sorta did... but that was a little later.

https://www.zweknu.org/pics/gal.rhtml?alb=hand

aw hell...that was you?

Most certainly was.

YEOWCH!! holy crap... just the bare tip of mine got caught and it was between the cog's teeth. i also wasn't pedaling very fast. it just cut me, and cracked my nail in half.

It was in the trash.

The only thing wrong with it was a broken rear deraileur cable and some dry-rotted tires.

here's the real cost of my fixed project:

frame, fork, headset, bars, stem, seatpost, cranks, chainring: $0
bottom bracket swapped from old singlespeed MTB: $0
scrounged saddle: $0
scrounged pedals: $0
cheap track wheelset (suzue basic/alex): $130
tires: $60
cog: $20
bar tape: $12
lockring: $10
single stack bolts: $10
chain: $10
primer, paint, clearcoat: $10
tubes: $8
rim tape: $3

Total cost: $273.



Probably would have been $200 more + cost of frame if I hadn't recycled anything.

moral of the story: it really helps to have a huge pile of junk bikes in your basement.

Don't you dare talk to me michigan. We will crush you with the wrath of the Old Testament God; it will rain fire in your locker room. Your fans will be turned to salt. Your coach will catch leprosy. You ******** beavers are everything that is wrong with the world. Defeating you will be the high point of our season, and tide us over until next year, as we polish our still shiny Nat'l Championship from '02.

so, how's that working out for you? Did you get a handicap parking pass now?

probably makes opening beer cans with the left a real hassle.

I'd be more concerned about nose picking

Yes. If I had car.

It totally gets me chicks, which does not impress my wife as much as I would have predicted. Not only can I tell you to hold up a sec, I can tell you to hold up 3/4 of a sec. I can point with emphasis. If I stick it up my nose it looks like I'm picking my brain.

It's true. I even have it on a dr.'s authority. Not my doc, but a doc. I was the talk of the ER that night and we had people stopping by from all over MGH to check it out. More than a few told me I'd have a hard time picking my nose. My triage nurse and I talked about bikes. When he found out I rode fixed we got to chatting and he asked me if I knew of Sheldon.

TREMENDOUS UPSIDE!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to do this right now. I will post pics.

bostontrevor
you just may be up for a Batty Award this year

I remember that thread. I probably said some really sarcastic stuff too.

But I didn't
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ighlight=chain

Nice! I hope you at least sent the fingertip to yourself and demanded a ransom.