maximan1

Cool site:
https://www.littlefishbicycles.com/frame/beginning.html

Surferbruce

i'm itching to try building a frame. next year i'm hoping to attend koichi yamaguchi's building class. when i surfed a lot, i shaped my own boards with much success. it was amazing how much richer the whole experience was and i can only imagine the feeling would be the same to hop and ride a frame you built with your own hands.

genedoc

I started building lugged frames in the early 80's after wanting a custom criterium frame that I couldn't afford to buy, so i decided to learn to build. I ended up building about 15 frames, including one for a guy on the national track team. I could have built many more, but it was a lot of work (to make a really nice frame) for not much money so I decided to move on. I never tried MIG ior TIG welding.

It's really not that difficult to build a frame that works fine and last (i.e. the joints don't fail after a season), but it does take skill and practice to get them to look nice and time to set up and learn. The tools are fairly inexpensive and you can build your own jig for next to nothing if you're creative.

I still have my first frame. I would say it has close to 20K miles on it. I don't ride it anymore, but it was the best crit bike I ever rode.

jsigone

I'd love to build my own steelie. My welds would look like crap though w/ my cheap mig welder.

genedoc

I bet, especially if you tried welding a steel frame. They are brazed, which is essentially soldering. It's really pretty easy. It just takes some practice to get the solder to flow into the joint perfectly and leave no excess on the outside of the joint.

Mr. Beanz

I'd like to try. Because I build my own wheels with plenty of success, my buds laugh and tease saying that if I had a chance, I'd build the frame too. I'd like to try but would prolly quit my job to stay home and build frames all day for a hobby! She can barely afford me as it is!