In light of the fact I cant get a Surly KM until mid July I've ordered a frame and forks to build my self. Ive never done this before so am looking for advice. SPA Cycles sell the rigid model for £1500. I just paid £750 for the f&f so would like to keep the rest of the stuff near the £800 mark. I ride mainly on canal towpaths and flat gravel track so am going to get 29er wheel set. If anyone can advise suitable componants I would be grateful as I've started looking and if I'm honest the choice of kit available is blowing my mind! All help will be greatly appreciated.
KISS! i.e. keep it nice and simple.
Hope wheels (I prefer Stan's rims, but the newer Hope ones are good too)
For cheapish, good quality components, i.e. bars, stem, seatpost, etc. Planet X/on one are hard to beat.
For the sake of an easy life go for something like a complete 1x11 Deore or SLX groupset - these will fit a standard freewheel, whereas 12 needs the new microspline afaik.
You may struggle to get it all under £800.
whats a micro spline?
Shimano’s 12 speed freehub standard
so it wont fit standard hubs if I buy a wheel set?
Yeah it will, it’s just the option you pick when ordering if you are going to use a shimano 12 speed cassette.
Take your time when building, watch as many videos about fitting the components as you can - Park Tools are a good start.
Generally there's no need to go above SLX level groupset. Stick to 10 or 11 speed, things will be a bit cheaper. Hopefully you've a few spare parts like saddle, bars and the like around from mods/changes to your existing bikes which will save you a few quid.
Microspline is Shimano's new style of freehub so that they can go 12spd, because it's new and not a lot of third party companies are licensed to make them they are pricey.
Buy 11 speed xt shifters and rear mech, buy 11 speed slx chain, cassette,bb and crankset. Then buy best sram guides you can buy and then Ritchey wcs finishing kit and some Maxxis tyres and maybe a dropper. Saddle users choice.
Thanks again for the advice, I'm having some confusion with headsets......The surly site says "44mm I.D. Recommend EC44 Lower cups, Zero stack on top is ok."
obviously I have no idea what this means. The Hope headset on wiggle only comes in one size. Will this fit or can someone please point me in the right direction.
Cheers
Check https://www.hopetech.com/products/controls/headsets/
There is a tech doc that will has all the dimensions of their headset combinations in it.
I’d start writing a lift of all the bits you need and pricing before you start randomly ordering stuff. £800 is easy to blow a hole in.
Generally buyers for big bike companies are pretty good at their jobs, so copy what’s on the bike you wanted and price it up, don’t be surprised if it’s dearer than the whole bike price though. Don’t forget to budget for tools you need also, or avoid components that need specialist (expensive) tools. Don’t forget to budget for cables and tyres/tubeless kits etc.
Thanks for the advice, I’m pretty sure I’m going to blow the budget! But that’s ok, as long as I get it right and enjoy the process that’s the main thing. I’m still struggling to understand what EC44 actually means? Am I right in thinking as long as it fits a 44 mm steering tube and 1 1/8 steerer it will fit ?
Does this help? I think an EC44 is and (E)xternal (C)up headset, your forks will be tapered so it’ll have an 1.5” bottom bearing and 1.125” top bearing.
Thanks for the help lads, I have to admit its a bit of a head **** for me. The amount of variables is crazy. Plus why cant stuff be called “shimano good” or “shimano a bit better” instead of SLXM1800ooX!!
Fair amount of history here which I admit doesn't make sense to those unversed in the arcane lore of bike groupsets, but for Shimano MTB:
XTR - M9100
XT - M8100
SLX - M7100
Deore - M6100 (12 speed), M5100 (11 speed), M4100 (10 speed)
Alivio
(plus a whole load of cheap crap below)
Generally, the further down the list you go, the cheaper it gets and the heavier / clunkier / less features you'll get. The latest versions of the top three are 12-speed only (requiring a specific microspline rear freehub), but the previous 11 speed versions are usually easily sourced too if you prefer. There are similarly incomprehensible lists available for SRAM too, but I'll let someone else do that.
Most things are generic, but headsets and bottom brackets are specific to a frame and need to be ordered correctly. They also need to be fitted correctly and a headset in particular requires special tools - many people ask a local shop to do this bit for them as the tools are specialist and seldom used, so often not worth buying.
To echo what others have said - list everything you want first to ensure that, for example, you don't order a wheelset that negates a particular groupset that you might want...
Good luck!
So the bits are starting to arrive and I’m getting ready to put it all together. How important are torque wrenches? From what I understand 40nm for the rear cassette equates to 6-8 clicks, I’ve never used a torque wrench on a stem before, but is it critical on a chain ring? I hate buying cheap tools so if I need them it’s going to cost me £££. I’m not a little fella so it’s unlikely I’ll undertighten anything. It’s more likely to be the opposite and I’ll raunch the granny out of it!
How important are torque wrenches?
Not a very helpful reply, I'm afraid, but they are not at all important...once you have the feel for it, but until you do, the chances are you'll be either under or over-tightening everything. And let's be honest, it'll probably be the latter...
Big learning curve building ime,if you can,make sure you've peace and quiet,music on maybe don't have too many beers,lots of breaks if building start/finish,double check lengths and measurements,but can guarantee you've forgotten something!!
Good luck and Enjoy!!
Oh,these guys on here are a wealth of knowledge.