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Been collecting bits and starting to build, a relatively cheap SS HT build, and it's just been a project of frustrations and things going wrong ...
In no particular order ...
- collected the frame (used), got it home, found a dent on the top tube. It's steel, and I'm not that bothered really, it just set the tone!
-got a great deal on a dropper post. It arrived. Realised it's internally routed only. My frame has no internal routing. My own ineptitude in being too eager to jump on a bargain. It's a steel frame so I've drilled a hole in the seattube (so at least I've learnt something!)
- got a cracking deal on a set of forks ... but with quite a short steerer. Had to source a low stack stem for it to work with my frame, and then wait a week for it to arrive from Sweden.
- came to fit the forks. Turns out the headset that came with the frame was missing the crown race and lower seal. One LBS didn't have anything in. Finally sorted by a mechanic mate of mine.
- got some decent used wheels, RaceFace turbine hubs, DT Swiss rims. Came set up for 142x12 but as my frame's dropouts are 135x9, I did my research and ordered some suitable end caps. Needed to source a 12mm hex key to get the existing caps off, fitted the QR ones, tightened it all up to find the wheel locked solid in the frame. After a lengthy email exchange with RaceFace, turns out my version of the hubs cannot be converted to QR and the end caps I'd bought are for an older version of the hub. I've botched a solution by cutting down a piece of aluminium pipe to act as a spacer behind the end cap, and it works, but I'm worried it will fubbar the bearings ...
- used an old XT chainset from the spares box. Tried to remove the 2x chainrings but they were torx chainring bolts that were seized solid and I don't have any torx wrenches. Trip to the LBS and it's sorted.
- picked up a BB from a mate. Came to fit it. No spacers. Had to go begging to the LBS again.
-came to fit the brakes, a used set I picked up from a mate. Turns out I had two front brakes. Have also needed to get the right adapters for the calipers and still don't have long enough bolts to fit the front caliper.
It's part complete, but I'm fully expecting further setbacks.
Part of this is my own ineptitude, bad planning and lack of foresight. Part of it is the f***ing myriad of (non) standards which means stuff just doesn't fit, or adapt, in the way you think it should. It's also turned out to be not quite the "sling-together-a-load-of-cheap-shit" budget build I'd intended (and costed for!) I'm really looking forward to it being finished and to riding it ... Just as well the weather and trails have been so crap, I've not missed out on riding it!
Anyone else had a bike build that has been full of birthing pain?
I've actually just bought a complete bike for the first time in years.
A Whyte S-150, still didn't stop me spending a week on and off in the garage "fixing it"
First step was to take the inner tubes out. Bike came with the rims pre-taped and tubeless tyres so all I needed was tubeless valves which I had in the parts bin. I also took the cassette off so I could remove the stupid dinner plate sized plastic spoke guard from behind the cassette
Went for a quick ride the next afternoon. Decided the wheels were stupid heavy and I was going to convert my old Mavic Crossmax to boost.
Ordered some boost adaptors and fitted the Mavic wheels - which involved re-dishing the rear wheel. Much to my own amazement I got the rear wheel re-dished without much hassle and the rear wheel running pretty straight, Its not perfect but I've ridden a lot worse. I'll just keep an eye on it.
Swapped the bars - the supplied 780mm just feel too wide and I had nice carbon Easton 740mm bars which feel about right.
Swapped the saddle - nothing wrong with the Whyte saddle really but a Fizik Gobi is what my backside is used to.
Swapped the grips - The Whyte ones were too thick and gave me sore hands.
Final change was swapping to a slightly smaller chainring (30T vs 32T). I managed to buy an oval chainring by mistake, I've never ridden one before. I'll give it a go anyway, as a bonus it was a chunk lighter than the standard one.
So a brand new bike and I still swapped a bunch of parts - on the plus side I've also taken about a kilo off the standard weight
You are well and truly on the learning curve!
A learning curve is a process where people develop a skill by learning from their mistakes. ..
But who keeps a "set" of 2 front brakes? The rest of the issues will make it all the sweeter when it all comes together!
That's a journey op!
I think the one that would get to me is the rear hub incompatibility and the missing lower part of the head set. I'd have probably bought a while new headset as I don't really have a lbs anymore.
The good news is that after your second ride it will all be forgotten and you'll just enjoy it.
I say second ride because something absolutely will not work properly on the first ride. It's just sods law.lol
Hands up who knows whats coming....
Saw the thread title and that image immediately appeared in my mind...
Hands up who knows whats coming…
*Goes into the workshop to check ...
But who keeps a “set” of 2 front brakes?
To be fair, it wasn't a set as such, he's a mate that does a lot of spannering from home, and just pulled out these two brakes from rummaging in a pile of spares. He and I both just assumed they were a set.
I've done two or three builds before, all of which have gone pretty smoothly (partly because they were all 26er bikes with fewer 'standards'. This one has been a right PITA though!
The joy of building a ‘new’ bike up from scratch is ace, better luck next time 👍
*waves from Sweden*
I think the best thing I've learned from building up bikes from secondhand/new stuff is never to do it in a short time scale.
In fact most builds run into weeks as i get a bit at a time and "research" the best value/compatible parts for it. I quite enjoy the process then, even the inevitable niggles along the way.😁
Its always ****ing singlespeeds as well!
It’s part complete
I have a shed full of part complete bikes. To other people, they are a collection of bike parts.
After a lengthy email exchange with RaceFace, turns out my version of the hubs cannot be converted to QR
Get one of these 12mm to 9mm axles (in 135mm length): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223801064042
Saw the thread title and that image immediately appeared in my mind…
Every build I cut a cable too short.
Yesterday I we to get a longer rear brake hose fitted to my new Banshee Rune & ended up with completely new brake instead.
Get one of these 12mm to 9mm axles (in 135mm length): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223801064042/blockquote >
Well, I've just ordered one of those as a punt. But can't work out how it will work, what end caps I use, how the bearings are pre-loaded etc?
I need to reduce not only from 12mm to 9mm, but also 142 down to 135.
I need to reduce not only from 12mm to 9mm, but also 142 down to 135.
Sorry @hardtailonly I've misled you. I use one of these on a front 100x15mm hub in a qr fork. I kind of knew that 135mm and 142mm rear were the same frame width so assumed you could do the same there- but I now realise that the 142mm axle is indeed 142mm long. It fits into 3.5mm deep holes in the dropouts so the adapter I've suggested won't work. Sorry again! Adds to the errors on this build I suppose, and at least this one isn't your fault.
I say second ride because something absolutely will not work properly on the first ride. It’s just sods law.lol
When I built up a hard tail a few years ago, it all went together really well. Thought I was a home mechanic of God-like skill. First ride, something felt off. Loose headset, I thought. Stopped, tightened it, rode on as it felt fine. Five more times this happened. Was having nightmares that I’d pressed the headset into the (not cheap) frame skew-iff and had buggered the head tube... Stripped it down when I got home, in a panic. I had the lower bearing in upside down.
Had a minor hiccup today finally pulling my new-old frame from under bed to finally build it.
No 14mm allen key to tighten Power Torque crank - thanks Campagnolo - no 6 and 9mm, open , flat spanner to split hydraulic splitter for internal routing - thanks Sram.
Apart of that now I fully understand what evil idea internal routing is and why bike shops hate it so much xD
Fingers crossed for hose splitting, as I don't have bleeding kit for Sram roadie job, nor ever tried to do it. Might be LBS visit otherwise...
Cheers!
I.
I’ve got some brakes you can have.
They were gifted on here for a build and I need to pass them on.
Elixir CR or something, needs bleeding. No idea what they are like.
Probably worth a bit of an update. A couple more frustrations, but also some minor victories ...
- set up the dropper post, routing the cable through the hole I'd drilled in the seat tube. Works just lovely! First time I've installed one before (the only two bikes I've had with a dropper have come with it fitted)
- set up the wheels tubeless with no issues at all (I've had mixed experiences of tubeless before, so happy about that)
-sourced a piece of alloy tube to cut down a better spacer to botch the QR end cap issues. Fingers crossed it will be ok.
-set up front brake. Still waiting for a suitable rear to be delivered.
- set up the SS, tensioner etc, and all working nicely (and prettily with orange spacers!)
A few more frustrations. After realising I had two front brakes rather than a F & R set, I collected some old Avid Elixir brakes from a guy I sort of know locally. For free (good!) But they've been sat around unused for so long that the pistons won't return properly into the caliper, and I don't have an avid bleed kit (and TBH, can't be ar*ed sorting them), so have picked up some XTs from the Classifieds which should arrive this week.
Also, in fitting a BB to another bike, and seeing the crap that came out of the BB shell, reminded me that having the plastic sleeve between the BB cups is a good idea! The one I'd put in was a serviceable one I had in the spares box, but I'd lost the sleeve, fortunately the LBS had a spare so was able to recycle that.
Ridden the bike up and down the street a few times (the first time, I remembered as I was coming back down hill, was before I'd fitted any brakes; cue frantic scrabbling-stopping in my Crocs!). Riding nicely. Really looking forward to it finally being finished, and will get some photos up!
You might want to try exercising the pistons and lubing the seals on those Avids if you haven't already. Pull the lever to push the pistons out and user a cotton bud to apply a little bit of fluid to the outside of the pistons so they drip into the piston seals. I imagine DOT 5.1 fluid for Avid - it'll say so on the brake somewhere although Avids were always DOT instead of mineral of I remember right. User a tyre lever similar to push the pistons back in. Then block one piston off by clamping it with an adjustable wrench. Exercise the other piston a bit, adding fluid as needed, then seal and repeat on the other side.
Clean all the DOT fluid off before riding with lots of water. It might not help long term - new seals are probably on order, if not ritual Viking funeral as they're Avids - but it might rescue then for a quick ride or two if there's not too much air in the system before the XTs show up
It's finished! And rides very nicely.
Thanks to some of you on here for the bits & pieces I've picked up on the classifieds ... (frame, fork, dropper, stem & brakes I think!)
Wahey, nice one mate! What frame is it?
I don't do insta and the pics come up small on my mobile.
My new build, an Orange Stage 4, went fairly well and I got the first ride in last weekend with just a few bits to tweak - including swapping the dropper as the Brand X was too high stack.
Had a brainfart yesterday and removed the outer cable by accident. Fitting that was the single hardest bit of the build. One of the most-frustrating bike jobs I've ever tackled.
That put me on a bit of a downer for the rest of the afternoon. Fortunately I managed to tease the inner cable through the whole run and hopefully can now use it to pull the outer back through.
Fingers crossed.
I posted about the obsession with N+1 and bike building in general, and it seems there are quite a few of us in a similar state of 'must-build-something' mind.
This mindset comes on at any given point, although normally at a totally inappropriate financial stage of the household.
I've just completed a rigid On One Whippet today and it threw a few curve balls at me.
The idea was to build it from existing components with only the frame and forks and bearings coming in new.
Firstly, took ages to get the internal cabling sorted how I'd like it. Realised I needed to cut the existing olive and nut off the brake hose to get it through the frame. Didn't have any spare olives - a same day Amazon order came to the rescue.
Cut hose, fed it through the frame, had a fight getting the barb in and screwed it onto the lever. The rear brake hose was now 2 inches too short.
On close inspection the pads were also past it and one of the rotors was a Hope floating thing that didn't quite fit with the old 785 calliper.
New hose, pads and rotors were getting expensive, So bought some new M8000 brakes and rotors for a very good price from Merlin.
Got the brakes but had also made a mistake with the I=spec model of my spare shifter. It is B and the brakes are II - not easily compatible.
Took the shifter off and swapped it for a bar mounted SLX one I also had. Gears then didn't index properly as the shifter was buggered.
Remembered I had bought some new Deore brake levers many years ago and still had them in the garage. Bingo they had the I-spec B mount I needed so swapped them over and bled the brakes for about the forth time since I started.
Brakes and gears finally sorted, the rest of it was relatively smooth.
Now sat looking at it anticipating tomorrows ride.
Will probably hate how rigid it is and sell it within a few weeks 😀
Wahey, nice one mate! What frame is it?
It's an On One 45650b frame.
I had one (geared) for a few years and sold it just over two years ago to part fund a Ti gravel bike. Made do with a parts-bin inbred 26er but always missed the 45650, so when this frame came up cheap, jumped at the chance to build it up.
Slack enough. Enough travel (140mm). Not especially long or low by 2020 standards, but poppy and fun and perfect for local 2-3 hour blasts.
^^Ah, nice one mate and thanks for the reply. Nice looking build there.👍
I posted about the obsession with N+1 and bike building in general, and it seems there are quite a few of us in a similar state of ‘must-build-something’ mind.
I desperately need to get mine built but will do anything to avoid starting. To make things worse I've seen a built one that I really want but all my cash is tied up in the bits.