Page 1 of Strip down rebuild a cycle...

I`ve been thinking about getting myself a road bike for down in London as even though my walk into work is only 40 mins it`s boring the tits off me after 6 months!

I`ve could just buy one but I`ve been toying with the idea of picking up something cheap next time I go home to Newcastle at a car boot sale and doing it up myself...  a friends brother does this and sells the bikes down here for a tidy profit.  Sounds easy on paper but I was wondering how easy it would be to fix a bike up...?  As I don`t have loads of tools I`m thinking it might be more hassle than it`s worth!



If I`m honest, I saw an all white bike the other day with some plum purple rims and thought it looked cool so I want one!  For some reason I`m thinking buying a cheap bike and stripping the paint off and re-spraying it will be the cheapest way!

I`d say building a bike is a lot of hassle, sort of similar to building a PC, but trickier, i.e. if you know what you`re doing, and where to get the good cheap parts then it`s fine, but if you don`t it can be a pain.

also it depends if you think you`ll go into business doing it! For example you`ll need specialist tools like a chain whip, which cost £10+ , Something like the Hanes bike manual or internet guides how to do things. Also there`s a lot trial and error and time involved.

For example I tried unbuckling a wheel, spent ages on working out which spokes to tighten and loosen following internet guides, took it to a shop, where guy just put it in a wheel clamp, span it  a few times, tightened and loosened some spokes, job done, he didn`t even charge me as it took him a few minutes,

Even buying cheap gears, wheels etc it would be hard to make a profit, unless you know enough about bikes to make a profit out of ppl at Cash Converters, car boots etc selling bikes with a few expensive components for peanuts cos they don`t look the part.

In short there`s been several Sunday evenings when I`ve thought "next time i`ll take it to the shop rather than spend all afternoon on it" ;)

If you are going to do this you will need a invest good bike stand and a decent toolkit

Halfords do a bike toolkit for £30 as a starter but this is for the amateur

How does your friend sells the bikes is it through e-bay or car boots

There are a good few how to`s on you tube about bike maintenance

Decision made!  I`m just going to buy myself a road bike.  Chances are I`ll only use it for a few weeks before getting bored of it and go back to walking to work!

One bonus with buying a new bike is that it will need to be maintained/serviced every so often especially in the first few weeks, this will help you teach yourself the basics like adjusting the brakes and aligning the gears etc.

From experience, the tools you want will be a good set of screwdrivers and spanners (open end and ring end). After that, good wire cutters and locking pliers/molar grips for changing over cables and allen keys.

A bike stand it a good idea, I`ve never used one but always wanted one, would make jobs much easier working at waist height with the bike the right way up.

When choosing your bike I would definatly suggest paying a bit extra for an aluminium frame, much lighter and easier to ride, avoid things like disc brakes and hydrolics, not needed for road bikes and just adds extra weight for you to pedal around.

Edit : Also use flasing led lights in the day, makes you stand out a bit better to drivers, the Korg ones are supposed to be very good.

All the best

Gerald.



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This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd August 2011, 11:15

Don`t forget the puncture repair kit!

You may already have one though, I suspect, for other reasons.


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