I’ve been doing all my bike building for 40+ years. I taught myself a fair bit from books, but learned more hanging out in a friend’s bike shop. There’s a lot that’s not intuitive, but we have the advantage of YouTube videos now. A few tips:
Rule 1: Grease all close fitting or threaded metal-to-metal contact, especially steel to aluminum contact. Pedal threads, seat posts, and handlebar stems are particularly critical points. If you don’t grease these, at some point electrolytic corrosion will make them seize up permanently. Get a tube of bicycle grease or waterproof marine grease. A bike stand makes this a LOT easier. I did my first bikes by standing them upside down. I’ve got two bike stands today. Pedals are easy- you need a 15mm wrench, and you should know that the left side pedal has a left-hand thread. Handlebar stems: You need a 6mm Allen wrench, aka hex key. Brakes and shifters: Generally a 5mm allen wrench You’ll need a proper cable cutter and some crimp-on cable ends for the brake and derailleur cables. Don’t try to cut them with ordinary side cutters. On Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at 1:37:54 PM UTC-4 Dan wrote: > So my beautiful Appaloosa has arrived. I am practically foaming at the > mouth as I type. As I am sure most of you are aware, Rivendell sends > complete bikes mostly built with the exception of the stem, seat tube > saddle and pedals. I originally planned on bring my bike to a shop to have > them complete the build for me but after some shopping around, the shops > will charge a full build fee which averages around $150. That is far too > much for such little work in my opinion. > > I am no bike mechanic. I have always enjoyed tinkering though so I have > half a mind to attempt to put the rest together myself and then bring it to > a shop to be tuned, which would cost much less than a "full build". > > Should I go ahead and give it a shot? I have access to the proper tools, I > just do not know where to start and obviously do not want to damage > anything in the process. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2c9ecffb-e42b-4609-a609-699be2cb82e8n%40googlegroups.com.
