How to build a bike - Part 7: Finishing up!

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

Having it made this far, it's hardly possible to take a wrong turn anymore. We only need to put some easy to install components.

Seat
The seat post is simply inserted in the frame. Some frames have integrated clamps for it, for others (like mine) you need to buy a seperate clamp. Put your seat on top of the post and adjust the height in such a way that you feel comfortable on....

Steer
Finish your steer by putting the bar tape on it. It's a task not many people tend to like, and I'm definitely one of them. But when done, it makes your bike much more appealing!

Wheels and tires
Put on the tires around the wheels if you didn't already. A little trick to put on your rimtape efficiently is shown in the picture. You'll need to align the hole in the tape with the hole in the rim. This can be done by putting something through both holes when putting the rimtape on. In this case a file which happened to be around did the job..

Other things
Think of bottle cages, bell, air pump, speed meter, etc. Just put as much stuff on it as your willing to carry with you...

And that's it, more or less! By now you should have an irresistible desire to start riding your bike. If not, you should start to doubt if you actually made the right choice of building your own bike...

At least I hope to have shown that building your own bike is not as hard as it might seem. If you've got something that comes close to a technical mind building your own bike might safe you quite a lot of money. And in the end, although I know how weird it may sound, building your own bike may come close to something we call 'fun'. Don't say I didn't warn you....

Shopping list

Frame: Nameless aluminum frame. Got it cheap from ebay.
Groupset (excl. axles): SRAM Rival
Fork: Kinesis aluminum fork.
Headset: Acros Ai03
Wheelset: Easton Circuit
Tires: Continental Grand Prix 4 seasons
Stem: Truvativ team stem
Steer: Molbodo
Seatpost: Ritchey Comp V2
Seat: Ritchey Comp
A lot of small bits and pieces....

How to build a bike - Part 6: Make the brakes and shifters work

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

The last tricky part of the whole project...

First adjust the brakes. Make sure the brakes do not touch the tubes and only the rim of the wheel. For some reason rims are more suitable to use for braking then tires.

Next hold the brakes a couple of mm's from the rims, stretch the brake cable and secure it to the brake. You should be able to use your brakes now. If needed you can make some fine tune adjustments using the adjustment bolts on the brakes.

Now adjust the rear derailleur. Make sure the shifter is set to the lowest position (in which the cable is the longest). Now stretch the cable as much as you can and fix it to the derailleur.

Use the shifter to shift to the highest gear and then completely back again. Most likely, the cable is hanging a bit loose now, because it has been stretched a bit. Disconnect is from the derailleur again, restretch it, and connect it again.

Then repeat the procedure: shift up and down and check if the cable is hanging loose again. When the cable is not getting loose anymore, you've stretched it enough and shifting should work perfect! You can always fine tune it a bit using the adjuster at the derailleur. You can for example tighten the cable just a little bit more after you've stretched it for the last time, while in the lowest position.

The front derailleur works exactly the same as the front derailleur. Stretch the cable, shift up and down, and restretch it again. The only difference is that there is no adjuster on the derailleur, only the one at the frame. I found it convenient to keep the rear derailleur somewhere in the middle, while adjusting the front derailleur.

That's it! Both brakes and shifters should work properly now. Most likely you'll need to adjust these components a couple of times after a while, since cables will stretch a bit. But by now you should be a full grown expert on adjusting things on your bike, so that won't be a problem. Or am I making the mistake of getting confident now?

How to build a bike - Part 5: Steer and cables

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

Now this part sounds easy and on paper it is. This explains why this caused my the most pain in the ass while building my bike... Never get confident about your bike-building skills when you've had the most difficult part.

Well, installing the steer is actually really easy. Simply connect it to the stem and tighten the bolts firmly.

The same holds for the installation of the brakes. Simply connect them to the frame using a hex-key after you've greased the bolt a bit.

Next step is to install the shifters and brakes. Pull back the rubberish material a bit and you should find a bolt which tightens the shifters to the steer. A simple trick to install both shifters in exactly the same position I found here: Use a ruler and align it to the bottom of the steer. Now align the tip of the brake to the ruler and tighten it to the steer.

Now install the cable adjusters to the frame. With these you can adjust the gear cables a bit. In most cases the adjusters go in using a thread.

Now comes the decisively easy part of installing the cables. Under the bottom bracket the cables need to be guided through a guider (any suggestions for a better name for this thing?). Some frames will have it integrated, in my case I needed to install a plastic thing. Please double check the orientation of this little puppy, since it caused me a lot of trouble after having it installed a bit wrong.

Now connect the cables to the brakes and cut the outer cables to the appropriate length. I bought 3 meters of outer cable and this was actually just slightly to short. Better cut them a bit too long then a bit too short, like I did. It the only thing I'm not really happy about with my bike now; the cables are a bit too short.

In order to smooth things up even more, it might be a good idea to grease the outer cables. I did this by applying some silicone spray inside, like shown in the picture.

If you're not sure how the cables need to be routed exactly and where to put the outer cables, just take a look at some pictures of other bikes (like the ones shown here). I should have done that a bit more: it would have saved me hours rerouting cables I thought to have misplaced and rerouting them once again after I discovered I actually did it first time right....

It also might be a good idea to spend a bit of money on a cable cutting tool. With this tool you can cut your cables easy and straight, without damaging them completely and having to spend hours fixing the ends again. Connect the ends of the cables to the derailleurs and shifters, but do not cut the ends yet. You can do this as a last step, when everything is working fine.

Use some tape to fix the outer cables to the steer. That's it. Time to make the cables actually do something in the next part...

How to build a bike - Part 4: Derailleurs and chain

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

Yet another part that might seem intimidating initially, but will turn out to be as simple as making yourself a cup of tea... Actually it might be a good idea to make yourself one before starting. Tea can work amazingly motivating, especially when knowing that by having made one, you've already had the most difficult part.

I already had some experience with deraillieurs before starting with this project. The deraillieur of my old bike already survived multiple (dis)assemble sessions, so I was sure I was able to handle this.

Ok, first take the rear derailleur. You should attach it to the frame using a hex-key. Only thing to notice here is that the 'block' is positioned correctly. The derailleur must be able to turn counter clockwise when shifting to bigger gears. When doing so, a spring in the derailleur is keeping the chain tightened. One side of the spring should be resting against the frame. The picture should explain this a bit... Do not worry yet about the adjustment of the derailleur, we'll take care of that later.

Next, you need to install your cogset (set of sprockets at the rear wheel) to the wheel. Almost all new bikes have a cassette system. For installation you'll need a special tool. This tool actually might be worth owning yourself. I already owned one, since I needed it before on my old bike (I needed it because I quickly learned that a 21T sprocket is not quite big enough with a 42T in front when trying to get up a +20% hill). Shimano and SRAM use the same type of tool, while Campagnolo has a different type.

The cassette will fit in only one way to the freehub on the wheel. I bought a ready made wheelset including the hub. I've no experience building wheels myself. Anyway, first grease the freehub, then put on the cassette and simply tighten it with the tool. Take a look at the pictures.

Now install the front derailleur. Most frames will have a special part included to which you can attach the front derailleur. Mine had not, so I had to buy a ring which attaches to the seat tube.

The height of the front derailleur should be such that there is a few mm space between the biggest sprocket and the derailleur. Furthermore it's important to align the front derailleur exactly with the line of the sprockets as well. See the pictures again for a visual explanation.

Align with the chain:Align with the big sprocket:

Now put the rear wheel in the frame and install the chain. The length of the chain needs to be adjusted correctly. You will need a chain tool for this. Again this might be a good tool to own, since you might need it again when you run into the not so pleasant situation of breaking your chain....

The SRAM manual showed a good way of determining the right size for the chain. Put the chain on the biggest sprockets, both at the front and back, but do not put it through the rear derailleur. The correct length of the chain is equivalent to the length corresponding to this distance, plus two additional chains (link). Now cut the chain to the right length, while having it installed through the front and rear derailleur.

Now you need to set the upper and lower boundaries for your derailleurs. Probably it's best to simply check the manual for your derailleur for how to do it exactly. I'll explain shortly how it worked for my derailleur.

Adjusting the rear derailleur
First set the lower boundary, which corresponds to the smallest sprocket. Align the derailleur with this smallest sprocket by turning the adjustment bolt. Next push the derailleur by hand towards the biggest sprocket. Now turn the high limit adjustment bolt in such a way that you can't push the deraillieur further then this last sprocket. This adjustment is very important, because if it can be pushed further, you might push it in your spokes, which will lead to a lot of damage.

Next adjust the height of the deraillieur such that the highest sprocket always has a few mm's space under the cassette. In my case no adjustment was needed.

Adjusting the front derailleur
The front derailleur is similar to the rear derailleur. It might be easier to adjust this one after you've connected the shifters to the rear derailleur. This is because you need to shift the rear derailleur while adjusting the front derailleur.

First set the lower boundary by adjusting the appropriate bolt. The lower boundary corresponds to the small sprocket. Put the rear derailleur on the largest sprocket and now adjust the front derailleur such that it does not touch the chain anymore.

To adjust the high boundary, put the rear derailleur on the smallest sprocket. Now push the front derailleur by hand to the large sprocket and adjust the boundary such that is does not touch the chain anymore.

Since you already took care of the height adjustment when installing the front derailleur, there's no need to adjust that anymore.

That's it! All derailleurs are adjusted within the boundaries. The shifters will take care of shifting the deraileurs with the appropriate amount to shift one gear higher or lower. Now it's time to tell as many people as possible that you're able to properly install and adjust derailleurs. It might sound impressive at a birthday party....

How to build a bike - Part 3: Bottom bracket and crankset

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

The crankset is another piece with bearings and is therefore a possible source of horror for people. It was for me, until I found out how to install them. It's really easy...

Like the headsets a lot of different variations exist in bottom brackets. Again the interested reader should spend some time on wiki or google. The rest of the people should simply check what type of bottom bearings are needed in the frame.

My frame needed a BSA type of bottom bracket and luckily this was the type that was included in the group set from SRAM I purchased. As explained before, installation is very easy. The only problem is you'll need a special tool to tighten the bottom bracket. SRAM and Shimano use the same type of tool, while Campagnolo uses its own. I was lucky enough to find a study mate owning such a tool, otherwise a little visit to a LBS might safe you buying a tool which you are only gonna use once or twice. With the frame, bottom bracket and tool ready, it's time to install it!

First check the inside of the frame and the bracket itself for any damage. Remove any dirt. Now grease the threads on both the frame and the bearings. According to the 'manual' (a single piece of paper) which came with the bottom bracket, I first had to install the non-drive side (meaning the left side of the bike). Simply put in the bottom bracket and tighten it with the tool.

After that install the drive side of the bracket in exactly the same way.

No take the crankset. Grease the bottom crank a bit. Put it inside the bottom bracket and secure it. With SRAM this is simply done using a hex-key. For Shimano you'll again need some special piece of plastic tool to do the job. For Campagnolo I have no idea how to tighten it, but I'm sure the Italian people have found a way to secure it.

That's it! Another part done!

How to build a bike - Part 2: Headset

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

The frame and fork of the bike are connected by means of a headset. The headset is basicly a ball bearing which allows the fork to rotate with respect of the frame, thus steering the bike in the hopefully right direction. Although it's still up to the cyclist to steer properly, a well mounted headset will make the job a lot easier!

Installation of a headset might look a little complicated at first sight. Actually the installation of any part including bearings scares the hell out of a lot of people, including me. You need to adjust it properly: when it's too loose, there will be play between the parts and when it's too tight, the rotation is not smooth anymore. Both situations will lead to damage in the bearings.

But how hard can it actually be? Just keep turning those bolts until there's no play and rotation is smooth! If it makes you feel more confident grab yourself a beer and let's put those babies where they belong: between the frame and the fork!

Headsets come in a whole lot of different flavors. What they all have in common is that they consist of a ball bearing in some kind of housing (bearing cups) that is fitted in the frame and the fork. Wikipedia is your friend if you want to find out more about all the types, but I'll include a very short overview here:

Threaded headset
This type of headset is used in older types of frames. The bearing cups are fitted to the frame using a thread. Adjustment is done turning the locknut on top of the bearing. This type of bearing comes in loose parts and usually you'll need to put it all together yourself. I've no experience with this type, since I've had no problems with the headset on my old bike and I'm still keeping my fingers crossed it keeps that way.

Threadless headset
This type of headset using no threads. The bearing cups are pressed (clamped) into the frame. Adjustment of the headset is done by turning a nut on top of the fork.

Only two types of headsets would make this world way too easy, so different threadless headsets exist. So called integrated headsets have no outer bearings cups, but use the frame itself as the housing. My frame was suitable for semi-integrated headsets, which still have outer bearing cups, but these cups are put away inside the frame.

Basic message here is to check which type of headset your frame and fork are exactly before buying it. Note that for the semi-integrated headsets even different size standards exist, so double checking everything might safe you some frustrations...

Ok, now finally on to the assembly. Amazingly enough I managed to buy a frame, fork and headset of the same type first time right. My headset was from Acros (link), a German company. Let's walk through the different assembly steps:

1. Drive the star nut in the steerer tube
The star nut is pressed into the steerer tube and is used to connect the preload bolt which can adjust the headset. To press the star nut inside the steerer tube, some brute force is needed. Important is that this nut is lined up exactly straight with the steerer tube, otherwise the preload bolt will get crooked when it is turned. When googling around a bit how to put this little bastard straight into the tube you'll easily find some dedicated tools. I thought it was a good idea to visit some Local Bike Shops to ask if they would please use their dedicated tools to do the job for me.

I came back empty handed from this little mission as all the guys at the LBS gave me a strange look and told me they just slammed the bolt in... Since I'm not a particulary good slammer and seem to have developed an extraordinary talent for putting things out of line when they need to be in line, I decided to make a little home made tool to slam in the bolt.

First I got myself a little piece of pipeline which exactly fitted over the steering tube (which is 9/8” in diameter). Using a piece of wood which in turn would precisely fit into the tube, allowed my to hammer on this piece exactly in line with te steerer tube. In top of the piece of wood was modified a bit to allow it to fit into the steerer tube and to hit the nut where it was supposed to hit is.

Then it was time for the moment of truth and the nut was slammed in place. Remember to never place the fork on a surface while hammering it, but hold it in your hand to let your arm receive the impact instead of the fork.

The nut needs to be put inside just a couple of centimeters. Check the length of the preload bolt and make sure it can still easily 'reach' the star nut. You can see at the pictures how far I inserted mine.

2. Drive in the bearing cups
This step again needs force. The cups need to be clamped into the frame. And again they need to be in line in order not to crook any part of the bearings. Yet again special tools exist for this job, but thanks to some experience I saved myself the ride to the LBS and made my own tool.

The construction of the tool is well known and is very simple. Get yourself a long piece of thread and some nuts that go with it. You'll also need to pieces of wood and that all!

First check the housing for the cups for any dirt or damages. It needs to be clean to prevent it from damaging the bearing cups. Then grease the housing.

Now take the bearing cups. We're going to put some force on the outside of the cups to press them into the frame. Therefore you need to make sure you're going to press the cups and not the bearing balls inside. If necessary it might be better to remove the bearing balls. In my case the cups were 'extending' a bit, which made the removal of the bearing balls not necessary and gave me less chance of ruining the inside of the headset....

Put the bearing cups on the frame and use the thread, nuts and wood pieces as shown in the picture. By turning the nuts, we can slowly press the cups in place. While pressing make sure the cups go in straight, so you're not damaging the cups and frame. This process is a bit tricky (especially if you manage not to center the thread properly... I wonder why I was so stubborn to try it), but just take your time and it will work out.

When the cups are completely inside the trickiest part is over. Do not use exceptional force to get them in, since this will damage them. Just do it slowly and firmly...

3. Put it together!
Now the smashing and squeezing is over, the hardest part is done. Take the fork, grease it and put the lower bearing cup on it as shown on the picture. In my case this would go very easily, not needing any force.

Now put the fork into the frame, and put the top seal in place. Now you'll need to place the required amount of spacers and finally the stem over the steerer tube. Make sure the top of the stem is put slightly higher (about 3mm) then the top of the steerer tube. This will make sure the top cap is resting on the stem and not on the steerer tube when you turn the preload bolt.

Very important: do NOT secure the stem yet. The preload bolt will push the stem down, thereby adjusting the tightness of the bearings. When securing the stem before the bearings are tightened, you cannot push it down anymore. This will most likely increase your frustration level and will end in breaking the star nut inside the steerer tube when using all your might to tighten those stupid bearings. I'm proud to announce that I actually managed to avoid this situation!

Now put in the preload bolt and start tightning it. This will secure your fork to the frame. In my case this was the point at which I had the run from the garden inside my house, because the weather gods decided it was time for a good shower. You gotta love Holland.... Anyway, this explains a bit why my pictures suddenly change background!

Now, by turning the bolt, you're adjusting the bearings as well. When there's still play between the fork and frame, tighten the bolt more. Keep tightening, until the steering goes not smooth anymore. Now loosen a bit. Keep tweeking until you've got a smooth steering fork without play.

First:

Then:

Now you can secure your stem, since it's not required anymore to move up or down. Tighten it firmly and put a big smile on your face: you just installed a semi-integrated headset successfully. If you're feeling like it, don't hesitate to reward yourself with a nice beer or, if you feel it's your lucky day you can also decide to continue on the other parts of the bike!

How to build a bike - Part 1: Introduction

Other parts:
introduction
Headset
Bottom bracket and crankset
Derailleurs and chain
Steer and cables
Make the brakes and shifters work
Finishing up!

I've been a cycling enthusiast for a couple of years now. It all started out about 6 or 7 years ago, when I got quite an old bike from an acquaintance. I managed to destroy that one very effectively by driving it in a car. Luckily it was the car making the mistake of suddenly driving in front of me where he was not supposed to drive. The driver however was a foreigner and not really eager to involve the police. Since I was about 100km from home and I really needed a bike to continue, we agreed to go to the nearest local bike shop, to buy me a 'new' second hand bike. So we did and that's how I ended up with the bike I've been using for years.

The bike is a Koga Miyata which is older then I am. I still have a tremendous respect for this bike, surviving so many years with me as its driver. The groupset is a 6 speed Shimano Adamas (I never heard about it, a google will give a catalogue from 1982). The crank is better known: a Shimano 600. Anyway, I don't want to elaborate too much about the technical details of this bike. Just enjoy the picture and think about how beautiful vintage bikes can be.

Vintage bikes however do have one minor disadvantage. They need regular maintenance. And that's how I was forced into getting interest in doing small maintenance myself. For example, in a moment of great confidence I decided to disassemble the rear derailleur to clean it properly. Furthermore I was forced to replace the cogset and with that the chain. And numerous other little things.

And although I thought the love between me and my Koga was meant to be eternal, I slowly started to realize that I couldn't keep torturing this poor old lady for ever because parts kept breaking down (for some reason especially wheels) and it was getting harder and harder to get suitable replacement parts.

This left me with a great dilemma. Buying a new bike would go beyond my budget, but any new bike would need to be a significant improvement compared to the Koga. As a student you need to be creative when it comes to these things and for reasons I still cannot understand I thought I could be able to build one myself.

The reasoning is I would be able to buy all different parts for less money then a complete bike would cost me. I do know myself a bit however, and I was not so very confident I would be able to do the job. After all there are quite some small little bits and pieces and I could think of at least a million ways I could screw up this project.

But after yet another struggle with the down tube shifters on the Koga, I got frustrated enough to actually go for it. Thanks to another little hobby of me, photographing stuff, I decided to document as many steps in the process as possible. When I found all the pictures together, I decided it would make sense to publish them to help others around here secretly thinking about doing something similar.

Main purpose is to show that building a bike is much more easy then it might seem at first glance. A couple of steps are slightly tricky, but when you take your time there's not so much that really can go wrong. So with writing this I hope to make you enthusiastic about such a project and maybe remove the last bit of hesitation trying it yourself.

Most big and expensive parts I bought online, some at ebay, some at regular online shops. The small bits and pieces come from Local Bike Shops. For now, lets take a look at the end result of the project, so you know what to expect:

From:

Towards:

In the next chapters I'll explain how to install most of the parts. I'll try to elaborate more on the not so trivial parts. Feel free to comment on anything explained here. I'm open to suggestions and or questions. And one final tip: if you have any difficulty at some point: youtube is full of short movies about the installation of bikeparts and can be very helpful!