I am about to complete my first ever bike build project – a fixed gear/single speed steel framed bike – of course with brakes! As I was in the process of handpicking the components and mostly taken aback by the final build cost estimations I asked this question to myself many many time – why build when you can buy. But the final decision decision turned out to be in favour of a custom build.
The other day I was talking to my manager who happened to be a cyclist as well and he was asking me about how the build is coming through and how much it did cost. The idea of this post came from that discussion and I wanted to let you all know how I even decided to take this route.
My first bike – a failed buying decision
My first bike after many many years happened to be a BSO – A Hercules MTB bike which I thought would serve as a bike for me and my wife. As you have guessed it right, it was a big mistake from my side to buy that without doing much research into bikes, bike fit and the options available in Indian market. Of course the bike served me a few months before I disposed it off. This bike was a single speed one which weighed close to 25Kg (no exaggerations!). Adding to the weight of the bike, it was the fit which failed me. I am about 5′ 8″ and any MTB of that size would have been too small for me.
I used this bike to do some 3-4Km in my housing block and used to get back home fully exhausted. The distance I was covering wasn’t giving me enough motivation to ride this bike further. I thought adding gears would be a great idea and gears can take me distances. I consulted my local bike shop and finally geared up my bike. Of course my LBS messed things up and I ended up doing a lot of DIY stuff to make my bike usable.
Inspired by other DIY folks
I am a mechanical engineer by qualification, who once upon a time was building a robotic arm consisting complex and miniature components. The DIY stuff I was doing on my first bike inspired the mechanical engineer in me and started to think – why not build a bike with the parts you choose instead of struggling with whatever you get? This exactly was the start.
Then I met this awesome biker who stays in the same area as I am who once had built a bike and was found to be a good biking evangelist. His blog posts provided some inspiration to a bike build idea which otherwise looked to be one of the craziest initially.
Why a fixed gear / single speed build
Single speed / fixed gear bikes are simple bikes without any derailleurs/shifters and are easier to build and maintain. I always wanted a tension free bike on which I can ride at my own pace, not to be worried about my cadence or gear ratios – you can just have one gear ratio at a time.
Since the idea of bike build sounded crazy and needed me to learn a lot many things, I chose a fixed gear / single speed bike as the one to build than a complex road bike which uses a lot many complex and costly components.
A bike build certainly cost a lot more than readily available bikes, but as per me here are the positives
- You get to choose which components you want upfront. This means that no further upgrades or worries about upgrade cost.
- You get more closer to your bike. You can get to know each of the parts individually and help you to be your own mechanic. You don’t need to visit an LBS most of the time.
- You can fine tune the fit as you need. No pressure to use what you get on a ready built bike
- And many more.. 🙂
I do not want to limit my bike build experience to just this post, so stay tuned for my next post about my struggle to get bike components and putting them together!
Good to know that you are building you own bike. Please share the details of what all parts you have purchased and from where and what went behind making that choice.
Share some pics also if you can.
[…] my previous post I did explain about my SS/FG build and why I got into […]