How easy is it to build a mountain bike??

Building a bike from the bits is quite satisfying though! I'm still a relative newbie to this pastime and one of the few "non chaps" to inhabit this forum.

To echo some of the earlier comments - a helpful friend with more knowledge and some of the all important tools is a great asset. But you don't actually need that many tools really. Allen keys, a spanner or two, screwdriver and a chain splitter cope with most of it. Borrow a bottom bracket tool and crank extractor if you need them.

For some other things the LBS is a good bet - mine will fit headset cups, fork crown race etc. if you buy the headset from them and that makes the whole thing a lot easier.

I've also found a couple of manuals helpful. Lots of people use the Park Tools Blue Book - it's very comprehensive. I also have an old Haynes mountain bike manual of about the same vintage as the bikes - it's quite good for the daft questions like "which way do I tighten this?"

Allow plenty of time, especially for the setting up - takes longer than bolting all the bits on!!

So give it a go and have fun - you see - once you've bought those tools you can't waste them so you just have to build another and before you know it you'll be like the rest of us - sunk without trace in the mire of bike related madness!

Where are you Rojo......I for one would be happy to help you build up a bike.

No worries on the questions front, just give us something to work with, pop to your local bike shop and have a look, report back what you like and we may be able to suggest cheaper/older alternatives that fit your budget.

A bike is an odly personal thing, anything blindly recomended may totally not suit you.

I did notice earlier that you said you had a approx 19" kona, well bide your time and you should find such a bike within your budget. A few years back I bagged a Kona explosif (top end steel framed kona) for £100 for the full bike off of ebay, it needed a little work but not much.

Lower-mid range models frequently fall within your budget on the bay, its all about keeping your eye open and your wallet ready.

Kileaua was steel, one model below the explosif I mentioned, a top frame.

I think the best advice would be to keep an eye on ebay (try using the auction watch function at the top of this page for easy browsing)

Although not that common an occurance it has been known that upper end steel framed konas (complete bikes) have sold for within your budget. even if one needs a bit of work doing to tidy it up it is still often worth it.

you can always tell a steel kona, the tubing is noticably skinnier than the aluminium models. If I were you I would look out for anything from a Lava dome upwards. (check the gallery & archive up top to look at examples of the kona catalogues to work out the order of the range.)

One thing to note would be that in more recent years (2000 onwards???) many of the low-mid (& in some years high) range konas that used to be made in lovely steel were manufactured in aluminium instead. Look at the catalogues, get an idea of the difference in look between steel & alu and an idea of the kona range & then happy hunting.