How easy is it to build a mountain bike??

Hi i had a kona kileaua last year and had to sell it . I am after getting back into my mountain biking, so am after getting a good bike for around £200. I was wondering if it easy to build a bike myself, or would i need to know alot of how to do it really?? And woukld it work out really expensive to build??

Not hard if you are fitting modern kit. But retro U brakes, cantis can be a pain to set up.

Its all fairly simple to be honest, its a bit like lego except slightly easier as most things will only fit in one place.

You should be able to build a fairly nice bike using 2nd hand parts for £200 easly, however dont expect to get anything blingy for that budget unless you get some lucky bargains.

It is often easier to pickup a full "retro" bike second hand with good parts on it for less than it would cost you to buy the parts and build the same bike yourself. That said you still need to have a bit of luck on your side as many people will buy such bikes for 1 or 2 parts then deposit the rest of the parts back on ebay.

In short its easy to build a bike with fairly basic knowledge, It is more difficult to tune one well.
You should be able to build a decent bike for the money, but ho decent depends on your luck.

Thanks for reply not sure what to do, there was a lovely kona bike for sale on here and just up thr road from me but the seller is not selling now. Just had a look on ebay and saw a nice looking
Barracuda Oblivion but never heard of that make are they any good???

Another stupid question i can't remember what size my kona frame was, what size frame would i need i am 6ft 2???

You should be riding a 19"

depends how mechanically minded you are . when i had a shop it scared me how seemingly smart looking people lacked the grasp of even the simplest of things

there are a few specialist tools needed

lets start from a bare frame

headset cups need to be fitted into the headtube , ghetto method is with some soft wood that covers the area of the cup and knock in with a hammer . pro is the park headset tool . everyman method is a long bolt , nut and suitably large washers to screw the cups in

putting the forks in ( inch or inch/eighth , threaded or threadless ) common sense for assembling the open or sealed ( not really sealed ) bearings . steerer might need to be cut . hacksaw and file or pipecutter . threaded headsets will need some large spanners . the crown race will need setting on the forks a specialist tool is needed here or a tube a fraction larger than the steerer

the bottom bracket needs a specific tool for whatever type you use . shimano cartridge needs the cartridge tool . some have a lockring so a C spanner is needed ( butchers use a drift and hammer ) cup and cone need again a large spanner . a tape measure is a good idea for chainline

cranks will need either an 8mm allen key ( hex wrench ) or a 14mm ( or is it 15mm , been a while since ive used bolts ) socket . chainring bolts need a chainring bolt tool

pedals will be 15mm , you might luck out and a spanner fits but most dont and a pedal spanner is needed . plus it sucks when the normal spanner snaps and you punch the floor

a vernier caliper is a wise tool to have as its worth checking everything that fits to anything , its proper use determins whether your a guy screwing a bike together or a pro

theres a selection of tools needed for the cassette/freewheel . various different splines used by various different companies over the years . if its a cassette you will need a chain whip ( or make one )

chain tool

proper torque settings are worth learning

of course theres the 2mm - 8mm allen keys ( hex wrench ) . spanners . cable cutters . grease . degreaser . rags . chain lube . gt85 . thread lock . copper grease . pump . hmm what have i forgotten

this is of course just the bolting on of bits . theres also the correct use of greases/loctite not to mention the setting up of brakes/gears and the various bearings

the park tools site is a good source of information

theres this

http://bicycletutor.com/

sheldons site is mandatory for every cyclist

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/

All I know of Baracudas is that the modern ones are catalogue tat, the sort of things you need a JCB to lift yet disintegrate if a butterfly farts in its general direction. They may have once of produced reasonable bikes but I am not aware of any off the top of my head.

Thanks for all the reply's i used to do the general repairs on my bike but i think to build one is going to be a bit to tricky for me.

I see someone said i should get a 19 inch frame for my size, the ones i keep seeing that i like are either 18 or 20 frames.

Does anyone know anywhere else apart from ebay for bikes??

JeRkY":12cao1fd said:

All I know of Baracudas is that the modern ones are catalogue tat, the sort of things you need a JCB to lift yet disintegrate if a butterfly farts in its general direction. They may have once of produced reasonable bikes but I am not aware of any off the top of my head.

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The one i saw was one that some one has stripped down and resprayed and put better bits on. But by what you said will steer clear.