Plunge Taken!!!

Well the deed is done. I have bought the wheels, fork and headset and now I am itching to get on with it!

I had a real internal struggle with choosing the wheel size. I fell in to the trap of following trends and was really trying to figure a way of fitting some 27" wheels to the bike when I had a brain fart. Fit 26" instead. Easy really.

So I purged my watching list on e-bay of the many 27" wheels and the one and the only suitable 27" fork and started searching again. E-bay is a really good resource for reasonably price bike bits. I'm not that precious about the manufacturer of the parts I'm fitting to this bike as its the first one I've done especially as the price difference between a part with an unknown brand on it and a well known brand can be hundreds of pounds.

I managed to find a pair of 26" wheels with a over locknut distance of 110mm, a front fork with a 1"steerer and a headset for less than £90 for the lot. Bargain!

Right Jargon busting time. 

Over locknut distance you should know, if not look at the last post.

1" steerer. This is the part of the front fork ( the bit the front wheel is attached to) which runs through the front tube (head tube). It is fixed to the bike by a headset. This is basically where the bearings are to enable you to steer the bike. Its the bit you loosened when you were a kid and then the front of your bike fell off....Just me then.

There are a couple of good E-bay shops that I have saved: Bankrupt bike parts and Bankrupt surplus bike bits. Sounds a bit dodgy but they normally have a good stock of old new bits if that makes sense.

Bankrupt bike parts is where i have ordered my bits from and they also stock the correct size tyres and inner tubes so I suspect they will be getting more of my custom soon.

When I started thinking about building a bike I looked at a few websites and manufacturers to get some inspiration. I discovered a magazine called Urban Cyclist. This is full of beautiful looking bikes which I never thought I would have an interest in. 

I'm beginning to wonder if this is my mid-life crisis hitting me and I just can't afford a Harley Davidson. 

One bike I saw that was absolutely stunning was called The Board Racer Special from Cosgrove Ball. http://cosgroveball.com/blog/

It really confirmed to me that even though that bike will cost around £4500 to buy, I would really love it if I had something like that that I could be proud to say 'I built that'. Even if it only costs £200 (hopefully!).

So Monday is the day the first parts get delivered. We shall see if they work. Otherwise I'll be selling the lot on Gumtree! 

Lessons learnt

So the first lesson has been learnt. I was expecting to put some up to date sized wheels which are known as 700c, 27" in old money. I have a cyclo-cross bike with these wheels so I offered them up to the frame and...they don't fit! Not only is the diameter too big but the hub, the bit with the axle and gears on, is too wide. So I am now forced to enter into the world of jargon. The technical term for the measurement of the hub I need is the over locknut distance! Just trips off the tongue and makes complete sense...not!

Basically the width of the wheel from one side of the hub to the other needs to be around 110mm to fit inside the frame. Now I know that I will need 26" diameters wheels with an over locknut distance of 110mm. I am resisting becoming a cycling jargon nazi and i know that most of these posts are very basic. I am hoping that anyone who enjoys cycling and has no clue whatsoever about how their bike works may read this blog and come away with a small amount of knowledge. I am having to learn as I go and to be honest what's the worst that could happen, its only a bike after all!

Now what!!!

There are plenty of websites, blogs and forums that offer lots of advice for building  a single or fixed speed bike. It seems that most of the forums are populated by people who were born as experts! Whenever someone new comes along to ask for some basic advise it is usually met by calls of 'buy a ready made one and come back when you have learnt something' or 'you have posted this onto the wrong thread this is the metallurgy for hipsters thread.....'. so I have decided to largely ignore such places and find my own way.  
I have a technical background, I have worked in various engineering  type jobs in the past and I know my way around a toolbox so it should be fairly straightforward.....shouldn't it?

Also I am a 42 year old father of two, slightly padded around the framework and a bit grey around the temples so when I go into a cycle shop and I am met by someone wearing a beaney hat in the height of summer who can't look me in the eye during conversation and says 'what you want mate is one of those....' (funny enough the most expensive option) before I've opened my mouth, I kind of get put off going into those shops. There are some very good cycle shops with very good people working in them. If you have one of those near you then use them. Its like a forum but with real people who can interact with other human beings!

So, rant over, where to start indeed.....Firstly terminology.

What is a bottom bracket and is my bottom big enough to require one?
What are dropouts? Are these the people with the beaney hats in the cycle shops?
Spoke nipples? Not going there!

Again I am largely ignoring most of the pseudo technical jargon and sticking with the obvious stuff. Apparently a bottom bracket is the spinney around bit the pedals are fixed to. Right now you know.
Dropouts are where the wheel axles go through. Easy really.
Spoke nipples I think is a medical complaint. I suspect a Google images search would throw up all sorts of possibilities!
To start the build I have been pondering on what bit to do first.
I have reached a decision that the rear wheel would be as good a place as any. This will give me a position for the rear sprocket (the bit at the back where the chain goes over) which in turn will give me a position for the bottom bracket (see above) which will have the crank (the bigger gear with the pedals on) fixed to it. So in theory if these are in line, The chain will run straight.
There is a whole heap of opinion around what size wheels are best and how many teeth the rear sprocket has (keep up) in relation to the crank (I'll be asking questions at the end). Again I'm not going to lose sleep about this yet. As I have a road bike at the moment I will try those wheels on the frame to see if they fit, if so I'll get them then. Easy really. Well in my simple mind it is.......

Never built a bike. Never blogged. What could possibly go wrong!

This is a first for me on many levels. Never built a bike before and I've never blogged before. Not sure if it will be interesting enough but thats never stopped me boring people before!
So the idea is that I build a single speed bike from scratch. I have bought an old Triumph Torrington frame from eBay which will, over time be transformed into, hopefully, a nice looking single speed bike which I can use for poodling about on instead of using my Specialized tri-cross which is good for blasting around on but not for leisurely family-friendly rides.  This is the frame. As the build goes on I will post the gory details such as essential measurements, components used, new swear words etc. For now the frame is sat under my desk at work waiting to be taken home and placed gently in the damp shed at the end of the garden. More to follow soon.....