I want to start building my own fixie, but have no idea of the costs involved.
I wil be honest, I haven’t even ridden fixed, that’s how little I know.
But I want to change that.
I know I can buy a fixie ready to go for as little as $550.
but where is the fun in that ??
Seeing that I do have a basic knowledge of bikes, i know i am capable of building it,
As long as I find the right parts.
I see a lot of different bikes, so I understand the price wil vary as wel, what would be a realistic ‘average’ price to expect?
And what parts are the most expensive ? (besides the frame)
So I would love to hear experiences from you, and how much you ended up paying.
If you have no bikes: Don’t build one as your first. Buy/borrow a cheap [how cheap is relative to your budget - not what anyone else says] bike already complete and then build what you want.
Reason: You will want to ride it and if you dont have a bike in the mean time you may cut corners on your build or get annoyed with waiting for parts etc.
If you have a bike already: Build whatever you want. Wait for parts. Go cheap, go expensive, the sky is the limit.
As for costs. Look at the links above. But also figure out exactly what you want. You can go as cheap as an old roadie with a fixed rear wheel/hub. Or as expensive as a custom frame with brand new everything.
i bought my first fixie off the shelf (apollo salt) and it was ready to ride, and i have ridden it constantly since. on the other hand, i’ve got another build going for months, and i’ve made quite a few changes in that time, and it’s still not ready.
if you want something cheap that you can build yourself you might have to spend a while waiting for things to come up on special/second hand, or go with cheap chinese parts
$130 to this point.
Get a donor/freebie bike and it’ll keep costs way down.Then buy better newer components as time goes on.
I’ve got fatter tyres, new bars and grips planned for mine.
i wanted to build my first bike, but i bought a 2009 mongoose maurice off the shelf for $485. it was great for a little while, but then started to fall apart. i replaced things as required. the only things still original are saddle, seatpost, stem, and headset. everything else has been upgraded for various reasons. it’s probably cost me about $1000 on top of that $485 but it got me riding and i’ve never looked back. i call her “old faithful”.
i then took my time building my “hillman”. it cost me a lot more and took me about 6-7 months to source all the right parts, but it is exactly what i wanted.
i’d go off the shelf, but be aware you will eventually want or need to upgrade most of the components.
So, what’s the quality like of these ‘of the shelf’ fixies ?
Are they a waste of money?
I know for road bikes what parts are good, and what parts are best to be avoided.
How does that relate to fixies?
What parts are good , and what are the parts that have to be avoided ?
the cheap ones all come with pretty rubbish wheelsets (heavy deep dish rims + quando hubs) but they are pretty strong and won’t fail on you, frames are heavy but solid, most come with basic tektro brakes which are again heavy but still work fine, sugino or fsa cranks would be good (some of the no name crap ones are soft as cheese), pretty much any of the seats will be crap, tyres are generally rubbish but you’ll skid through them anyway, and the rest of the parts are just generic bits.
if you ride regularly then you’ll probably want to upgrade parts after a few months, especially the wheelset
Ahh… Haven’t looked at my thread in the Melbourne section have ya? - http://www.fixed.org.au/forums/t15245/
Steamroller Complete for $700.
Kona Bandwaggon Complete for $700.
I think Rolly’s post is right on the money. There’s a lot of appeal in building a bike, but you have to know quite a fair bit already as to what is good and what is not. Also building a (good) bike is $$$.
As for off the shelf bikes there’s a lot of variance in quality, as there is price. Personally I would rate the steamroller as a good one to look at, strong frame and good enough parts where it counts. the KHS flite 100 is also good, esp if you can get one secondhand of the bay or gumtree. the Mercier Kilo TT is the same frame as the flite 100 and is really cheap from Bikesdirect. Or maybe the top Cell bike. As Squid says the wheelsets on quite a few of the off-the-shelf fixies are a weakness, so if you ride hard, skid and on potholed city streets they can let you down.
The other thing to do is sit and wait for a vintage track bike to come up on ebay. You may have to swap the wheelset from tubs to clinchers, but all in all the parts generally tend to be more a bit more special than on a new off-the-shelf fixie. Start with something at least, I reckon.
if you spend $800 + on an off-the-shelf bike you’re gonna get parts that are pretty good and shouldn’t need replacing for a while. Its also worth considering that the parts on these bikes would cost more if you were to bought them all separately, quite simply because bike manufacturers buy in such quantities they get them much, much cheaper than retail.
Also caution to a builder noob: beware of the nightmare which is non-compatibly of parts.
It always cost’s a lot more than you think.
What look are you after old lugged steel, Alloy, Track style ect.
If you want to build people here could help with parts and the does and don’ts.
You need to know what you want and how much you want to spend if not track bikes on the bay are good source of a building base.
I think dice said it best, There’s a lot of appeal in building a bike, but you have to know quite a fair bit already as to what is good and what is not.
I admit; I don’t have the knowledge already, so I don’t think I am ready to build one.
I am not even sure what I know exactly what i want, so far all i got is ideas.
So for me my best option is to go and buy a cheap one, to ride it and then see what it is I want…
I think if i start riding I wil learn more.
I do have my eye on the cellbike mullet-2, the low budget side of it gives me a bit more room for
improvement/adjustments.
Just did my sums, and I built mine for $290. But that was because its a converted roadie & I managed to pull a lot of stuff from my parts box at home (calipers, chain, cranks, pedals, cables, bars, bar tape). And its 9.7kg. My 10-spd steel roadie weighs 10.1kg. Go figure.
Makes the Mallett-2 look good as a tester for the fixed/ss world. I like mine, but I cant justify cashola on a new build/OTR buy.
