Nah. Just ride what you’ve got and replace things as they break. It’ll be as unique as a snowflake (Hi Snowflake!!1!!) and a hell of a lot cheaper than a new custom fixxie biek. You can put the money you save towards your inevitable cyclocross/carbon road/650b/epic touring bike.
yeah lets not overestimate how “manly” I am.
I own about 7 allen keys from ikea, a socket wrench that has the possibility of taking my back wheel off to change the flip flop (still have never done this myself) and a drill.
I do think that maybe getting the tools as I go for each job is a good idea instead of having a bunch of tools I’ll never use, though.
I started with the same + a few spanners, a file and steel wool (I use the stuff everytime I work on an old bike)
Alright cool; I’m going to buy a work stand soon.
Can anyone give me a little list of what tools/set up would cover me for buying an older bike on gumtree/tradingpost/ebay etc and pulling it apart and converting it to fixed/singlespeed?
I’m surprised how little help google/youtube gives when you search “how to dismantle a bicycle”
Your first tool is the search bar on this website, it has helped me with many chainline, trueing wheel problems.
Yeah next you will want us to come clean up after you fix the bike
Go to eBay find parts you need add them up and boom there’s the cost.
That would be lovely, thanks for the offer.
I found a few wiki how articles that might help I guess. I still can’t find anything useful with the search function on this forum. Maybe I’m doing something wrong.
^ You’ll need to be a bit more specific than ‘how to dismantle a bike’. Try ‘how to remove a bottom bracket’, or ‘how to overhaul a hub’ and you’ll have more success.
The Park Tool website has some great ‘how to’ pages, and get some tools while you’re there.
Buy a stand AND a tool kit.
Do it once, if you expect to ride for a while youll need it all eventually.
Velogear has some decent priced ones, not having the correct tools is a pain in the arse and can be expensive, dangerous and possibly damaging to your bike.
You guys that are stuggling without stands and don’t mind ghetto/cheap fixes could do it the old school way: pour cement into a large empty paint tin/bucket/bin, stick a heavy gauge 1" steel pipe that has at least 70cm sticking outside the bucket. Let it set/dry and then wrap the exposed pipe in cotton tape (hockey tape, or anything from a haberdashery that is thin and adhesive).
Voila, a sold workstand that works for any bike as long as you can remove the seatpost. Easy to move around but solid enough to work on and exaactly the same as was used back in the day by Malvern Star and most any bike shop. Remember that most good bikes will have a 26.8 to 27.2mm seat tube diameter so you don’t want the tape to be too thick but it does squash down and you need to keep it from metal to metal contact. Also the butted portion of a seat tube is towards the base (near the cranks) and this usually stops the frame from sliding to low. Can get jammed but easy to lift off. If you have water bottle bosses on your seat tube the frame will go as far as these so add a littl bit of padding on the end of the pipe to act as a bump stop.
Perfect for doing bottom bracket and cranks, no probs for tuning gears, replacing wheels/tyres etc. Costs you an old bag of cement and a steel pipe. Oh … the pipe has to be straight for the exposed part.
^^^ mecury and spirito have it took me forever going from working on bikes upside down to the right way up when good stands weren’t stupid expensive. and sheldon is an amazing resource for all things bicycles.
I’d recommend against buying a complete ‘bike tool kit’ Buy a nice set of allen keys, (I really dig pedro’s stuff) a good set of spanners. (my vote here goes to the total tool house brand TTI) a ball peen hammer and a rubber mallet. Couple different grades of steel wool, and light emry paper. As well as a bag of rags and some quality grease.
And after that buy tools individually. most kits will come with 6 different sized cones spanners you will never use, is almost garunteed to have every bottom bracket tool BUT the one you need. and so on… There has been so many bike standards over time that your best to buy tool’s specific to the bike your working on.
Disagree - a kit will have you allen keys, the spanners you need, and:
crank extractor
shimano bb tool (probs most common)
chain breaker
threaded headset wrenches
Most of which are about $25+ each at LBS’s, so all in all, more value just to buy a kit, and less time wasted when you want to fix something.
I second the call to buy a whole kit, it will be cheaper compared to buy all those individual tools.
You can get some ok cheap ones
BIKEHAND Complete Bike Bicycle Repair Tools Tool Kit Set | eBay
this one is good value, chuck the spanners and screw drivers and grease (they are terrible),
buy some decent ones and a ‘gorilla by bondhus’ allen key set from bunnings (its the same as parktool).
Then just buy the more specialist tools if and when you need them.
Im currently using an old pair of bonds jocks. They had done their time and arse started sagging, waist band was all wrinkly and stretched. Could probably have got another couple of years out of them but I decided to treat myself to a new pair. Anyway, I did a few bits and pieces to the bike… cleaned my chain etc. They were just bunched up in a ball. My toolbox lives in my bedroom so I just chucked the rag on top.
So yeah, I was ‘entertaining’ at my place a few weeks back… champagne, a bit of seafood, all the bells and whistles. Im pretty fucking charming so we ended up in my room.
Turns out the jocks were inside out when I was using them and they ended up with a massive gritty black patch right through the undercarriage. They didnt make the distance to the toolbox in the corner and were lying arse up on the floor. Kinda killed the moment.
Another vote for buying a complete kit. Don’t cheap out on a kit. You’ll want a quality chainbreaker, cable cutters and crank extractor (otherwise you start wrecking tools and/or bike parts). Parktools or Pedros or GTFO.
Not to mention that Mediterranean accent.
I am also popular with the fathers as I am prepared to part with up to eight goats as dowry for the right sisters.
actually… it works the other way around I think.
Damn, I never even read your post Baiki. That is FUCKING hilarious! Nice work champ. =)