Out of interest, who here builds their own bikes? I built my first one ( http://fixed.org.au/forums/index.php/topic,4273.0.html ) from scratch, completely took it apart, cleaned and re-assembled. Do most people do this? Or is it worth looking at getting a shop to assemble everything you buy?
Me does build my own bickes. im a simple bike menachic 
I think your title/post might be abit misleading. At 1st glance, I thought you meant who built frames.
Anyhow, I usually put together my own bikes except for tasks that I don’t have the tools for. That’s pretty much anything to do with headsets and wheel building.
Des
I think most people here build their own bikes.
Since we are always having new bikes, swapping things and trying out the latest fad, it makes things a lot cheaper and gives us better knowledge of our bikes.
Although generally speaking i think most people will outsource wheel building
I do. All the time. I can’t help it.
Being self sufficient in bike maintenance adds another level of evolution to your experience.
That explains that ‘public masturbation’ charge you got…
Come on now mate.
All because you couldn’t keep quiet.
I have “put together” three bikes now. Most of the time it’s all self taught, but I have a friend who helps me out with stupid questions, and this forum has always helped. It’s pretty straight- forward. I love getting old bikes, ripping everything off of them, cleaning them up and converting them to fixed. My band members hate it cause I’d rather muck around “building” bikes than practice.
But yeah, short of building wheels, I managed to rebuild three fixed’s and one geared bike ( I just cleaned the gears, I don’t know enough to do much more), including servicing the bottom brackets, hubs and headsets.
I tried building my own, but it never seems to workout?!?!?!
maybe it’s the acid…
Hah. The sheer mechanics are mind boggling.
it’s the only way to go. my dad has bought most of the necessary tools over the years so I just go around to my folks place for any serious work. I’ve got basic tools which are fine for most things really. I also get Dad’s hand-me-downs as he upgrades to better ones. Means I can spend more on bikes =D
Rebuilt the rear wheel on my road bike and completely built the wheels for my fixie. It’s pretty straight forward so long as you pay attention to where you put the spokes. So you don’t have to re-lace half of it like I did.
As snowflake said, it just adds to the experience. I like keeping my bike running smoothly. I like to know that my bikes is getting the TLC it deserves. If I didn’t do it myself, it would rarely get done since the hassle of having to leave a bike in the shop for a few days doesn’t really appeal.
There’s something especially awesome about jumping on a freshly serviced bike.
Yea I must say I really enjoyed getting on my bike after working on restoring it for so long. Like a big lubed up sense of accomplishment.
thats what she said!
I know what you mean:
I tend to do all my own wrenching, have built a few wheelsets, but haven’t brazed a frame yet.
The last time I took a bike to get something done at the shop was when I was 14. Since then I do everything myself. Saying that though I did take some wheels to Dan to get finished off after I laced them just because they were very special ones and needed to be spot-on. If I need some technical advise I’ll go down to the LBS of choice and ask, and will always buy something to pay for their time.