I built a bike!

This post has been sitting in my drafts for ages… but I built a bike last winter! I bought the frame and all of the individual components and assembled everything in my basement over the course of a few weeks. I’ve been riding it (and tinkering with it a bit) for the past year and it’s long past time to share it with the world.

Why?

Several reasons. Partly out of necessity (my old bike was stolen shortly after our hike-and-bike Wind River Range adventure 😢) and partly because I had been riding a lot and was ready for an upgrade over my old 1980s road bike.

Buy why build it? Why not just buy a bike?

Because I thought it would be fun!

That’s the main reason, anyway. I like building things and it felt like a fairly approachable project, even though I didn’t have a whole lot of bike maintenance experience prior to starting.

The other reason is that I couldn’t find anything on that market that fit exactly what I was looking for. I actually started out planning to buy a complete bike, looking on both on the used and new market. I wanted a do-everything bike that could handle road riding, gravel riding, (light) touring and bikepacking, and anything else I could throw at it. There are, of course, many bikes on the market that are branded as do-everything bikes, but they all seemed to have one thing or another that I didn’t like.

The sweet spot I narrowed in on was a light-ish steel gravel bike frame with a road drivetrain. I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for in a complete bike (in my price range), but after researching bikes for many hours I had gained the confidence to build up a frameset.

So what did you build?

It’s a Soma Double Cross frame and fork. It has a Shimano 11-speed drivetrain with a 46/30 crankset and I’m currently running 40mm tires on a DT Swiss aluminum wheelset. I bought the frame and fork new (on a Black Friday sale) and I bought almost all of the other components used from craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and eBay. I went to my local bike shop for a few things that I didn’t have the tools to properly install on my own, namely the bottom bracket and headset.

Can I see all of the details?

If you insist:

How did it go? Was it difficult?

For the most part it went great!

The hardest part is the huge number decisions you have to make along the way. I spent hours researching important things like drivetrain compatibility and gearing options, and also trivial things like bar tape and cable housing colors. But once you make all of the decisions, actually assembling the bike isn’t all that difficult. There are a ton of great resources and tutorials online, plus any good bike shop is always happy to answer questions and provide help.

Shoutouts

I should give a couple big shoutouts:

• Comrade Cycles, my awesome local bike shop, did some of the trickier parts of the build for me and helped me track down some hard-to-find parts.
• The Chicago Tool Library lent me a bike repair stand and some tools that were crucial to the project. They are one of the coolest nonprofit organizations in the city — check them out!

Are you happy with the result?

Yes! I’m very happy with how the bike is currently set up.

I’ve put almost 2,000 miles on it so far and the bike is exactly what I hoped it would be. It feels light and quick on the road and it’s very capable on gravel as well. I’ve taken it on a bunch of long weekend rides and a couple gravel races. I’ve even taken it on some (light) mountain bike trails. And I’m excited to take it on my first bikepacking trip very soon!

If you read the full component list you’ll notice that I’ve made a few changes since the original build. The very first change I made was the handlebars—I had no idea which width to get, but I very quickly realized I preferred a narrower bar (I switched from 42cm to 38cm). The other big change I made was switching from a 50/34 crankset to 46/30, which means my gearing is a little lower now than the original setup. After riding for a while I realized that my top gear was way higher than it needed it to be and there were a few times I’d wished I had one more lower gear, so it made sense to make the change. I also bought (and subsequently resold) several different saddles, but I actually ended up preferring and keeping the first (and cheapest) one that I tried.

One decision I’m definitely happy with is the 2x drivetrain. 1x drivetrains (single chainring, no front derailleur) are pretty popular on gravel bikes, but I like the tighter spacing between gears that the 2x setup gives me with comparable gear range. (But who knows, maybe I’d like it if I tried it!)

Is there anything you don’t like about it?

Nothing major. The frame I bought uses some older standards, such as quick release skewers rather than thru axles. I didn’t know the difference at the time I bought it. It doesn’t affect ride quality at all, but it can make it a little harder to find compatible parts. I had to buy a few extra adapters that I wouldn’t have needed for a frame build with more modern standards. But overall, not a big deal.

I maybe should have gotten one frame size smaller (I have the 54cm size and in hindsight the 52cm might have been a better fit). But the current size fits well enough—it’s certainly not so big that I need to replace it.

What would you do differently if you started over?

I would probably get a bike fit before buying the frame. A bike fit isn’t cheap—a little over $100 in my local area—but I think it’s a good investment if you’re going to do a lot of riding. If you do it before buying everything it might actually save you money (and time) because you’ll be able to buy all of the right parts the first time around. I got a bike fit some time after I had built my bike but I think it was still a good value. I was surprised at how much more comfortable the bike felt after some small adjustments and some pointers about my form and posture while riding.

I also originally bought two wheelsets—one set up with wide gravel tires and one with narrower road tires—but I wouldn’t bother with the second one if I started over. It was a fun way to change the feel of the bike, but I eventually decided I couldn’t justify the extra expense and I sold the road wheelset. The wide gravel tires are versatile enough for pretty much anything.

Was it worth it?

Yes and no.

From a strictly financial perspective, probably not. You generally don’t save money by building a bike yourself (the big manufacturers benefit from economies of scale, and you don’t). My bike probably came in a little under the price of a similarly specced new bike, but just barely and only because I hunted for good prices on used parts. If you’re looking for the best value, you should almost always buy a used bike in your local area (e.g., craigslist or FB Marketplace).

But in every other sense, yes, I found the experience to be worth it. The project was approachable enough for a beginner and I learned a ton about bikes along the way. Mostly, I learned that working on bikes is fun! And now I’m able to do almost all of my own bike maintenance so maybe I’ll even save some money in the long run (as long as I can resist the urge to keep buying more bike tools and components—it’s a slippery slope).

Overall, it was a really fulfilling project. Just like my packraft, it’s very satisfying to see a project come together and to use gear that you built yourself.

So are you going to go on some bike trips now?

That’s the plan! Stay tuned! 😊