The joy of building your own bike

Ok Ok, so I didn’t really “build” my bikes, but I certainly put them together from the frame up. I think we all enjoy riding our bikes, but to me, riding a bike that I put together brings me the most enjoyment. I understand that this is not for everyone, you do have to have some intermediate mechanical skills, some special tools and money. I still remember the first bike that I built:

This was a Redline Monocog that I built as a commuter bike. Single speed bikes are the easiest bikes to build for obvious reasons; no shifters or derailleurs to mess with. This also cuts down on the cost of the bike, drivetrains are usually some of the most expensive parts on a bike.

Here are other samples of bikes that I’ve built:

A full blown XC racer

A crazy looking commuter bike

A Kona Smoke with an Xtracycle

A cool Swobo Fixie

A sweet 29er that unfortunately was stolen from my garage

A bad ass Super D racer

And my absolute favorite; a single speed Cyclocross commuter-trail riding bike which was later converted to a 1X7.

There is one downfall though, building your own bikes can cost you more than if you would have bought one already built. Still, it does not beat the fact that you have a one-of-a-kind bicycle and something that you broke your skin on while putting it together.