2024 Appaloosa has arrived. Considering putting it together myself but have never done this.

[Dan]

So my beautiful Appaloosa has arrived. I am practically foaming at the mouth as I type. As I am sure most of you are aware, Rivendell sends complete bikes mostly built with the exception of the stem, seat tube saddle and pedals. I originally planned on bring my bike to a shop to have them complete the build for me but after some shopping around, the shops will charge a full build fee which averages around $150. That is far too much for such little work in my opinion.

I am no bike mechanic. I have always enjoyed tinkering though so I have half a mind to attempt to put the rest together myself and then bring it to a shop to be tuned, which would cost much less than a "full build".

Should I go ahead and give it a shot? I have access to the proper tools, I just do not know where to start and obviously do not want to damage anything in the process.

[John Rinker]

Hey Dan,

Absolutely you should give it a go! These four things- stem, seat tube, saddle,and pedals- will be a fun and easy intro to wrenching your own ride. As with any new learning, take it slow, don't force anything, and don't overtighten your bolts. In the end, you will have learned a couple of new things about your bike and every time you hop on it you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you contributed to the build.

Cheers, John

[Feldspar Palimpsest]

I’ve been doing all my bike building for 40+ years. I taught myself a fair bit from books, but learned more hanging out in a friend’s bike shop. There’s a lot that’s not intuitive, but we have the advantage of YouTube videos now. A few tips:

Rule 1: Grease all close fitting or threaded metal-to-metal contact, especially steel to aluminum contact. Pedal threads, seat posts, and handlebar stems are particularly critical points. If you don’t grease these, at some point electrolytic corrosion will make them seize up permanently. Get a tube of bicycle grease or waterproof marine grease.

A bike stand makes this a LOT easier. I did my first bikes by standing them upside down. I’ve got two bike stands today. 

Pedals are easy- you need a 15mm wrench, and you should know that the left side pedal has a left-hand thread.

Handlebar stems: You need a 6mm Allen wrench, aka hex key.

Brakes and shifters: Generally a 5mm allen wrench

You’ll need a proper cable cutter and some crimp-on cable ends for the brake and derailleur cables. Don’t try to cut them with ordinary side cutters.

[Edwin W]

Dan,

You should DEFINITELY do it yourself... but not to save money! You will learn a great deal, but of course "tuition comes in many forms." You will pay dearly with long hours, buying new tools, taking forever to do simple steps, etc... and at the end you will have your very own bike that you put together and all of the fame and fortune that will be showered on to you by admiring fans. OK, no fame or fortune, but you will learn a lot for ongoing maintenance and if you are all like me, you will walk taller and be proud of what you have accomplished!

Good luck and let us know how it turns out,

Edwin

[Benjamin L. Kelley]

Another +1 for doing it yourself.

Checkout the Park Tools youtube channel. All of those items will be covered there.

https://www.youtube.com/parktool

--ben in KC

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[Eric Marth]

Congrats on the Appaloosa. You got this! 

I have to say that I'm sorry for the prices you're seeing, $150 to put these few elements together out of a shipping box wherein another professional mechanic completed the build and then partially disassembled the bike for packing strikes me as unfair. 

+1 on bike stand, check your local craigslist and Marketplace. A cheap and less-than-ideal unit will be hugely beneficial. You can upgrade later if you want. This will be hugely helpful for future maintenance work and might encourage your confidence for swapping components in the future. My first bike stand was a funky platform I built that clamped to a 6' step ladder. 

+10000 on the Park Tool YouTube and Calvin's how-to vids, they can help with every component

If in the future you're starting with a bare frame, look at tons of pics of other builds to get an idea about how everything fits. One common problem I see with people new to builds is running housing too short! The Rivendell page at Blue Lug has lots of great references for all types of bars and shifter combos. https://bluelug.com/bike-catalog/model/rivendell-bicycle-works/

I realize you already have housing and the chain installed from Riv but on the same note of housing, keep in mind that Appaloosas are looong bikes. You'll need extra long rear shifter cables and extra lengths of chain if starting from scratch :0) 

Get it all roughed in, if you have any friends who you trust to wrench see if they can help out or check the bike over. No shame in having a shop look it over for peace of mind as far as safe installation. 

Make sure those quick releases are properly clamped on the wheels, too! 

Cheers,

Eric

[Nick Payne]

And to add to what has already been said, try to develop a touch for how tight fastening and fittings need to be. You don't want to leave them insufficiently tight so that they slip or come unscrewed, but you also shouldn't do them up absolutely bar tight, which risks bending or breaking things and making them very difficult to take apart later. A good mechanic develops a touch for such things. If you're unsure, you can get torque wrenches fairly cheaply, and Park Tool, for example, publish a table of the suggested torque settings for various parts of the bicycle: https://www.parktool.com/assets/img/repairhelp/torque.pdf. The values there are given in inch-pounds. If you have a torque wrench calibrated in N-m (a lot are), then divide the inch-pound values by 9 to get the N-m value.

Nick Payne

[Chris Halasz]

Dan 

Just as in that fantastic bike (your Appaloosa), and its great components, it's OK to invest in good tools, too. 

You will be doing this again. 

And then again for friends. 

And it will be a meditative pleasure each time, with good tools, great components, and fantastic bikes. 

[Aaron Morris]

Parts of this video won't match your bike due to part differences but worth a watch and made me comfortable to assemble my own 

https://youtu.be/QbvZJWIm1o0?feature=shared

[Cormac O'Keeffe]

The above advice is great. The only thing I'd add would be to plan a test ride before a longer ride or going somewhere where being on time matters. There are always lots of minor adjustments to make especially with handlebars and seats. 

[Bill Lindsay]

"As I am sure most of you are aware, Rivendell sends complete bikes mostly built with the exception of the stem, seat tube saddle and pedals"

This is a true statement about two VERY different things:

1. A pro at Rivendell, like Mark Abele, personally pulled together your build, did the entire build like the pro he is, and THEN handed it over to Antonio or somebody else who professionally boxed it up by removing the parts you list.  

2. You bought a Riv Complete, which came in a box in a container from Asia and was partially assembled at the factory.

Which of the two cases are we talking about?  If it's #1, then I concur that it's not a huge job.  You've already paid Mark to do "the build" and paid Antonio to do "the boxing".  The job you are paying a shop for is not "a build".  It's an "unboxing".  Sure, if it's an unboxing, do it yourself. 

If it's #2, then to do it right, a lot of what has been "assembled" should really come apart so it can be done right.  A $150 quote is roughly 2.5 hours of work, and that's about right for a good mechanic to execute a proper build on a Riv Complete, in my opinion.  If you've never done any of that before, if you were determined to do it right, then budget for 2-3x that time.  If you were determined to leave the pre-built stuff exactly as it is, and not re-do anything, that's another approach, but it's not a substitute for the $150 job you'd get from a good mechanic at a good shop.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

On Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at 10:37:54 AM UTC-7 Dan wrote:

[Dan]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Aaron, great video. That is really helpful. Bill, my bike is built at Riv so I appreciate you letting me know the difference. I have some Phil wood grease on the way now. I have tools that a friend is lending me, but I will grab my own as well. I'll be sure to get a bike stand too.

[Peter Adler]

It's probably not necessary to go nuts on gear spending, at least until you're absolutely sure you need to do so.

A bike stand is super handy, but it's not absolutely essential. It's one thing if you frequently assemble/wrench on bikes; during a one-year stretch where I was holding onto a friend's stand, I assembled eight bikes from stems and components, while it's hard to assemble more than one a year without the stand. But it's not impossible to do these things standless. The last three I've done happened without a stand, just on the dining room floor - even the work on brakes and drivetrain, where the stand really helps. If the more serious work is irregular/infrequent, you can probably get by without a stand. If you have access to a community bike shop, the stand/s they'll have will probably be adequate for the few situations that occur.

it's easy to go nuts with tool accumulation (guilty!), but the range of indispensable tools is fairly narrow. My own preference is to always have the tools to install/remove any crankset and freewheel/cassette I use, and not to use any crankset/freewheel/cassette I cannot remove. My neighbor Bill Lindsay can confirm this; I had a nice Phil Wood-hubbed wheel with a nicey-nice White Industries BMX freewheel on it that sat untouched for over a decade, until I was able to borrow Bill's freewheel remover and get the freewheel off this week. Other tools that are likely to see regular use are Allen wrenches, hex sockets and screwdrivers required to install/adjust/remove pedals and brakes/brake levers; the Y-style 8/9/10mm hex socket wrench and 4/5/6mm Allen wrench are often adequate for this, plus an 8mm Allen wrench and/or 15mm pedal spanner to install/remove pedals.

Since you're usisng a Rivendell, you're probably using a traditional square-tapered crankset. If you're getting deeper into drivetrains on these, a chainbreaker, a crankbolt spanner and the appropriate crank extractor for your crankarms are useful. Some more elaborate multitools have chainbreakers built in; I made do with the chainbreaker built into my cheap, no-name Taiwanese multitool for years before getting a nicer Park one. If your crankarms have self-extracting crankbolts, then the arms will likely pull off the bottm bracket spindle with an 8mm (usual) or 6mm (older Shimano Dura Ace/600) Allen wrench. If not, then you'll need the Allen or hex wrench necessary to get your crankbolts off (usually either 8mm Allen or 14/15/16mm hex) and then the extractor for your crankset.

Japanese, Campagnolo and all modern-ish cranksets use a 22mm extractor, which are practically the only ones made these days. But if you're using older cranksets (pre-80s, basically) from the French manufacturers Stronglight or Specialites T.A., the crank extractor holes may be larger than 22mm; older TAs are 23mm, and older Stronglights are 23.35mm. Don't use a 22mm extractor on an old French crankset unless you're absolutely sure it's the right size; it's easy to loosely thread the steel extractor into the aluminum crankarm, and then strip the extractor threads out of the crankarm when the extractor tries to pull the arm off the bottom bracket spindle. I'm not saying "don't use old French cranksets'; I use practically nothing but. But understand what you're getting yourself into first, and get your tools in order before you start. The French-sized extractors are available from a variety of sources (eBay/Craigslist/closing oldie bike shops for used, Stein Tools/eBay for new), should you need them.

There's a lot of religious theories on grease. I like Phil Wood's green grease, in part out of reactionary sentimentality; I'm not sure that it works any better or any worse than any other grease, but it sure costs more. My compromise has been to use Phil grease in any situation where ball bearings are involved (bottom brackets, headsets, hubs, some old derailleur pulleys), and to use the muchcheaper Park blue grease in all other situations (frame/headset/bolt/axle/QR threads, seatposts, stems). There are lithium greases intended for mechanical assembly that come even cheaper in cans, that are reputed to be just as good (if not better). If I had that much, I'd almost certainly misplace the half-used cans and go ballistic when I couldn't find it. As it is, I probably have six half-used tubes of Phil and Park grease around, because I buy another tube whenever I can't find the one I'm looking for.

Speaking of which: Has the formula of Park's grease changed in the last few years? The most recent tube I got seems thicker, denser somehow; it's a lot harder to squeeze out of the tube than it was in previous years.

Peter Adler

Berkeley, CA

[Nick Payne]

On Saturday 26 October 2024 at 8:04:51 am UTC+11 divis...@gmail.com wrote:

There's a lot of religious theories on grease. I like Phil Wood's green grease, in part out of reactionary sentimentality; I'm not sure that it works any better or any worse than any other grease, but it sure costs more.

For bearings in bicycles, where the speeds are low and the load per ball is high, greases with solid lubricants such as MoS₂ (molybdenum disulphide) provide better protection for the bearing than those without. I use a Penrite grease that has 3% MoS₂, but that's an Australian product, and I don't know if it's available elsewhere.

Nick

[Brian Campbell]

Dan,

Not sure where you are located I am happy to assist or consult and bring tools, if that would help. I am just outside Philadelphia.

Brian "Visual Learner" Campbell

[DavidP]

I have a full size repair stand and it is super handy and great for bike builds. That said, the repair stand I use most often is a little Sunlite BB display stand:

It wraps over the DT and supports the BB to lift the rear wheel off the ground so you can remove the rear wheel (no need to flip the bike over), make drivetrain or brake adjustments, even install fenders. If I didn't have space or funds for a full size repair stand, I wouldn't want to be without this little stand.

-Dave

[Patrick Moore]

+1 for those small bb-area stands. I’ve owned a couple and wish I’d kept one for quick drivetrain tuneups or cleaning when I don’t need my Feedback stand. 

But I’ve also owned small stands that hook the chainstay and seatstay on the non-drive side. Their advantages are that it’s much easier to put the bike on these stands compared to having to hook the bb-area stands around the seat tube — this makes them useful as impromptu bike parking stands -- and that they are made of stiffer material compared to the (for those I owned) rather flexy thick wire of the bb-area stands.

I must get some more of those.

https://www.tiendamtb.com/en/stands-storage/1263-universal-bike-stand-for-chainstay.html

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Bernard Duhon]

 

 I have "this stand" also, however it is of ancient vintage.  I'm thinking 45 years old and I still use it. However, you have to be careful with cables routed under the bottom bracket

 

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Bernard F. Duhon

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From: rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of DavidP <dphi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2024 12:37 PM
To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [RBW] Re: 2024 Appaloosa has arrived. Considering putting it together myself but have never done this.