[sa7nt]

I have a new frame, new SRAM Force Gruppo and everything else needed to build up a new bike. My only problem is I've never done this before. I'm mechanically inclined and do all my own work on my motorcycles and cars, but I'm apprehensive about attempting this myself. On the one hand, I know if I did this myself I would become more proficient at maintenance. On the other, there is a possibility I could jack this up and still end up dragging the bike to the LBS to have them do it right. I guess I'm just unsure of the level of difficulty this entails.

Thoughts?

 

[been200mph]

Do it. If you have problems ask away on here, or go elsewhere like the Park Tools site for help. I do everything myself on the bikes. It gives you a better insight into how things work plus the pride of knowing you did it yourself. If worse comes to worse, take it to a good shop for help.

 

[omgBikes]

I agree. I started learning about bike maintenance by doing things myself. There are definitely times that people bring things into the shop that they tried to do themselves, and it's a mess, but I always remind myself that it's not like I was born knowing how to work on bikes.

 

[AndrwSwitch]

If you're inexperienced with bikes, get a torque wrench. With really little values - stuff is in inch-pounds.

With some experience, you may not use it much. But the torques for things on bikes are shocking low a lot of the time, and occasionally quite high. If you can work on cars and motorcycles, though, you can work on a bike.

You may need shop help with facing the head tube and bottom bracket, and depending on how the frame was painted (and what kind of bottom bracket it's for) you may want the threads chased.

 

[stover]

Yep. Get wrenching. If you work on cars and motorcycles you should have no issues. If you get stuck RBR is a great place for answers.

 

[turbomatic73]

Might be good to have someone that's experienced hang out with you while you piece it together. It ain't rocket science, but it's nice to have someone around in case you have questions.

That & a six-pack is a pretty decent sunday afternoon...

 

[sa7nt]

Unfortunately in my circle of friends, I'm the only one who is into cycling or halfway decent with a set of tools.

I think I'm gonna go for it. I have the time to get it right as this isn't my only bike.

I guess I need to line up a set of tools. So far I have a BB tool from Park Tool. I'm guessing I need a pair of wire cutters and a bike-specific torque wrench. Any other tools I should get before I start this project? I've been reading over the instructions on the crankset and it illustrates where I need to grease prior to assembly. Do bikes require a specific type of grease? I have synthetic grease for my motorcycles, but if the bike requires something specific I'd like to get my ducks in a row.

Thanks for the help - it's appreciated.

 

[AndrwSwitch]

The only really specialized tools are the ones for getting bottom brackets in and out, the ones for getting cassettes on and off, and the ones for facing things and chasing threads.

I think the facing/chasing tools are a bit expensive for a home mechanic - you should only need to use them once per frame.

The torque wrench isn't bike specific per se, but it needs to use low enough torque values to be somewhat precise for the range of torques used on bikes. You'll need a set of metric Allen bits for it.

There are some tricks to getting nice cable housings, so it's worth reading about that.

EDIT: and a pedal wrench.

 

[PJ352]

Unfortunately in my circle of friends, I'm the only one who is into cycling or halfway decent with a set of tools.

I think I'm gonna go for it. I have the time to get it right as this isn't my only bike.

I guess I need to line up a set of tools. So far I have a BB tool from Park Tool. I'm guessing I need a pair of wire cutters and a bike-specific torque wrench. Any other tools I should get before I start this project? I've been reading over the instructions on the crankset and it illustrates where I need to grease prior to assembly. Do bikes require a specific type of grease? I have synthetic grease for my motorcycles, but if the bike requires something specific I'd like to get my ducks in a row.

Thanks for the help - it's appreciated.

Some of the answers depend on the frameset you have. Steel? Alu? CF? Is the headset integrated or non-integrated? Does the steerer tube need to be cut?

 

[sa7nt]

It's a CF frame, fork is already installed and steerer tube doesn't need to be cut.

 

[tone12]

Not much to it then. It isn't rocket science. Start bolting things on there! Just heed the advice about the torque wrench. Take your time, go over things a few times and you'll figure it out. If you've worked on motorcycles, then this should be cake for you.

 

[PJ352]

It's a CF frame, fork is already installed and steerer tube doesn't need to be cut.

Can't ask for a better situation for a first bike build. The only things I can think of that haven't already been mentoned are a work stand, teflon grease (but what you use for your m/cycle would suffice), lube and along with a cable cutter, a housing cutter. You can get combo cable/ housing cutters, but I use a dremel.

If the BB threads are clean (and they most likely are) there's no need to chase and most CF frame manufacturers recommend against facing, so no issues there.

If you encounter any problems along the way there are a number of resources on the net, along with this forum.

 

[Amfoto1]

I'd suggest reading up on things at the Park Tool site, writing down a simple work outline... Then post it here and get feedback. Some things need to be done in a particular order (but most are pretty obvious). A few things are safety considerations (pedals, chain installation, brake/brake cable installation and adjustments). About the worst thing that can happen is you have to take something apart and redo it. Just watch you don't overtighten things and damage carbon fiber parts.

Ask questions... there's no such thing as a dumb question!

 

[sa7nt]

I've pretty much spent all day reading the park tool website and the instructions that came with the gruppo. Just waiting on the torque wrench and cassette tool I ordered to arrive before I start going at it.

 

[Mtn2RoadConvert]

Congrats on the new frame and Sram Force Groupset. I just built up a new Cervelo with the '10 Sram Force Groupset back in February. I had all the basic tools (torque wrench with allen heads sockets, metric allen wrenches, wire cutters, bottom bracket tool and cone wrenches, phillips & flat tip screw drivers, cassette tool and chain tool). The build took me about 6-7 hours including cutting the fork and installing the headset. Each of the Sram components comes with instructions that are pretty straight forward. I found the crankset required a foot pound torque wrench, while all the carbon-on-carbon parts required an inch pound torque wrench. I used a tube of Phil Wood grease that I had laying around for parts requiring grease.

 

[Mdeth1313]

If you google "installing sram force ....." you'll get links to their videos - either their site or you tube for installing the derailleurs and and other components- they're actually pretty good.

good luck with it.

 

[robpar]

I have a new frame, new SRAM Force Gruppo and everything else needed to build up a new bike. My only problem is I've never done this before. I'm mechanically inclined and do all my own work on my motorcycles and cars, but I'm apprehensive about attempting this myself. On the one hand, I know if I did this myself I would become more proficient at maintenance. On the other, there is a possibility I could jack this up and still end up dragging the bike to the LBS to have them do it right. I guess I'm just unsure of the level of difficulty this entails.

Thoughts?

Get Zinn's book "the art of road bike maintenance" also, like others have said, go to Park tools web site. Do you have the tools? pedal wrench, torque wrench, BB tools, cassette tools, chain whip, cable pulling/cutting tools, hex keys (long and short). carbon paste, grease, etc.
I hear SRAM takes very careful tuning so you may run into some trouble but I'd give it a try. Check the SRAM web site for technical documents.
Build it yourself, you'll know everything about your bike...

 

[martinrjensen]

check out Park tool

http://www.parktool.com/ will have all the information for assembling the parts to the bike.

 

[sandman98]

do it yourself

you'll learn alot about how a bike works (it really is a very simple machine), and you'll be able to do most all your own maintenance from here on. take your time, follow the sram directions, ask questions if you have problems, and by all means, get yourself a torque wrench.

much better months and years from now when you need to do simple repairs and you pull out your own tools, as opposed to dropping the bike off at the shop and waiting days for something you could have done in minutes.

good luck!!!

 

[sa7nt]

Started last night and I was really quite surprised as to how simple most things were. Installed the crank, RD, cassette, wheels brakes and bars. I'm waiting on my shifters to arrive and I need to send back the FD for an exchange (they sent me braze-on when I specifically told them I needed the clamp-on). Once those get here then I'll tackle the remaining work, which will likely be the most difficult part.

Thanks for the encouragement and help here.