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Re: New to bike building, excited to start, looking at frames as starting point They all have a pretty aggressive geometry, some have maximum tire clearance of just 25c, one is rim brake, some have external cable routing, some are fully internal and some are just shit.

You need to narrow down what you want to do with the bike. Are you fit and flexible to justify a racier geometry or do you need a more relaxed one? Building bikes is not rocket science but you will need some specific tools and some research time to see what fits where and how. If you are not confident you could buy the parts and have bike shop assemble the bike for you.
October 31, 2025, 03:41:01 PM 		1
Re: New to bike building, excited to start, looking at frames as starting point The velobuild is a gravel bike. Airwolf and Meinier framesets come with handlebars, if this is your first build it may save you some trouble. I also recommend something with a threaded bottom bracket.

Personally i would get none of them. Check the threads on here, there are some decently reviewed bikes and since you are not picky about geometry and features you can chose whatever you like the shape of and fits your budget 
October 31, 2025, 06:04:39 PM 		1
Re: New to bike building, excited to start, looking at frames as starting point I'd personally not buy any road frame without disc brakes and clearance for 32mm tyres. It's getting much harder to get good rim brake wheelsets now and higher volume tyres are just nicer to ride. The choice of groupset would influence whether fully internal routing was appropriate as I wouldn't want to run mechanical brakes with full internal routing. Getting a T47 threaded bottom bracket also makes life easier.

I've personally had a frame from Light Carbon and am happy with the quality, and currently have a frame on order from Mondince.
November 01, 2025, 05:00:43 AM 		1
Re: New to bike building, excited to start, looking at frames as starting point
Quote from: gribs on November 01, 2025, 05:00:43 AM
I'd personally not buy any road frame without disc brakes and clearance for 32mm tyres. It's getting much harder to get good rim brake wheelsets now and higher volume tyres are just nicer to ride. The choice of groupset would influence whether fully internal routing was appropriate as I wouldn't want to run mechanical brakes with full internal routing. Getting a T47 threaded bottom bracket also makes life easier.

I've personally had a frame from Light Carbon and am happy with the quality, and currently have a frame on order from Mondince.

i strongly agree with this advice.

I've just up/side-graded from rim brake to disc. Rim brakes are great, but for most of us the advantages of disc brake bikes with wider clearance really mount up. Obviously, if your primary goal is to win the UK National Hill Climb Championships then it's rim brakes all the way, baby!

I went for an ICAN FL1 frame for my first build, which I'll happily recommend. Why?
  • It's well made, with smooth internal surfaces and carefully machined interfaces - bottom bracket, headset and brake mounting points - meaning that it's easy to build with and, so far as I can tell, it rides well. 
  • It's largely non-proprietary - T47 BB, FSA ACR compatible headset and round seat-tube. This gives you lots of choice for compatible 3rd party components, such as cranks, handlebars and seat-posts. (It only misses out on the UDH standard for rear derailleur hangers - so buy a spare or two). 
  • It's cheap! Not Airwolf / Twitter cheap, but cheap.
  • It's relatively light.
Aesthetics really do matter though and you might not like the old-fashioned non-dropped seat stays. Equally, if your heart is set on SRAM then UDH is pretty much a must. As others have mentioned, geometry needs to be in the right ballpark, so try comparing your Cannondale against some of your candidate frames using a site such as geometrygeeks.

You mentioned buying parts incrementally, which makes perfect sense. However it would be smart to pin down decisions on frame and therefore both bottom bracket standard and internal vs semi-external cable routing, cranks and groupset before you buy anything. This way you avoid some painful incompatibilities down the line.

For a budget limited build, the decision, in roughly increasing levels of cost, between these hydraulic disc groupsets:
  • L-Twoo or Sensah mechanical
  • Shimano 105 mechanical 12 speed
  • Ltwoo or Wheeltop electronic
  • SRAM/Shimano electronic
is a really interesting one. Any of these options can be made to work, and your choice may come down to the level of discount available. I stretched my budget by going for Shimano electronic which made cable routing and gear-shift tuning much easier and probably bought me reliability, but purchased from AliExpress which might make any future warranty claim a challenge.
 
For BB's: all can work fine, but I would choose a frame with either a threaded BSA and hence 24mm steel (or Ti) spindle cranks or a T47 and 29mm aluminium or 24mm steel spindle cranks. These are likely to be the most straightforward options.

Choosing compatible parts and trading off cost/weight/reliability on different components is a big part of the fun. It's not essential, but it may help you (it will!) to document your decisions as you go in a build-list spreadsheet.
November 01, 2025, 04:56:53 PM 		1
Re: New to bike building, excited to start, looking at frames as starting point I agree with the others, go for disc and wide clearance. In addition (since you're here for some years maybe this is superfluous), make sure to use unbiased youtubers as source for reviews and especially build tutorials.
Obvious place to start would be Trace Velo, best in the business by far imo. I would include Jourdain Coleman too as a good example of someone inexperienced trying their best at bike building, although I think he's been sponsored to promote certain items.

There are a host of others showcasing super budget builds. It will help to get a sense of what is involved and where the pitfalls are. Great to hear you're getting back into cycling and going for such a project. I'd say definitely give it a go, as long as you don't break anything or misorder, you can always spend a little and go to a prof. mechanic if it doesn't work out  ;)
November 04, 2025, 06:12:37 AM 		1
Re: New to bike building, excited to start, looking at frames as starting point I'm pretty much in the same boat as you (kids, family, etc.). Built all my bikes and I'm constantly tweaking them to fit my riding needs.

If I were you, I'd build something easy like a 1x all-road style bike with 1:1 gearing. Get a 40/42t chainring and a 10-42/44t cassette. Run 32c semi-slicks and it'll work great for both road and light off-road use. In terms of the bike, I'd get something with flexible tire clearance, UDH and either a BSA or T47 BB. Depending on how you like to ride, you can tweak your bike to be either road or gravel specific or just keep it as an all-arounder.
November 04, 2025, 11:58:35 AM 		1
Re: Absolute must have tools for bike building Internal cable routing guide.
November 20, 2025, 01:06:20 PM 		1
Re: Absolute must have tools for bike building Looks good to me. The only thing I'd note is that a BB tool, for one build is generally not worth it. You'll end up using it once and then never again - I paid my LBS $30 CAD in labour and provided them the BB for my bike build.

I'd also recommend picking up some shop rags. My hands get dirty whenever I maintain my bike from road crap or working with grease, so I like to have them on hand for quickly scrubbing something off or wiping my hands with. And another tip (from a broke student myself) is getting a bottle of Simple Green. Dilute it with water as accordingly and that's your chain degreaser or bike wash on the cheap. Dawn dish soap also works in a pinch too.
November 20, 2025, 01:22:36 PM 		1
Re: Absolute must have tools for bike building
Quote from: cvrle1 on November 20, 2025, 01:35:10 PM
Good to know on BB tool. I do have good LBS close by, so will keep that in mind. I have plenty of rags and degreaser as I use them for cleaning and maintenance of my motorcycle chain (along with other parts).

Get a load of rags from amazon or Ali.
Get a BB tool, the wrench type is fine, with multiple sizes. I have amazon.ca/dp/B0C1S34PDQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
November 20, 2025, 01:45:07 PM 		1
Re: Absolute must have tools for bike building Chain braker
Chain lock pliers
Booster/air compressor
Tyre levers (Pedros)
Spoke wrench
Rotor truing tool
Degreaser
Track pump
November 20, 2025, 03:05:05 PM 		1