I rode a Trek 7300 for a year or so (and over several eras of a couple years each, a few other Treks) and had never done *any* work on a bike ever. I bought a Samuel Hillborne and wheels over a year ago and, after spraying the frame's insides with rust-protectant and letting that "steep" a couple days, built it up over a weekend. I am *marginally* mechanically inclined. I made several mistakes that required me to re-do things along the way. But nothing meaningly harmful. I was riding my new bike a week after I got the frameset (two days of actual building up). In my case (and probably in yours; ask RBW to confirm) my frameset came with the headset installed (not adjusted). Already-installed headset is good; I think installing a headset would be a little tricky for a layman without specialized tools that cost scores of dollars. But *everything else* is *very* doable by a layman. Some things will require special tools (at least: housing cutters, bottom bracket tool). And a set of Allen wrenches will be essential. But nothing that costs oodles of money or takes particular skill to use
If you are mechanically inclined, are generally engineer-y, are willing to spend *some* money on tools and supplies, and are *interested*, then you will greatly benefit from putting it together yourself. I've put >5,000 miles on my Hillborne and have not discovered *anything* I've done wrong except that I misadjusted the derailer before the first time I rode it and as a result the chain came off; temporarily disappointing but I was able to fix it in >30 minutes and continued my ride. Nothing since. Putting together a quality bike like a Rivendell production frameset is indeed easy. If you *aren't* interested in how your bike goes together and fully intend to have your local bike shop fix anything that goes wrong that's more serious than a flat tire... then RBW's $200-ish assembly fee (maybe somewhat higher now; check!) is a *great* deal. Given their expertise and care and interest, it'd be worth $400 in my book. (Disclosure: my local bike shops have all disappointed me; perhaps I'm bitter.) And it's fine if that's how you view your bike; you own it, it doesn't own you. Enjoy! Yours, Thomas Lynn Skean who is getting a second Sam frameset and will build it up himself -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/3YI7elqdRtMJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
