How to Build a Bike: A Simple Guide to Making Your Own Ride

by Jenni Gwiazdowski

All the inspiration and information you need to build your own unique single speed bicycle! Get to know your bottom bracket from your brake lever, and your stem from your chain stays, and learn how fun, creative and satisfying making your own bike can be. This simple, straightforward and fun DIY manual will take you from complete bike building beginner to confident bike builder in a series of fully-illustrated instructions. With a few simple tools and a bit of inspiration, anyone can build a bicycle that will bring many years of happy riding. This book will teach you the right skills, how to choose the right components, use tools confidently and ace the technical bits to end up with a unique and totally bespoke single-speed bike. Learn how to dismantle a vintage bike for its frame and parts, measure it all for a perfect fit, assemble it with new parts into a safe and stylish new bike, and finally pop on a bell or basket. This is your complete guide to building your own ride.

176 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2017

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really interesting, straightforward, and easy to understand. I got it from the library, so I didn’t know this was only for single speed bikes (I’ll need a multigear one since I live in such a hilly area). Due to this, I couldn’t actually use this book to build a bike. But! I learned a lot about different parts of the bike, how to notice wear on your bike, and how to maintain your ride.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great pictures and good advice. Plenty of useful ideas for how to begin working on bicycles.