Its about time! We’ve been preparing for weeks. Lets break out the debit card.
This step should be straightforward and by the numbers. In previous steps, you determined what your parts were going to be, and as part of your planning process you acquired links to all of your parts sources during the process you underwent to assess the project budget.
At this point, all thats left for you is to click the links, Add to Cart and go thru the checkout process.
Your Build Sheet Is Your Project Bible
I think I used this exact term earlier on in this series to describe your build sheet. Its going to turn out to be absolutely true if you have been keeping it up. At the beginning of this stage in the process it should look pretty much like what you see below. Red with a few green lines:
The Build Sheet up to this moment in our story
The frame has been bought, paid for and delivered.
Our motor and motor mount parts on the paid and delivered list as well.
The greenlit items we have purchased now have their dollar amounts in the Paid column. We have a clear view of what has been spent, and what needs to be spent to finish the project.
What Comes Next?
That depends on your cash flow and how you want to go about your build. At this point, you could simply
Click to Unleash
And show no mercy to your debit card. Buy everything at once and start tracking whats incoming.
OR
If you still have any level of uncertainty on any part that may or may not fit, stage your purchases so you buy just the part you need to test-fit and nothing that depends on it. Wait to buy Part Y after you confirm Part X behaves/fits as expected.
Do your buying in stages to accommodate your budget.
Buy the stuff that will take the longest to arrive first.
Whatever… its your call at this point.
Specify a Landing Zone
For stuff that comes in and has to sit – possibly for weeks – and wait for the build to commence, I like to set aside a great big, empty storage box. EVERYTHING related to the project goes into it or next to it in a dedicated corner of my shop or garage. Otherwise its easy for stuff to wander off in the weeks between the first arrivals and the last.
For the Apostate build, I set aside an entire set of shelves, since I had one available. That was really nice as I was able to lay everything out, which in turn let me find a part with a glance rather than having to rummage thru a box to haul out this or that bit if I wanted to check something.
While parts are en route, I also like to hunt down esoteric tools I may need. Like my headset press, or my star nut setter. Stuff I use once a year only on a build. During the Buy and Ship phase, you have a few weeks to gather your tools together. I can guarantee you not all of them will be handy – or even found – if you are just looking for them at the moment you need them (if you are buying tools as part of your project, they might go into the project box with the parts, or if you are lucky enough to have empty shelves, give the tools one of their own, which is what I did for this project).
OPEN. THE. BOX.
Fortunately, this is a lesson I had already learned and remembered to apply for this build project. I need to make sure I pass it along to you, dear reader, because its very important to preserve your sanity:
DO NOT trust that a box labeled X actually contains X.
I have ordered presta inner tubes of a given size, set the unopened package aside, and then months later when I need one, opened it up and oh crap they are Schraeder tubes. The box was mismarked. Or the box was not mismarked and the seller shipped me the wrong stuff. Months later when I really need the part, I am screwed and a)cannot use what I have and b)can’t return it since I’m now past the return window.
My first time buying wheels online. They came very well packed and arrived undamaged.
So for the Apostate build, because its an old-school frame the hubs need to be old-school QR and not thru axle. I specified this in my wheel order of course. Unfortunately, I got thru axle wheels. Now… lets be fair here: Someone ordering high-end DT Swiss MTB wheels in 2022 is pretty much never going to be ordering QR hubs. So thats a detail that skated past the builder. He just goofed. Luckily DT Swiss hubs use interchangeable end caps so its no big deal to change a thru axle wheel to QR.
But those caps ain’t cheap, so its something I needed a fix for from the seller. And they were sorry for the mistake and happy to immediately ship out the hardware I needed to complete my order.
So it was no big deal and I only had to wait a few days to begin my assembly process. But if I hadn’t opened the box and looked inside… well, you get the idea.
Open up all of the boxes and make sure everything is inside each one of them that is supposed to be there. Not just the main part you expect, but all the little bits that go with it as well.
Managing The Process
As your build proceeds, your build sheet will change colors as you move forward with the process of purchasing your parts. As you proceed, add in the tracking numbers as soon as you get them. Having everything on this one central sheet will save you enormous amounts of time versus wading thru all of the web site service areas and emails.
Bank account drain in progress
A bonus to using Google Sheets for this is you can just select the tracking number in its cell, right-click and from the menu that pops up, tell Google to search for the highlighted number, whereupon it will, for most shippers, recognize the number format and give you tracking info onscreen, or an automatic link to tracking on the shipper site. No typing in tracking numbers necessary.
Putting expected arrival dates in Column D will also make your daily areWeThereYet check on your list a lot smoother. Its going to save you a lot of lookups to find out whats on time, whats delayed and what maybe needs a phone call to the seller to find out where the hell your stuff went.
Installation Guides
As the buy process goes on, you are going to be visiting product pages that may have static installation guides (pdf or html format) or, ideally, install videos on Youtube or Vimeo. Look for these (go to a manufacturer’s web site if you are buying from a reseller with no supplemental info). Copy the urls of the guides to the Notes column of the Build Sheet for use during the Assembly stage. These will be of enormous help to you. If I come across a pdf for a given product, I like to download and store that guide in my project area on my Google Drive account, for reference later.
For example, my Marzocchi Bomber X-Fly Z1 fork is a vintage fork manufactured in 2000. 22 years ago as of this writing. The fork actually has a manufacturer stamp stating it was machined in 1999. Only the service manual was able to tell me how much oil to refill the fork to after a seal replacement, and I really, REALLY had to dig to find it. Someday your parts may be old and your parts manufacturer may no longer post the service manuals for them. Ideally you will get hold of pdf copies of all service manuals, specifications and install guides for reference in future years.
Finishing The Process
At some point, the board is going to go green on you.
You’ve spent all the money
Nothing got lost and what did, you were on top of and dealt with because you stayed aware of what was on the way, on time and overdue.
You have a big box of parts all in one spot. Nothing wandered off and got lost because you faithfully put everything in the box and if you did take something out to play with it… you put it right back when you were done.
Bank account drain complete. Note the item in red. We’ll cover that in Assembly, Build Day 1
You have set up a place to work and execute the bike build. Preferably somewhere with a lot of flat, clean concrete space that is also near a bathroom and a refrigerator.
You have a laptop (first choice – big screen) or a phone with an internet connection, as you are going to need to refer to installation videos on Youtube and read installation sheets throughout the build process.
During this parts purchase process, you also bought the tools you needed and set them in a segregated spot waiting for them to be used to….
In our last installment, we bought our frame after doing our research. Its here now.
We Got The Cart. Time For The Horse!
Back in the Planning stage, I decided that, given a choice between a geared hub motor, a direct drive hub or a mid drive, I wanted to use a mid drive. A mid results in the least weight added to the bike, and gives it the most versatility over varied terrain.
Now that the frame is here, its time to take some measurements to make sure my plans were realistic before I go and buy the motor (lets pretend I didn’t already have it, as most folks will not have extra new motors laying around to pick up and use).
If I did not have the motor handy already, I would have measured two things.
Part 1 of 2
First, I would have looked at the length of the axle housing versus the width of the bottom bracket. I want to find out if my motor axle, designed to fit thru a range of 68-83mm bottom brackets, will actually come out the other side with plenty of available threads to complete a proper assembly (a locking plate and threading on a couple of lock rings). Chances are pretty good you can infer this number by knowing your bottom bracket width and buying the correct motor sized for it. Axle length is part 1 of 2 and its the easy part as, effectively, you can just read the motor specs to get this number.
Part 2 of 2
If I had a fat bike, I would next be looking at the frame’s chainstays (which I hope you were at least eyeballing for suitability while you were hunting for the frame in the first place) to see if I needed to upsize the motor. Oftentimes (particularly with 197mm rear dropout spacing) if you have a 100mm bottom bracket, you need to upsize to a 120mm motor to clear a fat bike’s chainstays, which I’ll talk more about below.
This is what you want to see once the motor arrives: Plenty of available threads and they don’t bottom out to the bare axle.
Next as part of this chainstay fitment process, I would take some circular measurements around the bottom bracket to see if the big round secondary gear housing fits reasonably well in that area. It needs to tuck into the frame at the root of the chainstay (but not touch it!). The secondary housing is about 133 mm (5.25″) in diameter. Go find yourself a juice bottle or coffee can thats about that width to best visualize how well (or how poorly) its going to clear. A 1x frame that is meant to hold a single small chainring is often a good frame candidate for a BBSHD, by the way, as the secondary housing is about the size of a 34-36T chainring.
Worst case: draw a circle on a piece of box cardboard, cut it out and overlay it on your frame’s bottom bracket. Will it fit? Chances are pretty good it will. But if its a fat bike, you may need to use spacers to move the secondary housing out further, and this will have implications for chainline (all of them bad, but not necessarily fatal).
What you see in the pic below is the desired result: The secondary gear reduction housing tucks right into the root of the chainstay and bottom bracket. Fitting it so it comes close to but does not touch the chainstay (look closely… the actual thing we have to not touch is a bolt end where the chainstay is bolted to the frame) does not result in a large gap that will be filled by a potentially large spacer.
There’s a gap in this test fitment at the bottom bracket on the left/drive side that will need a shim. That comes in a later step. We’re just confirming the fit to the frame is good right now.
If my efforts showed me I was going to need a large shim to clear the chainstays, this can mean I’m going to have a chain alignment issue once the motor is on. If its bad, I might abandon the BBSHD and pick a different motor. The two most likely alternatives are a Cyclone (assuming you can find one for sale these days) or a Cyc X1 (Pro or Stealth as you please). The Cyc motors are recommended for beginning to intermediate builders, and the Cyclone is strictly for the advanced, experienced builder who understands some metal fabrication is probably necessary coming into the game.
Here’s a quick visual example of what good chainline is, and isn’t. Image courtesy of Lekkie Ltd. Used with permission
Other mid drive alternatives with this narrow bottom bracket could be a BBS02 (unlikely if a BBSHD doesn’t fit for some reason) or a Tongsheng TSDZ2. The latter is more or less in the class of the BBS02 in terms of power level, provided you get one that is properly uprated for 750w.
So, there are alternatives but the BBSHD is a quick and easy motor to install, if it fits. Its probably the quietest mid-drive on the market. Its also relatively inexpensive, mild-mannered (if its settings are worked over since the factory settings are crap) and has loads of aftermarket support. As such in my book its by far the preferable motor to plug into my project (having seven of them, I also can keep one set of spares that work across the fleet). And luckily, since I had a motor already in hand, I was able to quickly determine it fit just fine.
More on Chain Alignment
Notice something about that chainring diagram above? It includes the chainring on the motor and the rear cassette cluster on the back wheel as part of the measurement process. So, at this stage, with only a frame and a motor you are not going to be able to measure much of anything with precision regarding chainline. You are going to be eyeballing things and estimating.
Still, you want to do your best. Look at the picture below and check out where the chain is lined up over the secondary housing, with that Lekkie chainring it has on. Use that as a reference point. If you can spring for a chainring, and a chain (or find an old one in the garage) that will only help you here.
If you have parts on another bicycle (like a back wheel) you will be well-served to take it off of that bike and stuff it on temporarily to the back of your new frame to help with this process. A long hex wrench can substitute for an axle if all it has to do is hold the wheel roughly in place on a stand for 10 minutes while you drape a chain over the cluster and eyeball it.
There are many alternative chainring configs in a successful BBSHD build. These solutions deliver dramatically different alignment results. Consider this a resource for sussing out your build situation.
Whats the extreme for frame fit? A fat bike. Look at how far to the left the motor had to go to not touch the chainstay (Its close but not touching). That is a custom 17mm steel bushing used for a spacer. The chainring is so far out, even being an offset Lekkie I can’t go all the way in to the biggest cog in the back. A Luna Eclipse has too much offset and will not fit.
How Close Does The Motor Go?
Looking at the pics above, the motor appears to actually touch the chainring. It doesn’t. But it does get very close. How close is close enough? A good rule of thumb is the thickness of two business cards (or just fold one in half). So if you are thinking you need a bunch of clearance from the secondary housing to the frame… you don’t.
However, you also absolutely, positively do not want it to touch. Having the secondary housing in direct contact with the frame will eventually cause the chainstay on the drive side to straight up break off at the point of contact.
Look at the pics above. This is the result of a 5mm shim that I had on hand: WAY more clearance than necessary. These pics are shown before it was fully tightened (it did get closer when I put the full 90 ft lbs onto it). The lesson here is this is way more clearance than you need or want. Letting the motor sit this far away from the frame will be the difference between great and awful chain line.
Frame Fitment Overview
Here is an excellent tutorial on BBSHD frame fitment, developed and distributed by High Voltage Kits. It should help you visualize and understand the frame fitment process.
What I saw when I did my test-fit (the pics were taken at the time with this article in mind for the future):
I’ve got plenty of threads on the motor axle where it sticks out on the non-drive side to clamp the motor down.
The chainstay root hinge is cooperating nicely already in that the big round bolt is on the non-drive side. On the drive side, there’s just a small nub of the bolt sticking out. Good news for snug fitment close to the bike.
The big round secondary housing (where the chainring will bolt on) tucks right into the available space within the chainstay root.
I’m only going to need a narrow shim on the drive side to hold the secondary housing out a bit so it clears that bolt stub that holds the chainstay to the frame (it turned out that 3.5 mm was the magic number).
A secondary observation: the chainstays have an enlarged area allowing wider tire fitment. I used 2.35’s but I think I could go as high as 2.50, which would have been colossal – probably bigger than any available tire of the era – back in 1999 when this frame was manufactured. Thats the sort of tidbit you can’t easily get from a spec sheet (assuming you could find one on a 23-year-old frame), and further solidifies why you need to wait until you can lay hands on the real thing before you start buying parts to hang off of it.
I Had It Easy
As noted I already had a motor and I knew how it was going to fit, pretty much. I also have built bikes with other motors and I know how those fit as well. What if I was doing this for the first time? How would I get around my lack of direct experience?
Ask Around
The internet is chock-full of places where you can ask for help from people who have done what you are trying to do for the first time. Ask them what they think.
Post pictures of the frame
Ask what will fit
Expect to double-check and confirm every word you are told. After all its the internet and there are plenty of bozos out there who can do a great job of sounding like they know what they are talking about (like me!)
What else do we look around for?
Hopefully you have done some due diligence on your build and have picked up on some common issues associated with your chosen motor install. Here’s another common one that I knew was coming, tried to get around… and failed:
Crankarms!
The issue is off-center crankarms. All this talk of the secondary housing fitting on the bike and all… think through whether there are more implications of that thick, saucer-sized whatsit being there. Usually its only crankarm and chainring.
The mounting of the crankarm has been moved away from the bike by roughly two centimeters. Your Quack Factor has been increased by this amount… only on one side. Put pedals on the bike and they are now off-center beneath you by that same amount. Not a good thing.
The solution to this is to use ‘offset’ cranakarms. Your drive side crankarm is straight back, as normal. But the non drive side has a kink in it to move the pedal position outward by roughly the same amount that the BBSHD kicks it out on the other side; compensating for the motor’s presence and its effect on pedal placement. This re-centers the pedals underneath you.
HOWEVER, some ebike configurations let you do without the offset. My Lizzard King build was a bike that had a 68mm bottom bracket. I was able to use normal straight crankarms with it. I hoped to be able to do the same thing with The Apostate since it, too had a 68mm bottom bracket.
So I stood up the frame on my worktable, did a snug fit of the motor and laid the crankarms parallel to one another as you see in the picture below. From there, after confirming the rear triangle was symmetric (some frames are not so you have to measure!) I measured the distance from the inside of the crankarm to the very outside of the chainstay. If my prior experience pans out, the frame’s narrow 68mm bottom bracket, combined with a motor whose axle is made to work with up to an 83mm bottom bracket, will give me enough overhang that I do not need to go to the expense of offset crankarms.
Uh Oh
yeah ‘uh oh’ is right… click on that pic to enlarge and see my results. Actually having the frame and for reals bolting the motor in… my supposedly educated guess turned out to be baloney when it came up against reality. You can see for yourself by reading the numbers on the tape (which are pretty accurate in the picture despite my just laying the tape across the parts). The drive side crankarm is considerably outboard versus the non drive side.
So I had to bite the bullet and buy a set of offset crankarms. Oh well maybe I can use the new ones in the picture (forged Shimanos that ran me about US$50) on some future project.
Seatpost
Oh boy did I ever screw this up. This dovetails directly into the ‘buy first and measure everything’ philosophy except… I didn’t. Or more accurately I did it wrong. Here’s the deal:
The frame came with a Salsa Flip Lock seatpost clamp, which is a very nice piece. As I have mentioned already elsewhere, the frame came with an unexpected bonus in the form of a vintage 350mm Kalloy Uno seatpost, which fit me and the bike perfectly. The post was already installed on the bike and (here’s the first place where I screwed up) I never actually removed the clamp and the seatpost. I just adjusted it in situ as the build went on, and clamped a saddle to it.
I did measure the seat tube just below the collar on general principles, and got a measurement of 36.4mm. OK great if I ever need to buy a seatpost clamp thats the size I need. Simple, right?
Survey SAID: BZZZZZZZZZZZZ
So if I had followed my own advice, I would have removed the seatpost clamp and realized the stupid thing necks down to about 35mm! It does so for only a short space that is just underneath the clamp. Then it necks up to 36.4mm.
Do as I say. Not as I do. I figured out a way to shim it but thats the only thing that saved me from having to buy a seatpost clamp twice.
The Lesson To Be Learned Is…
Take nothing for granted. If you aren’t sure, go slow. Try and anticipate where your choices can go wrong in advance of paying for parts you have to replace. And recognize you can never get everything right the first time. Build some fudge into your budget for issues like this.
If, using the crankarms as an example, I had waited to buy those arms (and measured the end of each axle to the bottom bracket), I could have totally avoided buying that original set of arms that are now sitting in an extra-parts box. But I got ahead of myself and it cost me fifty bucks. So learn from that!
In the previous Planning step, we determined what kind of frame we wanted to buy:
Full suspension mountain bike
Medium-ish size along the lines of an effective 16-18″ seat tube
Able to be set up as a street machine (high seatpost config in particular)
26″ wheel size
Chromoly steel or aluminum construction
Threaded bottom bracket
Straight down tube into the bottom bracket
Space around the chainstay root able to fit a BBSHD secondary hoursing without drama.
Now its time to go out into the market, find the frame that meets these goals, buy it, receive it…
… and stop!
At least for a bit. Once we have an actual for-reals frame in our hands, we have some work to do to make sure all of our parts assumptions still hold before we take the next step and start buying parts for it willy-nilly.
Why You Want To Wait
I had my eye on a 2000 Marzocchi Bomber X-Fly Z1 fork that looked as if it was brand new, despite its age. It was priced right at about $200 delivered and would be perfect for this build. But the seller disclosed the steering tube had been cut to “about 230 mm”.
Looking at the pictures of the frame I had bought, but not received yet, the head tube on the frame looked like a fork with a 230mm steerer would fit just fine. But until I had the frame in my hands and could measure it (and added in the length of the external headset cups), I was taking a $200 guess if I bought the fork before the frame arrived.
Likewise, my chosen frame claimed 135mm rear hub spacing. Since its a 1999 frame, that sounded right. But lots of times these older frames are being sold by pawn shops or via estate sales and the seller may be guessing, or repeating something they were told with no expertise of their own. Honest mistakes can happen across a variety of fronts that will make big differences in your parts choices.
So did I want to start a wheel build costing hundreds of dollars based on anything but total certainty? Hell no. Neither do you. Cool your jets and wait until you can verify frame measurements from the advertisement. Once you have done that, then you can go and order parts that rely on those measurements.
Cart Before The Horse!
Before we go through the learning experience of confirming measurements, we have to find and buy the frame in the first place. Chances are pretty good that process is going to entail some unexpected learning as well.
For example: Here I am hunting for an older, full-suspension MTB frame. One thing I didn’t expect (and should have, because I was riding back in that day when these frames were common) was the kind of brakes commonly used on mountain bikes back then were frame brakes – cantilevers with bosses on the frame that clamped down on the rim. I found many frames that were a great fit for my needs … but they didn’t have disc brake mounts. And I consider disc brakes to be a requirement for a modern bike (and especially an ebike).
Going hand in hand with this, cable housing in the days of yore was nowhere near as effective as it is in modern times. So bikes were designed with lots of space to stretch bare brake and shift cables. Also the functional best practice solution for braking is now hydraulic – which uses pressure hose and not cables.
Lastly, I found older frames might not use the most common rear spacing. Forget about Boost spacing. In fact, I found I needed to make sure I had at least 135mm so I could use a more or less modern 9/10/11 Shimano cassette body.
Once these things became apparent after looking at a bunch of frames, I started paying close attention to these items first. If a frame looked like a winner, I immediately looked to see if it had disc brake bosses. No bosses… instant reject and move on. I saved a lot of time that way, ignoring how nice a frame may be and instead focusing on a core list of must-haves and immediately moving on if one was missing.
I was also looking carefully at whether I could adapt the cable routing on a given frame candidate.
These were not things I had expected to care much about, but after I began shopping I came to realize they were essential.
The Marketplace
So where do we go online to look for a used bicycle frame? There are some crowd favorites
Craigslist
This venue offers great possibilities, but also carries perhaps the most personal and financial risk. Transactions are most likely going to be face-to-face handovers of cash for merchandise at a public parking lot mutually agreed-upon. It goes without saying warranties or purchase protections do not exist, and you can decide for yourself whether you want to get out of your car and walk up to a stranger who knows you have – at the least – several hundred dollars in cash in your pocket.
Thats not to say that Craigslist purchases are a bad thing. They’re popular for a reason. However, there’s a bit of the Wild West going on there with regard to unrestrained capitalism and personal responsibility.
Facebook Marketplace
I kind of put this in a similar category as Craigslist. I have friends who swear by it over Ebay, but I’ve never found it to be particularly comprehensive in terms of the products that can be found there. You’ll peruse ads and look for pictures of bicycles. There won’t be a lot if your locality is anything like mine. Facebook searches by default in a 40-mile radius around where my personal profile says I am located
Pinkbike
A great marketplace for mountain bike parts is Pinkbike. The site is largely populated by people well-experienced in the sport, and you can expect to see some pretty high end stuff for sale there. It also has a formidable database search capability. At the time of this writing, 1125 All Mountain/Enduro frames are available in North America. Within a few seconds I can refine that search:
Frame Material: Aluminum, Steel and Chromoly (466)
Frame Size: Medium (176)
Wheel Size: 26″ (49)
Perusing 49 frames that are pre-qualified to a significant extent will not take long. If I expand the search to include Large frames, I have 68 to look over.
Ebay
Of course we’re going to go look on Ebay! Globally, thats where all the buying eyeballs are, and that means thats where a whole lot of sellers are as well. We’ll see as wide of a selection there as we do on Pinkbike, but with much more primitive search tools.
I used “mtb frame” as a search criteria, and from there EBay let me select 26″ wheels as a filter. Since Ebay listings are notoriously bad for sellers listing specific criteria that their filters can use, I didn’t want to go any further on search filtering, and ended up with about 913 results.
So… figure if you are shopping on Ebay you need to set aside about an hour each time to go thru the list that comes up.
Others?
The above is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of places you can find a frame. They’re just the ones I used, although Craigslist or Facebook were not exactly my preference and I only mention them here to be as comprehensive as possible.
Score!
In the end, after about three weeks of poking and prodding every evening, I found a frame that seemed almost too good to be true: An Intense Tracer from (I discovered later on) the first production run in 1999. It was very reasonably priced.
Here it is, fresh out of the box! the 350mm vintage seatpost was an unexpected freebie.
This frame pretty much ticked every box and added one or two I didn’t have on my list:
Size Medium/Large. (effective 18.5″ seat tube length, measured Center-to-Top). Top tube config means plenty of standover height.
Excellent condition. On close inspection the frame had very few marks and appeared to have lived most of its life in storage.
Overbuilt aluminum frame with extra-strong rear triangle (important for a mid drive where the chain will be pulling stumps).
Disk brake bosses!
Rear shock is external to a rigid ‘triangle’ that has plenty of space and is almost uniquely battery-friendly. Its almost as if someone from the future went back in time to design this bike to hold a battery.
English-threaded 68mm bottom bracket.
Lots of clearance up front at the root of the chainstays to clear the motor’s secondary housing.
Nice straight, angled down tube so the motor will tuck up into it just fine.
SO… job done. We have a frame. Next we have to see whats up with motor fitment. The next phase of our build is to buy the motor, now that we’ve got the frame to measure it up to.
Throughout this article, I will discuss whatever concept I am going over in general terms, and then I will answer the question “What Did I Decide?” (or “Do”). The context for this will be the test subject for this series: The Apostate. We will be walking step by step through an actual ebike build.
Be aware, though… this Planning stuff is pretty dry. Not so many pretty pictures in this installment.
Speaking of pretty pictures…
Preparation is Everything
So you’ve decided to build an ebike. You’ve got enough basic mechanical ability (and/or the gumption) to tackle the task from the ground up. Great. Before you start, you want to sit down with a piece of paper and plan out your build. BUT before the on-paper part starts, lets start inside of your head and think out some things:
How Do You Want To Ride (what is the bike’s job)?
Before you decide anything about the bike, first decide what the bike is going to do. Is it a commuter? A cargo carrier? A beachfront cruiser? A singletrack mountain bike? Does it need to be multipurpose and straddle a few categories? If you don’t know already, this is the time to look at bikes that do the thing(s) you want to do. Once you know those things, you can look at the parts available in the marketplace (starting with the frame) to make your bike come to life.
What Did I Decide?
I needed a relatively small bike that could be stuffed into and hauled out of the back of a station wagon. Something reasonably light weight. So easy portage (not riding criteria) was my first requirement. Next, I needed this bike to be good for relatively short street runs. My primary use-case was a quick jet to the office after dropping my car off at the repair shop, and a run back to that shop from home the next morning when the car was done (stuffing the bike back into the car and driving to work from there).
So... in its primary job, the bike needs to be comfortable for 4-5 mile trips, not 20 mile, afternoon-long rides.
Next, since the bike can be stuffed into my car, a secondary use-case was to take it on vacations or work trips and have it for general light-to-medium ride duty on streets and trails. Singletrack not so much. Dirt and gravel roads: yes please.
Look closely. On top of all that camping gear is an ebike, with just the front wheel off and the handlebars laying flat.
Factor In Your Terrain
At this planning stage, you also want to pick your chosen assist method… the motor. The motor is integral to the bike and you want to figure out what its going to be – at least conceptually – sooner and not later. If you end up deciding you need a mid drive for instance, that is going to have a major influence on your frame choice since you have to install the motor directly to the frame… so that chosen frame has to be able to accept that motor.
Fundamental to the motor decision is expected terrain: If you are going to be riding on table-flat land (or, at the most, rolling hills) then a geared hub motor is a viable option. A direct drive hub motor could also work. If you need the versatility to tackle hills – even steep ones – then a mid drive of some kind is a must. It helps to have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the various ebike motor types, so look here for specific discussion on them.
What Did I Decide?
I needed to be able to tackle any kind of terrain. Using a mid drive as the assist motor was a no-brainer, since they can tackle anything a bike can ride over. Having several of them and being very comfortable with building them to last, without any wear and tear issues, made the decision all the more easy.
Additionally, I had a 68-73mm BBSHD sitting on a shelf as a spare in case of emergency (both of my daily drivers - the Bullitt and the Envoy - use that motor). So to keep out-of-pocket costs down I wanted to use that extra motor in this build. This all told me I need a frame that works well with a BBSHD.
Decide What Kind of Bike You Want
So far, you have figured out what job your bike needs to do, the kind of terrain it needs to live in and as a result of those things, what kind of motor it needs. Now figure out what kind of bike fits those goals (or throw all that out and pick what looks cool). You probably don’t need to look at electrified bikes when going through this step. Just look at bikes, period… with an eye toward being able to slap a motor onto whatever ends up looking good to you.
Once you have settled onto the style of bike you want to build, your next step in planning is to set up a build sheet.
What Did I Decide?
Knowing I needed a smaller bike for relatively short jaunts, the bike type that sort of jumped out at me was a 'mountain bike'. Further, since I wanted to achieve a fully functional bike yet stay at a diminutive size (without going overboard and doing a 20" BMX kind of thing) I knew I wanted a frame that used smaller-sized 26" wheels. Those are no longer commonly in use - so I'll probably be looking at an older, used frame.
Next, I wanted it to be full suspension and not a hardtail. By that I mean I want a live rear triangle suspended by a cushioning rear shock, and a suspension fork for the front wheel.
Because I have decided to use a BBSHD mid drive, I knew they fit better on older, more traditional frame triangles where the down tube runs straight down, directly into the bottom bracket at a sharp angle. This sharp angle gives plenty of room for the mid drive motor to tuck itself up towards the frame and away from the ground, yielding minimal lost ground clearance. And also, sharp angled-straight down tubes are a feature of older frames. Newer designs use curved tubes, like the one below. A BBSHD on this kind of frame would cause the motor to hang straight down.
Also, since I have built several BBSHD'd bikes and I know their installation ins-and-outs, I know an English (threaded) bottom bracket is going to be the best style of bottom bracket to easily accept a mid drive motor (other types require adapters).
Lastly, the modern trend on quality bikes is to use carbon fiber for the frame. But I know the torque stresses that come with a mid drive ebike introduce long term survivability issues with carbon fiber bottom brackets. As the saying goes, 'steel is real'. Carbon fiber in DIY builds is known to pose a failure risk. Also c/f bottom brackets have to be built thicker, and this makes a motor like a BBSHD unlikely to fit.
Ideally, I wanted a chromoly frame. Next in order of preference would be an overbuilt alloy, followed by titanium (which is very bendy) with my very last choice being carbon fiber.
These features above, all together, are much more common on older frames, so everything above further reinforced the likelihood I'm going vintage.
What Is our net end result?
The ideal frame that I’m going to be looking for on this project is as follows:
Full suspension mountain bike frame.
Not a Large size because it has to fit easily in the car. Not a Small because of my anatomy. Somewhere in the range of a Medium (17-18″ seat tube), then. I can get one of those to fit me with a longer post and a longer stem.
Able to be set up as a street machine (high seatpost config in particular)
26″ wheel size.
Chromoly steel or aluminum construction.
English-threaded bottom bracket with chainstays that can handle (i.e. fit the secondary gear housing) a BBSHD without chainline drama.
Straight down tube into the bottom bracket, old-school style.
And of course add in that I want it to be in good condition, so I’m going to be looking at condition and possible flaws very closely.
The Build Sheet (your project bible)
A Build Sheet is essentially a list of everything you need (EVERY Thing) to build a bike. Initially, your build sheet won’t list every single part your build will actually use. At this stage, you put in a wish list and see what happens when the bottom line adds up.
Why not be precise? Well, you want to be as accurate as possible. However the purpose of this initial exercise is to give a cost estimate. Its entirely possible you will see that price at the bottom of the list and realize its too much. At that point the build sheet becomes a tool to adjust your component list to get the budget under control by choosing different parts.
This is just an image of the sheet. Click below to get yourself a live look at the real thing.
What Did I Do?
I used this exact example sheet for this project, and you are looking at a copy of it - made at the end when all the lines are green - with the costs snipped out to try and make me forget how much I spent. I did add some notes and urls after the fact but otherwise this is the exact sheet used to manage the project.
Making Your Own Copy
NO I will not grant edit access to this sheet… If you want to make a copy for yourself, do this:
Open up the Build Sheet via the link above
From the sheet’s menu choose File –> Download
Save the sheet to your local disk in Excel format.
From there you can either use the copy directly in your favorite spreadsheet program, copy it back up to a new Google Sheets spreadsheet etc. etc.
Why this Sample is such a big deal
This is every part on the project bike. All of them, right down to the cable ferrules, the decals… even the tape. And since this is a more or less ‘generic’ bike, this supplied parts list will be almost identical to what you need. You just substitute in your derailleur in place of mine. Your frame in place of mine and so on. If you were overwhelmed by the thought of figuring out all the parts needed to make a bike… this is your cheat sheet listing everything you need.
How it Works (project management)
First of all, note the color-key at bottom-left. According to the table, every single line item on the list is in-hand (colored light green) except a couple, which I have categorized as maybe not being needed. This is what a sheet looks like at about the end of the project.
At the project’s beginning, each of these line items is likely to be in red: “Need to Buy”. As your project matures, the red lines individually turn to blue (ordered and being shipped) and then to light green for ‘I got it’. If you have to send a part away for refinishing or something similar, the line turns dark green while the part is away at the shop.
If you buy something and it turns out to not work, or in particular to suck for some reason, switch it to blood red “Tried and failed” so when you build your next bike you have a record of your mistakes.
Column A “Item”: Describes the line item. A general part description like “Handlebars”.
Column B “Model/Item”: A more specific description of the item. If the Item is Handlebars then the Model could be something like “Jones H-Bar 660mm, black”.
Column C “Tracking Number”: When your line item is blue that means you ordered something and its on the way. Put your tracking numbers on this sheet so you can go down the line and click on each of them to check tracking (right click and do a google search on the number works for most shippers).
Column D “ETA”: While your line item is en route to you, put the estimated time of arrival date here, so you can see if something is overdue.
Column E “Source”: Where did you buy the item from? You might use this to identify and consolidate buying sources and shipping charges prior to making the buy. Possibly to get up to a minimum order amount for free shipping. When I already have an item in my shop and I don’t have to buy it I list that as “parts pile” and set that line to green.
Column F “Cost”: I use this column for items not yet purchased (red). The total at the bottom of this column is the amount I still have to spend to complete the project. When I make my own lists, I do not list costs for ‘parts pile’ items in an effort to kid myself as to how much I am spending on this bike.
Column G “Paid”. When an item goes from red to blue, the purchase amount goes from the Cost column to the Paid column. The total at the bottom of the Paid column tells me how much I have overspent so far on this project.
Column H “Notes”: If you need to write something that doesn’t fit into the other columns, it goes here. I put in some notes on this sheet not for my own benefit but for the reader looking at this list for the first time.
Column I “URL”: A purchase link for each item on the list. Sourcing parts can be overwhelming. This list shows sources for everything on this project. Where I list an item as ‘Parts Pile’ I went and got a link as you can’t very well pull parts off the shelves in my shop like I can. Also some unique auction items, like the frame and fork, only have a generic url those were one-of-a-kind items. If an item is no longer available from the seller I bought from, I plugged in a substitute url. Usually from Amazon. Remember: when sourcing hard to find parts, Google is your friend.
This build sheet, as-delivered here, should give you a list with purchase links to every part you could need to build an ebike. You can’t use all the parts I did, nor would you want to. But now you have a road map to all the parts needed to build a bike.
Use Your Build Sheet
OK, so you have listed all the parts you think you will need. You scoured the internet to find sellers for each item you want to use, and listed what each item is going to cost.
Thats no small job. You’re going to need a bunch of evenings or a whole Saturday (or both) to get through the exercise. But its going to be worth it. Especially for the very next step:
Go or No Go?
Look to the bottom line on the sheet. Can you afford this bike? Its entirely possible the answer is no. Running this build sheet exercise is what stopped my Bullitt project dead in its tracks. When I saw the cost of building up a frame kit and electrifying it, I bailed and built something else (a couple of years later I built it anyway).
If you have concerns about project costs, now is the time to make adjustments to make the project realistic, or chuck it out the window and start over – without having spent any real money.
Speaking of costs, its worth noting you may not end up doing a cheaper bike when going DIY. You could go cheap, or you could also go with top components that will end up being better, stronger and more reliable than any manufactured product. The Apostate is such a project.
What About Cost Of Tools?
There is a whole separate installment on tools needed to build a bike. Plenty of them are specialized. There aren’t very many that can be worked around. For my project build sheet, since I build bikes as a hobby and I’m using tools that oftentimes I’ve had for years, I do not include tools on my build sheet. That is true even if I need to buy a tool for this current build – and in fact I had to buy a headset press because I couldn’t find the other one I own.
Whether you include tools on your Build Sheet is up to you. Just make sure that, as part of your project cost assessment, you go into it with your eyes open with regard to the tools needed to build a bike.
While You’re At It
You have to have a place to work on this project. If you don’t know exactly how thats going to go down, now is the time to start figuring it out. Most likely final assembly is going to take more than a single day (for me it was a core 3-day build with numerous short afternoons and evenings going thru the Tinkering and Perfecting phases).
Start thinking now about where you are going to actually do the work here. If at all possible, make your workshop a place where you can leave everything overnight. For instance if you can, leave your car out in the driveway overnight for the weekend and do the work in your home garage.
However…
If you created the build sheet, have a list of parts to buy and you can make the numbers work, its time to move to the next step… hunting for your frame, followed by the motor. Why just those pieces, in that order? We’ll see in
Be warned: Including a total list of all the tools you need to build a bicycle makes this post enormous. Almost 4,700 words total plus pictures. Go get a sandwich and a drink before you start reading.
The tools needed for each step are in their respective Step section.
Remember:
This article is for the most part ONLY about listing the tools in a given step. However in some cases, for the more esoteric tools, I give some extra description to help illustrate why a special tool has value versus doing things a cheaper way. Alternatively I may talk about why the cheap tool is as good or better than the expensive one.
With that said, I will generally try not to talk about using tools here, and save that for the individual Step where they are in direct play.
Step 1: Planning
There are no tools needed in Step 1 as its all a brain exercise. However, as part of your planning its a good time to assess whether or not you have the tools you need for this job overall. What will it cost to buy what you need? Factor that into your overall project cost and Build Sheet and budget accordingly.
Step 2: Hunting
Tools in Step 2 are pretty much a computer, an internet connection and available funds to buy the bike frame and motor. Translation: No tools needed in this step.
Step 3: Tinkering
To do the basic fiddling with your frame that this step will entail, you are talking about some basics only:
A Tape Measure
This can be as simple as a literal soft tape measure like what a tailor would use, or a modern chrome steel or plastic-cased retractable measure with a lock. I use both.
I buy them in the 24-pak like in the link. It seems I can never find my tape when I am looking for it and secreting one in the glove box of my car, one or two in each tool box and so on is the way to go for me. And for $7.99 for all 24 of them… well, that price speaks for itself. No they are not high precision… but they are good enough.
These tape measures have an unusual thing in common that means they will not typically be found in a local store: They both provide metric measurements. So you are buying them online.
With a few weird exceptions, all bicycles have been on the metric system for many years. You need metric tape measures. Since there are numerous exceptions you want both scales on your device.
Calipers (optional)
If you are a tool geek, The Calipers are an essential weapon in your arsenal. They are especially useful on a bicycle build where you have so many annoying, oddball measurements. Is that seat tube 31.6mm or 34.9mm? Its 34.9. OK is the exterior seatpost diameter the expected 36.4mm, then or did the numbskulls who manufactured the frame use thick paint to screw up your life (you need to know this stuff to attach a seatpost collar that fits)?
You can live without calipers and make do with a tape measure… assuming that what looks like pretty much 35mm must be 34.9. And that tube measures a skootch over 36mm so it must be a 36.4.
<takei> oh myyyyy </takei>
Or you can eliminate the need to guess. My metric Mitutoyo good-for-200mm dial calipers are old-school analog, so I don’t have to deal with dead batteries ever again like I did for my cheaper but still damned expensive RCBS digital calipers. Still, the digital set lasted me from 2013 until 2022, so I got my money’s worth I suppose. And they aren’t broken. If I keep buying batteries I can use them for SAE measurements. I guess.
Hex Keys
For any bike build, hex keys are essential. I generally like the ones sold by Bondhus as they are solid, USA-made tool steel at a good price.
L to R: Long ball end. Stubby end. Short. These three pictures are not to scale relative to one another.
I also have a set of Wera (Germany) wrenches which I can only find on Amazon. Wera wrenches are not slab-sided hexagons and instead have a shape that relieves pressure on socket cap corners. They have it patented under the trade name Hex-Plus, and its a solid upgrade. The beefy, color-coded version with a spring loaded bearing on the ball end that will hold onto a screw for tough to reach locations are even more expensive, but if you want a single set good for lifetime use in your shop, they are worth a look.
Note that these are all metric. The need for SAE hex wrenches is almost nonexistent for bicycle parts (SRAM brake lever handlebar mounts are the only one I can think of). ALSO: I typically include the short or long ball end set in my preferred onboard tool kit that goes with the bike.
Motor Mounting Tools (optional)
If you are mounting the motor for test fitment at the Tinkering step as recommended here, you will need any special tools required to mount that motor. In the case of the example bike we are building, that means a Bafang 4-point inner lock ring socket. They are available from a variety of sources. Mine come from Luna Cycle (no longer available for sale). Here is the ‘traditional’ Bafang-sourced 4-notch tool from Empowered Cycles. Here is a fancier version from Lekkie.
I use this 4-point inner lock ring socket made just for the job by Luna Cycle. Unfortunately its no longer available for sale.
Without question, this socket and a torque wrench is the right tool for the BBSHD job. Those little knuckle-smashing Bafang wrenches are Chairman Mao’s revenge from beyond the grave on imperialist running dogs the world over. They cleverly give only the impression of functionality as they cannot let the unfortunate capitalist lackey deliver enough torque with it (unless you make your hand bleed) to keep that motor from slipping sooner or later (usually sooner).
The one I linked above, I own myself as a temp-mount shortcut… but I never use it. It at least has the advantage of being a fairly strong steel (without the usual sharp finger-creasing edges).
Torque Wrench (optional … for now)
This depends on whether or not your chosen motor needs one. In this project we are using a Bafang BBSHD mid drive motor, and it does. We don’t necessarily need a torque wrench to do motor mockups at this step, but it can come in handy, in particular if you need to determine exact spacer size to align the motor just right.
I use an automotive 50-250 ft-lb micrometer torque wrench from Home Depot for that job. To deliver the serious torque a BBSHD needs for a done-by-a-grownup installation, there’s no substitute for the leverage this wrench gives you, and the Bafang socket tools are usually made for a 1/2″ socket head. Worth noting (we’ll get more into this below): The big HD wrench is calibrated to +/- 3% accuracy.
1/2″ automotive torque wrench used to apply 90-100 ft lbs of torque to the motor lock nuts
Step 4: Buying
During the Buying phase, as parts are being ordered and arriving on your doorstep, you may be fitting parts onto the bike as test-fits to help you decide what other complementary parts should be purchased as follow-ons.
As such, while there are no tools specifically required to buy bicycle parts (other than a keyboard, internet connection and so on), during this phase you could end up needing any number of tools found in Steps 3 and 5.
Step 5: Assembling
Wheelbuilding Tools
Remember… in the Introduction I said we’re cheating on this one and we farmed out the wheel build. Wheelbuilding is not something someone who needs a tutorial on building a bike wants to be tackling along with learning all of the other ropes this series is focusing on. So we are not going to be worrying about truing stands, spoke prep, tuning forks and spoke keys.
This is one of those optional deals that you are going to hate yourself for cheaping out on, once you go to the expense of actually getting one and you see how much easier your life becomes. And if you buy a cheap one, its going to suck because a cheap stand with an ebike on it is seldom going to be strong enough to hold up all that extra weight (psssst… take the battery out).
um… yeah I think this one is strong enough to hold an ebike
If you are reasonably crafty, you can make yourself a bike repair stand out of PVC. Just don’t use furniture grade PVC and up the diameter of the pipe so it is crazy strong. This one uses 1 1/2″ pipe and reportedly cost around US$35 in materials. But notice also it doesn’t clamp anything to anything, so bumping into the bike while its on this thing is going to lead to exciting results.
Me, I use two different Park stands in my two shop locations (ok so full disclosure: my shops are a storage unit in one town and a patio in another). One is a Park PCS-10 stand that I bought in 2017. Its been my workhorse for almost six years. The one they sell now – the PCS 10.3 – is quite a bit more expensive than the US$192 I paid for mine, but it looks to have a couple of improvements.
My second repair stand was acquired recently and is a bit of an indulgence. But I’m not sorry I sprang the big bucks for it. I have a Park PRS-25 ‘team issue’ portable stand that folds up nice and easy and has a few added benefits I appreciate, like using hex tubing so the bike cannot shift side to side and topple over. But… four hundred bucks for a repair stand. You gotta use it a lot for that price to make any sense.
Maybe.
Torque Wrenches (plural!)
The fact you are considering buying a torque wrench at all is a big step up over your typical shade-tree bicycle mechanic. With that said, if you don’t own one now, you don’t need to spend a bundle on a precision instrument. A Park TW-6.2 3/8″ torque wrench relied upon by the bicycle industry and insisted upon by snooty internet forum experts is going to run you in the ballpark of US$130… and its one of at least two you need to work on a bicycle. This 3/8″ wrench is required for the bigger (and absolutely crucial) jobs like torqueing down crankarms. The smaller Park TW-6 1/4″ torque wrench that you’ll use for almost everything else on a bicycle is another US$115 or so.
Thats kind of a lot. Here’s the thing: You can spend a lot less and still get most of the benefit of a torque wrench. The Park wrenches are sturdy enough for repeated daily use. For the occasional bike mechanic, thats not necessary. Additionally, the Park wrenches are both calibrated to be accurate within +/- 4%. So lets consider that … an industry-wide standard of quality (wink).
What about lower cost options? How accurate are they?
My first bicycle-sized torque wrench was this one: the Venzo-branded 1/4″ wrench-and-socket package that retails at the moment for about US$50. It too is rated for a +/- 4% accuracy level. Even though it is rated for 2-24Nm, you wouldn’t want (or need) to push it past 10 Nm. For a larger 3/8″ wrench, I initially used a variation on this widely-rebranded Chinese import wrench. This Amazon-branded version runs just under US$30 and again its rated for +/- 4%.
Neither of these wrenches will hold this level of accuracy for as long as a more expensive tool, but if you only use them occasionally, you don’t need them to.
What does the author (thats me!) use?
Some time ago I stepped up my game on the torque wrench front. My little 1/4″ wrench lost its accuracy after a lot of use, and I could no longer trust it. The same went for my no-name 3/8″ wrench. While I trust the Park brand name, their torque wrenches are not particularly noteworthy as far as I can see in their construction, although they are premium priced. Certainly not a bad choice, but for the money, with some research, I could find better.
I went with a German brand: Wera, which are calibrated from the factory at +/- 3%. Importantly: they offer a USA address to perform re-calibration services should the wrench get a little wonky from extended use. No need to buy another wrench if it loses the spring in its step. Get it professionally re-calibrated by the manufacturer.
1/4″ wrench: Wera Reversible A5 (2.5-25 Nm) This one wrench is perfect for nearly every job needed on a bike. It scales up to medium stuff without breaking a sweat. Handlebar stem bolts on our project bike need 5 Nm. the chainring attachment bolts need 8 Nm. Excepting the cranks, you shouldn’t need to go over 10 Nm (its max of 25Nm is 18 ft lbs).
3/8″ wrench: Wera Reversible B2 (20-100 Nm) Thats 15-73 ft lbs in SAE units, which fits perfectly within a bicycle need, whose peak is about 35 ft lbs for an aggressive crankarm tightening (as a general rule of thumb don’t exceed 30 ft-lbs if you can help it).
And no… neither one of them are inexpensive. Like the Mitu’s above, I consider them crown jewels of the toolbox that I expect to last a lifetime of hard use.
The design of this tool is reminiscent of the Park HHP-2 tool, but its literally less than one-tenth of the price. It works on the same principles as the more expensive tool, and is just fine for the rare or occasional user (then again, so was the even cheaper one I bought in 2017).
Star Nut Setter
I didn’t have to use this tool for this build as the used fork I put on the bike already had a star nut inside of it. However if you are buying a new fork, it won’t. You’ll have to set a star nut in the steering tube of the fork.
Whats in the hole? A star nut, thats wut.
You could do this with an M6 bolt screwed into the star nut, and then hammer on the bolt to bash the nut into the steerer and hope it goes in straight. I’ve done that myself (when I couldn’t find my setter tool) and I have to say its a dumb idea. You’ll almost never get it in perfectly straight, and if you do it’ll take a LOT of pounding. If you use the proper tool, it automatically centers the star nut, seats it to the proper depth and works with one or two quick shots with a mallet.
Left: Star nut setting tool. Center: A (fork) crown race. Right: Star nuts (you’ll only need one)
It turns out Jenson USA sells this tool for about 1/3 of what Amazon sellers want for it. Just make sure you buy other things in the same order to get free shipping. They are an excellent parts and tool source.
Crown Race Setting Tool
You could spend a zillion dollars on a fancy crown race setting tool, or just get a piece of PVC pipe that is 1 1/4″ in diameter. Park Tool wants US$86 for their CRS-1 Crown Race Setting System. I think a length of PVC is … what? 86 cents? I got fancy with mine and chamfered the inside of it with a pipe reamer so it was a perfect fit. You don’t need to do that.
Left: 1 1/4″ PVC for setting a crown race onto a straight 1 1/8″ steering tube. Right: A US$2.98 length of PEX pipe used for the wire tunnel on the bike build.
If you have a 1.5″ tapered steering tube, use a bigger size of PVC.
cable/hose cutter
These cable and housing cutters are the same ones I use for making electrical connections. They work for cutting the shifter cable, the shifter cable housing and hydraulic brake hose. In fact, that black hex nut visible in the pic actually doubles as a hose end reshaper thingie. Cutting hydraulic brake hose deforms it. Stuff the end onto the little cone inside the hex reforms it into a proper circle so you can fit a new hose needle / end back on.
Brake Hose Needle Driver (optional)
The ‘needle’ is the end fitting on hydraulic brake hose, which actually comes under some pretty high pressure during the braking process. For years, I jammed these little suckers in by hand. You do it by using manual dexterity and swear words to get the little thing fit into the hose just enough to stay in, then use a small hammer in one hand while holding the hose in the other, and bash on it, trying to hold the hose tight enough to make progress without smooshing your fingers with the hammer.
You can also bang the hose end on the garage floor to help finish the job after you decide you have hit yourself with the hammer enough times.
Remember the olive goes on the cable FIRST before you do anything else. Once you set the needle, its not coming out and the olive will not fit over it. Do the job in the right order and its ready to re-insert into the brake lever, easy-peasy.
OR you could wise up like I finally did and buy the right tool for the job. I was disgusted at how easy it was once I had the proper tool.
Brake Bleed Kit (optional?)
This is not needed if you are using cabled brakes (please don’t do that), which do not need bleeding.
Once you resize your hoses you need to bleed the system. It doesn’t take much. A couple of syringes, some rubber hose and some brake fluid (I hope yours use mineral oil and not corrosive-to-paint DOT fluid).
Rather than buying a Magura branded bleed kit, I picked up this syringe kit and this little 100 ml bottle of Royal Blood mineral oil brake fluid. If I was feeling adventurous, I could spend less and use generic mineral oil or baby oil, but one bottle of the real thing will last quite some time. Since brake spacer blocks come with each set of MT5’s, and I have I think seven sets, I also did not need to buy spacer blocks.
Magura wants US$9.99 for EACH one of these. You get 4 with each set of MT5’s… don’t freaking lose them.
For Magura brakes, you will also need a very small crescent wrench to tighten and remove the bleed hose onto the caliper.
Cassette Lock Ring Socket
I use a fancy Park FR-5.2H. I work on enough cassettes – and got it years ago – so the sting that comes from the price of this little beast has gone away. I appreciate the ability to pick it up and use it like any other wrench.
The Park FR-5.2H. A great tool but you need to have a lot of cassettes and a bunch of bikes to justify its cost.
An occasional bike mechanic will save a bundle and use something like this little Park FR-5.2 with a crescent wrench for less than US$9. I’d show you a picture of mine but I only see it every few months, whereupon I set it someplace safe and don’t see it again for another 3 months. It’ll turn up.
Chain Whip
If all you do is put your cassette onto your rear hub, you don’t need this tool. But if for some reason you want to take it back off, a chain whip is essential. Most workshops have several of these. I have a couple of cheapies like this one or this one. Both of these will give you cassette lock ring sockets, too. I was recently stuck needing one while away from my shop and sprang for the Park SR12-2. Its quite fancy and works great. It had better for the price they charge.
The fancy Park tool at top uses standard KMC bike chain bits and removable pins, so you can repair it down the road. That socket on the end handily fits a little Park FR-5.2 cassette tool.
Metric Hex Keys
This is the same set we used and discussed in Step 3 above.
Chain Breaker
I use the same one in the shop as I keep in my onboard toolkit. The basic, dependable Park CT-5 Mini Chain Brute.
You use the chain breaker above to do the initial sizing of the chain (length)
Chain Pliers
Again, using the tool I take right out of my onboard tool kit. Either Park MLP 1.2 master link pliers, or the cheaper Oumers master link pliers. Both serve double duty as openers and closers. When you buy your own set of master link pliers, don’t get snookered into buying pliers that only open or only close. Those exist solely to make you buy two tools.
After sizing the chain, you use the master link and these pliers whenever you want to remove the chain. Hopefully not often.
Needlenose pliers
Pretty basic stuff here. Needed simply to squish/crimp the cable end tip cover on the shifter cable after it terminates at the derailleur.
Air Pumps (tire and shock)
A tire pump is obvious, right? But we’re trying to do a complete tool list so there it is. Also necessary is the shock pump, which you use on your rear shock and your air fork. You can’t use a tire pump on a shock for a bunch of reasons, regardless of whether you have a chuck that will fit the valve. I use the Air Tool shock pump from Specialized because it has a T handle, and a 2-stage valve chuck that will prevent air loss when disconnecting. I had a cheaper pump from Amazon that had these same things but it died on me after a few months and only a few uses. Buy once, cry once.
In addition to the rear shock, this pump is also necessary to add air to the front forks and, if you have one, a PNW Coast suspension dropper seatpost
T25 Torx Wrench
Needed for brake rotor bolts and all of the fasteners on Magura brakes. Additionally the T25 is popping up here and there on other parts, and is something of an alternate standard to a hex socket. The seatpost collar you will read about in the Perfecting section uses one. I have a whole set for my in-shop toolbox. Even if it wasn’t labeled, you can tell by the scuff marks on it which one the T25 is.
This is something you probably should do, but you can do without if you really must. First of all, the tools necessary, and the procedures needed, are entirely covered in this 2-part series that begins here with this link.
Here’s the deal: The BBSHD motor’s power connection is a long dual-wire affair extending from the motor about 2 feet and terminating in a pair of 45-amp Anderson connectors. Now, you can buy an Anderson-to-XT90 (female) adapter, for instance, and use that to connect to your battery without shortening the wires (you will need to wrap them into a ball and stuff them somewhere) or needing to do any crimping. But thats going to be sloppy, at best.
When I built the Stormtrooper, the cable lengths worked out fine and I didn’t need to cut and shorten anything. I was able to insulate the archaic Anderson connectors and tack on an XT90-to-Anderson adapter and no one looking – even closely – at the connection would be any the wiser. That project was the exception, not the rule.
For our subject Apostate build, the distance from the battery to the motor was only a few inches, and with no battery bag to hide wiring sins its right out in the open. So there were issues with protecting the connection as well as a need to shorten the wires.
See the water droplets? No such thing as overkill on insulating ebike electrical connections.
What you need, and whether you need anything besides an adapter is entirely dependent on the physical requirements of your bicycle frame, and whether you have a place to hide excess cabling. I personally have no qualms about stuffing a rubber-banded coil of cable inside of a battery bag only I will look inside of. You? Its your call. The link to all the tools you need and step by step instructions on what to do are above.
This is one of my secret weapons. On the Stormtrooper, with its white frame, I spiral-wrapped the main wiring harness and battery wires in white silicone tape. Matching the frame, they blended right in; hiding in plain sight. I use black silicone tape as handlebar grip tape on almost every bike I own. Similarly for this project we will see I use this tape in red extensively to blend in the wire tunnel, and a little bit of grey on the rear triangle. In older photos you will see white tape, which is not a match to grey alloy, but close enough to turn the volume down until I found my grey tape.
One advantage of silicone tape is it has no adhesive and sticks to itself naturally. You wrap it around things and it stays put because it stretches like a rubber band, and then sticks to itself. Permanently. Until you take a knife to it and then it splits apart and comes right off.
These days, when I start any bike project I acquire at least one roll of silicone tape that is as close of a color match as possible to my frame.
Zip Ties!
Zip ties are the hallmark of many DIY ebike builds, where they often seem to be used everywhere, with abandon. I try to use them as little as possible. When I do, just like the silicone tape, I use a color that matches whatever it is they are looping over to minimize their visibility. Exact paint matches are never possible, but I have found even a rough match is enough to make them less noticeable versus the typical, common black zip tie most DIY builders plaster all over anything and everything.
I used tiny black ties on the black brake and shifter cables, grey ties for the speed sensor on the grey alloy chainstays and red ties on the red frame to help affix the wiring tunnel.
Step 6: Perfecting
No additional tools are needed for this step. You’ll use whatever you’ve already used in the previous steps to redo this bit or that to correct anything you don’t like about your new build.
Build Day 1
Also, since I have built several BBSHD'd bikes and I know their installation ins-and-outs, I know an English (threaded) bottom bracket is going to be the best style of bottom bracket to easily accept a mid drive motor (other types require adapters).
Lastly, the modern trend on quality bikes is to use carbon fiber for the frame. But I know the torque stresses that come with a mid drive ebike introduce long term survivability issues with carbon fiber bottom brackets. As the saying goes, 'steel is real'. Carbon fiber in DIY builds is known to pose a failure risk. Also c/f bottom brackets have to be built thicker, and this makes a motor like a BBSHD unlikely to fit.
Ideally, I wanted a chromoly frame. Next in order of preference would be an overbuilt alloy, followed by titanium (which is very bendy) with my very last choice being carbon fiber.
These features above, all together, are much more common on older frames, so everything above further reinforced the likelihood I'm going vintage.
