What Frame To Use

First of all, you didn’t specify if you wanted a road frame or a mountain bike frame, but from the sound of things, you want a mountain bike frame.

The 19 on your bike most likely refers to the size for a mountain-bike (or flat-bar) bike. In the old days, those bikes were measured in inches, whereas road bikes were measured in cm. The numbers nominally refer to the seat tube length, but there were several different ways to measure this, such as center-to-center and center-to-top. Nowadays, a lot of bike manufacturers do not use this method, and instead use S, M, L, XL, sometimes with intermediate sizes, such as ML. In your case, go to the Jamis website and look up the measurements of your frame, and try to replicate that. Usually the two most important measurements are top-tube length and seat-tube length. Another idiosyncrasy of measuring frame sizes is dealing with sloping top tubes, so keep that in mind if you run across virtual top-tube lengths. You should buy your frame to as close to the proper size you need, and fine-tune the size with things like stem length and rise. There’s only so much you can do with the fine-tuning, so getting the proper frame size is important. This is actually a whole topic by itself, but getting the proper fit is perhaps the most important thing factor in getting a new bike.

You didn’t say why you wanted to build up a bike. If it’s to save money, you will likely be disappointed unless you already have bins of parts in your basement that you can use to build a franken-bike. If you are buying all the parts separately, or even starting with a groupset, you will likely wind up paying 2-3x more than if you bought the bike complete and already assembled from your LBS. If you’re building the bike to get the experience and the satisfaction of riding something you built, then that’s a great reason. Depending on what kind of general tools you already have, you will still need to buy some specialized tools.

As far as rust goes, a little surface rust is OK. Use common sense. I probably wouldn’t pay for a used frame with rust unless it was something I just had to have. As far frame painting goes, that’s one thing that I don’t do. I’ve built and re-built bikes from scratch, but I will pay someone else do the painting for me. I just don’t like painting, and there are places that will do it all, including prep work, cheap enough (~$100, IIRC). I’ve had frames powder coated and painted, and I’ve used local places as well as places where I had to send my frame in. I usually opt for a utilitarian, single color, but there are places that specialize in completely replicating the original frame color scheme, complete with stickers. Those are usually for restoring classic or vintage frames, not for the run-of-the-mill commuter.

MFC recommended Nashbar, and that’s a good idea. They usually have some cheap, generic, not ultra-light frames for $100-150 or so. I’ve never bought one, but I know people who have, and they are attractive for building a basic bike.

You should also keep in mind basic compatabilities for things like bottom bracket type, headset size and type, seat post size, drop out spacing, disc brake mountings, and things like that. And when you start building it up, you have to ensure that your parts are compatible with the frame and with each other. It’s not rocket surgery, but it’s something that you need to keep in mind.

Sounds like a fun project, and your proposed build sounds great, but you should prepare for this project to get expensive. It sounds like you have no expectations of reusing existing parts, so you are probably expecting that this won’t be cheap. Also, plan to buy multiple versions of the various components you need — i.e. when ordering bike stuff, you will probably order the wrong one at least once. Road stuff is a little easier than mountain, but the ecosystem is full of incompatible pieces. This is partly why building yourself is always way more expensive than buying the off-the-shelf bike. That and not getting access to wholesale pricing for components — If you buy everything used and don’t make too many mistakes, you might be able to get close in price. I recently did a paint & build-up project for my son’s bike (I think you saw that thread) and ignoring all the things I got/had for free (frame, bars, hubs, brake calipers & rotors) that was still a ~$1k project. (And I got the components right the first time, since I spent many days researching — and I had all the tools I needed.)

I would say that you should try to figure out your road frame sizing, though. There are numerous online calculators, so start there; probably start with a fairly “non-agressive” (i.e. upright) position — calculators should ask you for that sort of input. Nothing would be more frustrating than building up the bike and realizing after a couple weeks that the frame is not the right size. To some extent you can err on the side of smaller and then size up with longer stems or more spacers, but doing that changes how a bike rides — and especially on a touring bike, you probably wouldn’t want super twitchy steering (long stem).

Steel is fine — so is any other material, really. Powdercoating is somewhere around $100-150 around here. They’ll mediablast it and they may offer some additional ($$) services for rust removal, but I wouldn’t buy a rusty frame. See if you can find a used ti frame on ebay (once you know your size). Or buy a chinese ti frame for ~$600-800 if your budget allows it!

Definitely go disc brakes if you want the flexibility to run big tires or switch between 700c and 650b. I would spec a frame with clearance for 700x45mm (which is what my Habanero frame has) and then also clearance for 650bx2.1 — then it could serve as a great mountain bike (of sorts) or a touring with 35mm tires + full fenders. If you can, get a frame that takes a tapered (1.125-1.5″) fork, though you can make do with a straight 1.125 fork if you must. There is only one full-carbon straight-steerer fork with fender eyelets, that I’m aware of (the Spot CX fork; it costs ~$400 new; I got mine for closer to $200 used on eBay). Frame supporting tapered fork definitely increases your options. Less critical, though, if you’re thinking of using a steel fork.

Anyway, keep us posted!

This seems like a great time to remind forum members I have a 54 Soma Wolverine frameset for sale. As Soma says: “Its geometry is stable enough for off road touring, but sporty enough for all-around adventure.”

You can usually find DKel out in the wild on a 56 belt drive Wolverine and I can probably arrange a test ride. [ATTACH=CONFIG]13265[/ATTACH]

Bob, this sounds fun. Really hope you post pics of progress. The tools will add up in expense, but then you’ll have them for future projects and repairs.

I would consider, instead of looking for only a frame, looking for an entire used bike, then using the frame from that. Disassemble it and replace with other components (or reuse some of them if desired). You still get the frame, you could save some money on parts, and the extra bonus is that you get to get on the assembled bike and make sure it’s the right size for you. It also sometimes helps to install something if you’ve already removed it.

However you do it, have fun. Since you have other bikes, you can take your time and not stress about it.

I love drop bar bikes with fat tires. My research over time has found that touring bikes are very flexible with regard to tire size and ability to take fenders and racks, but will often only allow tires up into the 30-something with fenders. The “adventure bike” category is relatively new, and will frequently allow tire widths into the 40s with fenders. The difficulty is that there aren’t yet many offerings in that category. A Surly Straggler will allow at least 41s with fenders, and is available in a 650b version. You should totes buy that Wolverine frameset, though. Not that I have a personal interest in it or anything.