Now that I've been riding a while, I'm interested in building my own bike. In this case, it will be a bike for commuting and getting around town. It will probably be a flipflop fixie/single gear, but the kind of bike isn't important to this question.
What resources (books, web sites, magazines, shops) do you recommend for information about building a bicycle from scratch?
My main resources for pretty much anything include:
Sheldon Brown In particular:
sheldonbrown: how-to-fixed-conversion
sheldonbrown: fixed-conversion
Loads of general wrenching info at Park Tool
And of course a friendly local bike shop.
Look out for a bike co-op or skills-sharing non-profit/community organization. They may run classes and provide parts and tools.
Although it's mostly geared towards chopping up existing (steel) frames and converting the resultant bits into either recumbents, trikes, quads, electric bikes or choppers, there's a fair bit of generally useful info at the Atomic Zombie site and in their forums.
The same couple who run the Atomic Zombie site also have a couple of bike building books out:
Bike, Scooter, and Chopper Projects for the Evil Genius
Atomic Zombie's Bicycle Builder's Bonanza
Some other books include:
Bicycle Design: The Search for the Perfect Machine (Richard's Cycle Books)
Is there a bike co-op near where you live? Many offer classes. It's a great way to learn hands-on how to build bikes and breathe new life into old steeds.
Also: So far, no one at any local bike shop has turned me down when I've expressed interest in learning and asked if I could watch them build bikes and ask a few questions. Seeing the process demystifies it and makes it seem doable.
First, get yourself a decent torque wrench with allen head bits in all the sizes you use for bike parts.
Second, print out a sheet of common torque values and keep it handy. There's one at the link above. You can destroy parts by over-tightening and you can build a bike that'll fall apart underneath you by under-tightening.
Get yourself a maintenance manual. The web is a great resource, but professionally edited manuals organize information far better than any mailing list. If you can afford a used copy of Barnett's Manual, you should have them available. They're the best reference when trying to build out a bike. Some co-workers that I used to ride with and I pitched in for a set that we kept at the office and we'd come in on the weekend to work on bikes. "Zinn and the Art of {Road,Mountain} Bike Maintenance" are much shorter (and cheaper) alternatives and are fine if you're using fairly standard components.
I know I just recommended paper manuals, but I found it helpful to download installation instructions for components and use my PDF viewer to zoom in on the diagrams. The printed ones are too small for my eyes to really see small details which might help you tell whether parts that come in pairs have any chirality to them.
Finally, take your time. Don't plan to start building out your first bike 2 weeks before a tour. Start getting parts and working on it early and try to do anything that might require specialized tools or skills like reaming or press-fitting first. Some things like prepping a head tube will probably require a trip to your LBS.
Check out the classes at bikeschool.com. Excellent frame building classes, and great mechanics classes as well.
If you're after a book on bicycle building you may want to have a look at this one http://www.timpaterek.com/ It is meant to be quite a comprehensive resource. Am considering buying for myself.
