Good place to start a build?

[Dr Bob]

Basically, I've been thinking that building my own bike would teach me a fair bit, get me a lot for my money, and allow me to spread out the cost over the next few months, I'd probably actually do the build over the winter months, so I'm in no rush, but I saw this and was wondering if this would make a good starting point:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

I'm guessing on top of this I'm gonna need forks(£150), running gear(£150), wheelset(£100), brakes(£80) - does this sound reasonable?

I know a few of you on here have built bikes up, and back in the day I was pretty confident about being able to properly maintain my bike, so I'm guessing a full build won't be too much of a stretch...

Of course for 500 I could just buy something heavily discounted from Evans and do the 6 month interest free thing too which would achieve much the same end result.

Any opinions?

CH

PS: Sorry, I KNOW I'm asking a lot of questions this week - take it as a compliment that I appreciate your opinions!

[Fourmotion]

Usually a bike is worth less than the sum of its parts, so normally purchasing a complete bike will get you more for your money.

Building the bike yourself will allow you to pick the bits you want, and I'm sure you can pick up decent bits of ebay without too much trouble, so will be more the bike you want.

Apologies, but I don't know about the frame, so can't offer an opinion.

Good Luck!

[tjdixon911]

From the information I have gathered/been told it is cheaper to buy a complete bike, then just upgrade the parts as and when required...

[Dr Bob]

Cheers,

I just found this topic:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

...I can't decide if it puts me off or encourages me... Especially as a few comments have been that you tend to get more buying a complete bike..., also, I tend to fluctuate between being really patient and happy to fiddle for ages over a tiny detail, to having none whatsoever and just wanting it to be finished!

CH

[BadgerBenji]

If you dont have a bike/or much equipment you like on your current bike, then I would not consider building from frame. If on the other hand you have some nice components that you dont want to part with then buying a frame and transferring these to the new frame is a nice option, along with buying some nice new bits. If you are looking to a frame thinking you can build it cheaper than the manufacturers think about the economics of it, you are buying in one's and from a retailer, companies are buying direct from shimano and in the thousands of units, so you wont get near to the prices.

[Dr Bob]

Cheers,

It looks like it's gonna be the big discount and interest free option from Evans then... or I might go and chat to HR in a minute about this ride to work salary sacrifice scheme, either way, it'll probably be a little while as I bought my Mrs a bike yesterday snd I'm a bit short at the mo (and as she keeps pointing out, I do already have a decent bike).

CH

[levron73]

Don't forget to add the cost of all the flippin' tools you're going to need!

I went down the build it yourself route and ended up taking most of the bit's to my local bike shop fo rthem to finish off. When they told me thatthey would have built the bike up for me for £75 I wish I'd taken the boxes straight to them!

[gbbird]

I have just built my first ever bike from scratch, thanks to lots of help and encouragement from this forum I must say it will not be the cheap option, but there is something about the feeling you get when you finish it and you are riding about on your own unique custom built bike. I woudl recommend it, but not if you are looking to keep cost down - much better off just buying a complete build one.

Good luck whatever you decide

[mk1fan]

Orange make great frames. And they are designed with UK riding conditions in mind. I don't know of the top of my head where the Gringo sits in their range but WMB and MBR have a lists of all the bikes available in the UK in the back pages. They include a brief comment and any test scores the mag has given them. Check Orange's web page and see what the classify the bike as (XC, Trail, etc..) you can expect it to be spot on what ever discipline it has been designed for.

As for building it yourself. It is more expensive than buying a new bike. Unless you want to spend months or years search eBay for that bargain last peice. You do however get exactly the bike you want (in you know what that is) as opposed to the compromise that the manufacturer builds.

You could buy a ready built bike that's near what you want component wise and upgrade as things wear out.

[pdV6]

mk1fan said:

Orange make great frames. And they are designed with UK riding conditions in mind. I don't know of the top of my head where the Gringo sits in their range

MrsV6 has an '02 Gringo and iirc it was approx £700 new. From those eBay pics the frame hasn't changed much at all between '02 and '05 (apart from the colour).