Having had a skim read of the knockoff chinese carbon 29er thread I'm tempted into a longish term project to build a 29er. The target would be racing Bristol Bikefest on it.
So how cheap do you think it could be done, assuming that I transferred drivetrain, controls and brakes from my existing 26" hardtail....?
Any good deals or second hand bits out there?
forks will be the difficult bit - is rigid an option?
wheels come up on classifieds for around £100. often enough. on one often have their wheelset for about that money.
tyres £25/ pair. from classifieds. depends what you want as some of the cheaper 29er tyres are a bit pants.
seatpost & front mech are easy enough say £25 the pair
Got my Scandal frame for 75, Fox 100 for 150, bonty wheels for 100 and pair of maxxis tyres for 30. Then like you transfered most stuff over.
Love a bargin me.
As with any other build, go for the best/lightest frame and wheels you can for the money. I went for a Scandal as it is light and has good versatile geometry. As Naffrider says, Bontrager wheels are great value second hand, as are Specialized, of which there will be a lot more about in 29" guise this year. A nice wide flat bar might be worth a look too if you're not especially tall. Truvativ do one that can be found pretty cheap.
I've got a 18" On One Scandal frame if that is any good to you? Would come with Hope seatclamp and headset and carbon seatpost?
Also have a set of 2008 29er Reba's to go with it, could probably sort some tyres for you as well?
Was about to place it all on the classifieds.
I'm doing this at the moment, got cheapo Merlin 29er wheelset (£79) Reba rl's (15% discount £270)both just arrived this morning. Wheels seem well built, all the spokes make the same noise on twang test, not the lightest but for that dough I'm well chuffed. 
^^ Alternatively buy scud's stuff for better quality/cost saving etc....Bare in mind the cheapest set of tyre I could find were £50 for tyres and tubes.
If everything else transfers, you just need frame, fork, wheels and tyres.
It's much harder to find bargains for 29er stuff. I ended up building a 26" bike, as the 29er was going to cost too much. In the end, I decided that a 26er with better tyres, etc. would be better and there were some good 26" bargains about.
(But I still find myself looking at 29ers... CTBM has a bargain Karate Monkey that I'd have snapped up if it was available earlier in the year.)
I have built up two 29ners a cheaper one to see if i liked them and an expensive-ish one costing about £1500+, expensive one was pretty good I just preferred the cheaper one.
Not really cheap, just went bargain hunting. Tried for decent bits to give it a fair chance.
Just under £400....
Mostly second hand off here, few new consumables and few out of shed parts bin:
Frame Zion (sort of US OnOne) £60
Forks Revs £80
Wheels OnOne £60
Tyres Ardents £30
XT driveline set 1x9 £60
Brakes Haynes £40
new inner tubes £10, cables £20, grips £10 and chain £25
Bars, stem, QRs, saddle and seatpost from shed
Built mine up for not a lot at all if I'm honest.
Got the frame new for £299 (but some inheritance paid for that) then swapped drive train, brakes & finishing kit over from 26" HT.
Needed new wheels, forks, tyres, seatpost & some flat bars, has a mass clear-out and made money in the end
BTW Specialized 29'er tyres are great, esp the Ground Control 2Bliss I have on mine, and they're pretty cheap too.
Thanks all - you may just have cost me a lot of money...
thomthumb - yes rigid is an option, certainly for the purposes of getting a rideable bike. Probably carbon.
scud - would you mind emailing me details of what you might have available to edward [dot] rollason [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] uk ??
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