I’ve got a bit of time on my hands and have been fancying a full suss bike to have alongside my hardtail for sometime.

I currently ride a C456 with 100-120mm travel up front and mainly ride XC with the occasional trail centre visit.

If you had about £1500 to spend on a full susser, what would you do and what would you recommend?

1 – Buy something new
2 – Buy something second hand
3 – Build something yourself

I’m tempted by option 3 for the enjoyment, and the budget could then go up a little as I’d buy bits over time.

What option would you go for, and what bike would you go for?

3 every time for me and a Commencal Meta AM, oh wait that’s exactly what I’ve been doing this weekend 🙂

Option 3 for me every time.

Whenever I look at full builds there’s always stuff I’d want to change straight away.

That’s an issue I wrestle with, the problem being that you get better spec for your money with an off the peg full bike.

That’s an issue I wrestle with, the problem being that you get better spec for your money with an off the peg full bike.

Especially with some brand likes Canyon that seem to manage ridiculously high spec builds for the price.
Having said that my last 4 bikes have all been built myself (except my cx bike).

1 for me as getting a brand spanker is ace. Building one is fun but you’ll always get a few second hand bits to make your money go further so it’ll never be new, if that makes sense.

3 all the way. Even Canyon are struggling for value nowadays- not quite the bargain they used to be. Option 3 does require more patience to spot the bargains either new or nearly new through shop discounts and secondhand but ultimately you get the bike you really want. I can’t think of any sub £7k bike that doesn’t have at least half the parts I’d want to swap instantly 😀 But then I’m a snob 😉

Except if you’re buying Specialized, Giant, Santa Cruz etc the frames by themselves (especially Specialized) are so ridiculously expensive you can usually get what you want cheaper by buying a complete bike and flogging the wheels, forks and brakes.

3 grand for a top spec enduro frame, 4 grand will buy you that same frame with a complete build.

It’s worth bearing in mind sometimes if theres not much difference between the complete bike and the frame.

That’s a good point Tom. Frame only options from the big brands are almost deliberately poor value and you’d have to be a bit of a plonker to buy a Spesh/ Giant/ etc frame only at full RRP.

There’s nothing to stop you picking up a secondhand frame bargain then speccing it up with new/ nearly new parts. If I wanted to build a custom Spesh the either stripping a discounted end of season bike and selling the parts or picking up a little used frame only bargain would be the way forward. For example, I bought a once ridden Cannondale Scalpel frame for 1/5th the cost of a new frame or the cheapest discounted bike the frame came on.

Spend £1k on option 2 then £500 on changing the spec to your tastes.

I’d get this http://www.bikescene.co.uk/Specialized-Camber-29-Frame-5961-92-0.html and get an Evo link for it.

XO1 drivetrain, Elixir 7 Trails, a used non CTD 34 29″ reduced to 120mm. Arch or Flows on DT 340’s, Reverb, blah blah.

You’ll probably be well over budget but you can fund it with the sale of your hardtail that you’ll never want to ride again.

2
Then 3.
I bought second hand frame and forks, used parts bin, and new xt groupo.

With £1500 I’d be looking at Paulscycles.

[and looking for a SH 130/140 fork for the 456]

3 grand for a top spec enduro frame, 4 grand will buy you that same frame with a complete build.

No it won’t, the S-Works frame is different, and the complete bike is a hell of a lot more than that.

Point still stands though – they only sell their top end frames so it’s an expensive way to go.

if you build yourself it takes ages to get the parts you want for the right price, you either spend more than you intended or wait longer than you intended.
i would buy second hand and then swap out as and when what i wanted becaame available and then appreciate the difference.
There is however a lot be said to taking ages and the reward when its finally done, i suggest buying in the winter getting ready for the spring

Option 3 – just don’t make a spreadsheet like I just have. Then you can tell yourself you saved money 🙂

OP why an XC FS ? Seems you will have two very similar bikes. I would think about what/where you wanted to ride the FS bike, if it where me I’d go for an AM FS with 140 travel and use it to ride some places you don’t normally go, Cube, Zesty, Trance, Specialised Stumpjumper / Enduro etc . Plus that sort of bike you can ride round your local trails too. If you could get a decent AM FS second hand for less than £1,500 I’d spend the savings on the HT which you’ll ride more (e.g. one of switch frame, update fork, wheels or brakes etc). Also as we have the great wheel debate I would stick with used 26er so you can share bits.

Is there much on your current bike you could move over onto a new build?
I asked a similar question on here earlier this year, I was leaning towards a build but decided anything I brought from my old bike would be a compromise. In the end I sold it and bought an Anthem 29er X2 for a shade over £1,500 which I’m very happy with.
The brakes need upgrading but apart from that it has been solid.

Depends what your after I reckon. Is the off the peg cost effective? How well stocked is your parts bin? I tend to go 3 but it sometimes works out cheaper to go 1, break the bike up, keep the frame and sell the bits you don’t like. Often find with the bigger manufacturers that the cheaper lower end models get good frames but rubbish parts (goes double for wheels.)

Went for Option 3, but via the dodgy route.

Bought a Trance X frame from the US online. Built it up with budget parts from CRC, Merlin and parts bin at home. Probably spent a bit more (circa £100-£200) than the bottom spec Trance X on offer from Pauls/at the local LBS at the time, but have a sot of ‘custom’ bike with better forks and wheels, than a standard off the peg bike.

But if I have a warranty claim on the frame, probably will be wishing I hadn’t. Having said that, there are loads of good value UK sourced frames available.

It was good fun though and I spent many geek hours with a spread sheet in front of me, trying to justify the expenditure to myself.

if you build yourself it takes ages to get the parts you want for the right price, you either spend more than you intended or wait longer than you intended.

Isn’t that the point of option 3? The anticipation adds to the excitement plus gradually acquiring everything together means you can spend more than you budgeted for as the cost is spread over time yet kid yourself you built it to the original budget 😀 Works for me (but not my wallet) every time 😆

No it won’t, the S-Works frame is different, and the complete bike is a hell of a lot more than that.

The enduro expert carbon frame is exactly the same as the S-works save for the Cane creek double barrel air shock.

Let’s spec a 3 grand frame with the experts spec

300 quid wheel set
600 quid Pikes which are better than the s-works complete build fox 34’s
X01 drivetrain 900 quid
Brakes – 200 quid
Finishing kit – 200 quid

That’s 5K + For that extra 400 quid you get a CCDB air. Great.

It’s borderline…I could get the spec I wanted a bit cheaper by going with the full build – as I’d want to keep the pikes…

Thanks all.

The beauty of of option 3 is the fun of building it myself plus spreading the budget.

Option 1 is also very tempting. What’s the crack with Pauls Cycles? Why are the bikes there so reduced?

Option 1 then upgrade parts over time and sell the old parts on. I’ve been doing that since 1998 and that was the last bike i bought. Since then i’ve had a new frame, 3 new forks, 2 pairs of wheels. etc.

I’ve always built my own bikes (building two right now). BUT, if my Yeti ASR5 sells I will be ordering a new Canyon Spectral AL 27.5. It’s the first time I’ve been properly tempted by a complete bike. I will have to wait until February though for delivery 🙁

Yeah my other point would be that when you build a bike from scratch you don’t know how the sum of the parts is going to ride.

So far I’ve built a Chameleon, a Scott DH bike, an SX trail and a Nukeproof Mega from scratch.

Every single time I’ve ended up selling quite a few of the bits for different parts as once I put in some miles, I identified ride qualities I didn’t like.

My sx trail got new forks and new bars.

My Mega got a retuned shock, taller and wider bars, new pedals, new wheels and new brakes….that’s after building up a completely new bike….the Forumla Oro’s were crap as was the wheelset and my riding position.

So IMO, building yourself is often utterly pointless as you end up changing parts anyway.

Building yourself gives you the option to spec everything to suit you 100% from the start which off the peg clearly doesn’t. If you can’t build the right bike to suit you then that suggests a lack of research or experience which is where putting a bit more effort in to a self build becomes necessary and which is why off the peg build maintain popularity too. If you don’t know the parts that suit you then it doesn’t matter what stuff you start with. Getting the controls right can be trial and error in terms of sizes but there’s not really any excuse for not knowing wheels/ pedals/ brakes that suit you and your riding IM(cynical)O 😀

The enduro expert carbon frame is exactly the same as the S-works save for the Cane creek double barrel air shock.

Weird! That does seem an anomaly, considering the Stumpy and the Epic have a different frame for the S-Works and off the shelf bikes are >£7000.

Building yourself gives you the option to spec everything to suit you 100% from the start which off the peg clearly doesn’t. If you can’t build the right bike to suit you then that suggests a lack of research or experience which is where putting a bit more effort in to a self build becomes necessary and which is why off the peg build maintain popularity too. If you don’t know the parts that suit you then it doesn’t matter what stuff you start with. Getting the controls right can be trial and error in terms of sizes but there’s not really any excuse for not knowing wheels/ pedals/ brakes that suit you and your riding IM(cynical)O

Balls. You can’t be expected to try every component combination possible. Totems felt great when I tried them on a friends bike set up with a Vivid, they felt crap because of the vastly compression tune on my Fox DHX5 when fitted to my SX trail.

The Oro’s felt great but they were a nightmare to maintain, despite reviews saying otherwise.

And the build on my first set of wheels for my Mega was shite and the flows were just noodly compared to what I was used to (321’s on a downhill bike) so I built myself some Light Bicycle rims.

There are teething problems with any new build if you are like me and very particular about how a bike rides, good factory builds will have had their own test riders sort out these issues before hand.