I’m building up a 456 carbon, got a frame used (including seat and seatpost) for a very good price, and a bargain on some xfusion velvet forks.

The aim is to keep the price as low as possible whilst keeping it a burly, fairly aggressive hardtail- 140mm forks, shirt stem, wide bars sort of thing.

So far I’m looking at a full deore 2×10 groupset (needs to have a granny ring really, it’s for the missus!), with on-one cockpit, superstar wheels, whatever tyres are on sale.

£50 – Deore 2x crankset
£25 – deore shadow plus rear mech
£15-20 – Deore front mech
£10 – chain
£20 – shimano cassette
£30 – shimano shifters
£100 – superstar wheels
£10 – on-one hotbox 50mm stem
£15 – on-one el guapo bars (wide-ish)
brakes- to be decided
Rotors, something cheap
foam grips

Any suggestions as to where money can be saved, or any cheaper but just as good suggestions of components without sacraficing much?
Whole build is looking to come in around £650 at the moment (all new parts on a used frame).

Thanks

Used parts, like duh obviously.

In terms of price/performance from classifieds;

pro2’s on crest or flow ~175
oldish elixir r/cr’s ~25-50
i have an xt shadow (but not shadow plus) in the classifieds? also ebay ~25-30
XT chainset ebay ~40
xt shifters ~25

Then buy a new xt chain and cassette.

Spend the extra money on better tubeless / tubeless ready tyres, stans and a good women’s saddle.

Obviously 😀

Trying to keep parts to a new though, she doesnt like used things 😀

Keep an eye the sales of online stores such as CRC. Especially for things like bars, stem, saddle.

There are usually plenty of bargains around if you’re not looking for anything in particular.

oldish elixir r/cr’s ~25-50

Unless you can find a cheap pair that have hardly been used you’ll save money but not hassle. In my experience they’re a bit of a pain to set up and the levers have a tendency to go floppy. rebuild kits can be found but not cheap. The finish isn’t the best either. I had paint flaking off mine after a couple of years. The cheap tektros on my commuter have fared much better having seen many more miles.

Deore M615 seem popular with the STW masses. I picked some up dirt cheap by abusing several crc discount codes. Currently £76 for a pair.

I think if you know how to bleed a set of brakes, you can get a set of elixir CR’s (especially, the R’s are harder due to no fload adjust) running as well as any modern avid brake.

Yes, new shimanos are nicer.

For the spare beater bike? not so sure.

I have the ultimate way to “sell” used components to her. Works on every single girlfriend. Guaranteed.

“You don’t want to look like you’ve got all the gear and no idea do you? Everyone will expect loads of you…”

Also if you are handy with cleaning, I guarantee she wouldn’t be able to tell a good condition set of pro 2’s on flows, or shifters. Crank.. sure.

Or just say “I took it out for a ride to check it was all working and smooth, thats where the mud came from”.

Plus if she hates mtb then you’ve lost nothing in resale value.

Guess who has been here before.

I see the elixirs can be got cheap- had some cr’s, had them for years and thought they were amazing, until I changed the hoses and the seals decided not to seal anymore afterwards (odd). Wasnt much more expensive to buy the deores, which I did. That’s the main decision at the moment, as I believe all most of the other parts have just been ordered!

Other big thing is the wheels. Would love to get a set of pro2’s on something decent if there is anything around for £100 or less. Other than that it seems to be between superstar and on-one wheels.

She has done a fair bunch of mtb already (and a bit of road), she just used my 456 whilst i was on my full sus, or borrowed off another friend. And lives near bikepark. So im not worried about her going off it 😀

Depressed brakes. In fact given the other Shimano parts look for a discounted groupset, CRC where doing them a few weeks ago

People who like their wives don’t buy them things with Superstar written on them.

Jambalaya- It worked out cheaper to just buy all the parts separately (crankset, rear mech, front mech, chain, cassette, shifters for £150)

Timmys….. she’s buying it 😀 Undecided on the wheelset and brakes still though