So, I’ve got an idea…that I don’t think is original…but I’m looking to build up my dream bike on to a handmade frame. Does buying a well specced ‘off the shelf’ bike make sense and then porting all the stuff off the frame? Frame is going to cost me about 1500 and I have a total budget of around 3200. So I’m thinking I could buy a bike for around 2000 and then sell the frame for 300.

Anyone else done this? Does it make sense financially? And if so, anyone know a good 27.5+ hardtail for around £2k?

In theory, yes it works.
In practise, your donor bike needs to match the actual bike very well in terms of compatibility. It also needs to be almost perfectly specced and have a resalable frame. This is all achievable but not easy find.

Fairly similar, but quite a few years ago. Got a second hand donor bike with all the rubbish parts ready upgraded to build up a new frame. Managed to sell the donor frame for half of what the bike cost me and a lot of the parts you would want to pick anyway.

Could work, particularly if you get something heavily discounted in the sales as last years colour frame isn’t going to bother you.

On the other hand, complete bikes don’t seem as good a value as they once were. With £1700 to play with you wouldn’t be making many compromises to spec anything you wanted, I’d definitely expect a better set of components than a £2k bike would come with.

Maybe worth posing on here for someone looking for a frame only

You might have a ready made buyer for your left over brand new frame

Canyon were very populardonor bikes for a while till people realised they were good frames too.

I think it’s not as easy as it was just because there aren’t a huge amount of well speced cheap bikes around these days

Apart from the obvious things like fork travel you need to make sure things like the headset, bottom bracket, seatpost/seat clamp size are the same, then you have check things like fork steerer length, internal routing, cable length, brake hose length, brake mounts and stuff,
Plus a 2k bike nowadays will have a lot of hidden compromises like cheap hubs, bb, headset, mix and match groupset with a highlight rear mech and lower end everything else, Deore cassette for example,
plenty to trip up on on and costs can mount up if things aren’t the same,
So check EVERYTHING!

Top bad donor bike choices: Orange? Cannondale? 😉

Thanks guys – maybe just better off hunting in the sales for good deals on the components. The guys who I want to build the bike do complete builds but for the extra 1700 you don’t get quite the quality I want. E.g. There are quite a few compromises on things like wheelset and drive train. I’m not after the latest 2018 components – my only challenge will be that I’m after boost compatibility…and that doesn’t seem to be as heavily discounted

How much of a compromise are we talking?
You can put a gx eagle groupset on a bike for just shy of £400, second hand ex condition pikes for similar, £200 on brakes leaves you £700 for wheels, reverb and finishing kit. I’ve not seen many eagle/pike equipped bikes about for £1700.

Bird zero comes close at £1685 but you lose boost rear – whyte 909 gets the boost rear for £2300 but still some component compromise choices. Bird would be a good choice, easily saleable frame, higher level for £2150 would be pretty close. The dt Swiss wheels can be converted to bost 148 with adapters and a re-dish.

Worked for me, I bought a heavily discounted radon 27.5 and transferred everything over to a nice carbon frame that was also discounted. Ended up with the equivalent of a £1500 10kg hard tail for less than a grand

On that note I have a cheap alu 27.5 frame if anyones interested. 😉

I made sure that Rear hub,seat post, head set and B.B. all matched before buying

I looked in to this as I was going to get the donor on c2w then buy a smart full suss frame.

TBH I found that there were not that many bargains about and those that there were had gaps in the spec or parts that wouldn’t fit. Decided against in the end as it was going to be a lot of hassle for minimal saving.

Depends how ridged you are with spec choices I guess.

At 2k you’ll end up with compromises across the board. With the same budget and a bit of patience you could build a sweet bike by picking up second hand and sale watching

chiefgrooveguru – Member
Top bad donor bike choices: Orange? Cannondale?

Cannondale from Pauls would be good value as a donor bike.

The problem is you’re still stuck with a frame that anyone else could buy as a better value complete bike.

The guys who I want to build the bike do complete builds but for the extra 1700 you don’t get quite the quality I want. E.g. There are quite a few compromises on things like wheelset and drive train. I’m not after the latest 2018 components – my only challenge will be that I’m after boost compatibility…and that doesn’t seem to be as heavily discounted

What sort of bike is it?

Just thinking out loud (assuming a fairly normal 29er XC bike).

Hope hubs £210
Stans rims £130
Spokes £40

XT groupset – £370

EA70 finishing kit – £135

Hope Headset – £55

Tyres and tubeless – £70

Saddle – £30

Seat clamp, grips, spacers etc (ebay specials) – £20

SID RLC – £650

=£1575

Leaves £125 to upgrade the bits you want (the cassette probably). And I can’t find a £2k hardtail with SID’s, there’s a couple of XL Cubes and Ghosts on CRC with Rebas, but the rest of the spec isn’t as good.

If buying a donor bike I’d look at nearly new second hand. Loads on eBay generally with the same “I bought this but only used it once” line and a suitably massive discount from new. Sell what you dont use and buy new otherwise. If you dont mind the faff.. would work out decently i’d expect.

Worked very well for me a few years back. Got a massively discounted Trek Superfly from Evans (previous years stock in gigantic XL size) then transferred all bits to lovely steel frame.
Subsequent unexpected bonus was when someone gave me a good price for the Trek frame.
So, YES, it can work.

With the same budget and a bit of patience you could build a sweet bike