About 6 months ago I decided to get back into cycling after a 17 year break. I used to ride MTBs as a kid so that was my first thought. I took the uneducated route and bought a Carrera kraken from halfords. It seemed a solidly built bike but it’s shortcomings were quickly shown. I upgraded it steadily until all that was left of the original bike was the frame, headset and forks. I felt that the cheapy coil sprung suntour forks were a major weak link in what I now had, and realising that I still had the original parts I decided to return it to stock and build up a frame that I liked the look of, a super raw 45650b. This is what I have ended up with:

An 18″ 2015 frame with hope headset, spacers and head doctor, hope hoops with pro II evo SP hubs and stans arch ex rims. 150mm Fox 32 TALAS CTD, bontrager 750mm bars, superstar 50mm Zephir stem, signature saddle, brake mounts, seatpost and QR. Shimano drivetrain consisting of DX SPD pedals, M970 XTR shifters, crankset and BB, XT mechs and cassette, XT m785 brakes and 180/160 rotors. Rolling on tubeless maxxis ikons and with ODI vans grips. It’s a far superior machine to the Carrera and overall cost me a touch over £500 to put together.

Very nice…..and £500? how??

Surely wheels and frame alone wouldn’t be far off £500?

Good choice there! Did gou buy the parts second hand? I’m struggling to see how you built it for 500 quid…

Ironically enough, when i started i got myself a GT, which soon donated all it’s parts to an On One 456! For me, building them is half the fun. I’ve only ever bought one mountain bike complete; all the others i’ve built.

Enjoy!

Lots of trawling eBay and pinkbike for bargains and sticking stubbornly to obsolete 3×9 gearing. The frame stands me under £100, wheels were around £140 as they were listed poorly and ended at a daft time. Judicious use of Evans cashback vouchers from other purchases paid for a lot of the bit like cables and BB. The headset and forks account for probably the biggest part of the cost but bargains again at £200. Maybe closer to £600 overall but still way cheaper than an equivalent new build and it’s just how I wanted it.

Awesome. Probably getting on for 2 grand to build from new parts.