I’m new to mountain biking, but thinking about buying a frameset. I know it’s probably difficult to say, but how much would I likely need to spend on all the other bits without going mad on weight-weenie stuff or anything too flash? I’m considering a singlespeed or hub gear. Without thinking too hard, I thought it might be around £500, but components seem quite expensive – I’m beginning to think £1,000 – £1,500 is going to be more realistic, if a little crazy!

Forks £300-£500
Wheels £200-£300
Brakes £100-£200
The rest £350-£450 (ss)
So yeah £1000-1500.
Makes MUCH more sense to buy completes unless you know specifically what you want and are willing to trawl the interwebs to find the cheapest price.

As much as you can will be the simple answer… And then the longer you own it the more you’ll want to change or upgrade. This can be for many reasons, performance, weight saving… Even down to looks.. It’s a slippery slope you’re starting on!

Surely this all depends on what spec you’re after. You could spend thousands but you could also get forks for £200, wheels for £100 brakes for £100 and the rest another £200ish but if you use it lots they’ll want replacing fairly soon.

As Kristoff says: you may start out wanting to go cheap n cheerful, but it can be really hard to stick to that. Because you’ll want to spend the extra £50 here or there for nicer wheels, saddle etc.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it – you should, you’ll get the bike you want, and it can be kinda fun scouting for deals for 3 months – but be aware that if you do, it will spiral!

For context, I thought I could build my hardtail up for the frame +£500. I wanted reasonable gear, but didn’t think I’d go crazy; much of the kit was secondhand (saddle, wheels, shifters, mechs, chainset etc), but it still came in closer to frame +£900. Still worth it though! 🙂

It always ends up costing more than you think it will. 😀

I think I’m quite far down the slippery slope! I dread to think what I’ve spent on my road bikes and recumbents, and I’ve tended to go for higher quality and weight-weenie gear. I just had it in my head that MTB stuff would be cheaper. However, even the new bikes from the likes of Specialized are more expensive than I thought they would be. I’m a sucker for the unusual, so the thing I’m interested in is a fairly expensive frame, and I was hoping I’d be able to get it running fairly cheaply, and then upgrade it with trick bits later if I liked it. I’d probably want some decent quality gear that wasn’t likely to break – maybe XT, and BB7 brakes etc.

What is the frame, and we can have a think for you?

The German bike websites can save you a fortune on a complete groupset.

Keep the cost of brakes down by getting Shimano Deore – cheap as chips, and awesome!

Merlin will get you forks for a brilliant price.

Buy a charge spoon saddle for £20. – unbeatable for the price and very well regarded.

£700 + frame will get you a great bike.

Depends what you want really, also do you have enough tools and skills to build it.

Few years back did an On One build with the missus. Parts came to £1100 without brakes. You could knock some off for the simpler drivetrain but it all adds up.

Yes there are plenty of bargains out there but you could end up building a tank if your not careful. 2 options look at the classifieds for the big ticket items, fork & brakes etc. also keep an eye out for bar/stem/post stuff on there.

Wheels will end up being a bigger cost again what do you want from them?

The frame will determine the direction of your build.

You could get a donor bike with loads of cheap oem parts on it and transplant it all onto the frame of your choice, or just get an On One ready to ride?

I’d probably want some decent quality gear that wasn’t likely to break – maybe XT, and BB7 brakes etc.

Any particular reason why you would prefer cable disks over hydros?

Dare I say it? Gulp consider using a spreadsheet, list all the parts you’ll need, that is ALL the parts, right down to cables and brake fluid, then go cost it up honestly, complete off the peg bikes start to look like pretty good value then.

Then start costing up again this time with a mixture of used and new parts, perhaps adjusting your expectations in certain areas until your planned build actually matches your budget… You’ll still go over by 5-10% though.

Thanks very much – it’s all very helpful.

The frameset I’m interested in is one of the Jones’ steel models. I had a ride on the Spaceframe model with Truss fork, and it seemed really nice. However, that’s the first and only MTB I’ve ridden recently, and my test was just around a car park, so I suppose I need to try out a few more bikes, including hardtails and FS ones. The Jones seemed pretty good, though. The frameset price scared me a bit, so I’d also have to think about one of their cheaper models with the diamond frame and either the truss or unicrown fork, so I’d be looking at a frame & fork price of between £800 and £1600. I’d also need their handlebar (£130), front hub (£170) and headset (£90). I already have a saddle and pedals I could use, but unfortunately none of my other ‘spare’ parts are suitable. The spreadsheet is probably a good idea – I’ve done that in the past for other bikes. I’m just not sure about some of the MTB-specific stuff like single chainsets, rims and tyres – I want something for bike-packing trips in a variety of terrain in Scotland.

I just suggested BB7s as I thought they might be cheap and reliable. I think the bike I rode had XT hydraulic brakes, and they seemed good – I was amazed at how dinky their reservoirs were.

I built up a superb hardtail at roughly:

Forks – 100
Wheels – 200 (but could easily have been 100)
Brakes – 100
Controls – buttons, 50 maybe
Gearing – 100
Pedals – 15
Tyres/tubes – 35

There is a lot of used gear going about and you can have a really good stab at it. Should you decide something doesn’t suit the bike you’ll likely not lose much selling it on again.

PS Just saw the bit about bikepacking. I’d buy the lightest gear you can, within reason, for that sort of thing as it’ll make the experience more enjoyable. SID forks (if 100mm), stans crest rims, carbon bars, 100g stem, look for some light tyres in the 500g range if you’re not going to be hammering rocky trails etc.

Any frame that requires its own bars/front hub would be well off my list, as it is very restrictive.

You want a single speed as your first Mtb? What kind of cycling are you planning?

I’m not keen on proprietary parts either – I once had a bike off the road for months after a hub flange sheared, and had to have a hub shell fabricated by a guy in the States. I’m not too bothered about the handlebars – that was one of the main reasons I liked the Jones, and I’d probably want those bars on any bike. The front hub is 135mm, but apparently you can’t use a rear hub (it’s probably something to do with the flange-to-flange distance). I’d like to know if these 135mm front hubs are available from other manufacturers. The other downer is that I presume I couldn’t use one of my Schmidt dynohubs which are standard 100mm.

I’m not completely sold on the singlespeed MTB thing. I’ve done a lot of road riding on fixies, but not sure how singlespeed would work offroad. I’d want to do some long distance day rides, and some overnight ‘bike-packing’ trips – all in varied terrain in Scotland. I just thought that if the singlespeed thing didn’t work out I could change it to an IGH such as the Alfine, but I might be better to go for that from the outset. However, I’m not adverse to standard gears with derailleurs either.

Have a look at the On-one frames (sister company to Planet X). Their HardTails come with swappable dropouts, and are unbelievable value for money.

Personally Ive never used an SS Mtb, but I believe it will involve pushing on some steeper sections. I imagine multi day touring on a SS would be hard work. If all weather reliability is your plan, I think the Alfine is a good idea. Plenty on here use them, so advice should be available.

Anyway OP, this is all pie in the sky. What we really want to know is which wheel size you have chosen 😉

The frameset I’m interested in is one of the Jones’ steel models. I had a ride on the Spaceframe model with Truss fork, and it seemed really nice. However, that’s the first and only MTB I’ve ridden recently, and my test was just around a car park, so I suppose I need to try out a few more bikes, including hardtails and FS ones

So you’ve based your choice on the riding of one in a car park… This might be relevent except most MTBing is over hills/rocks/mud etc. Best that you get yourself to a demo day, or find an LBS that has a decent range with loans/demos.

Also as others have said, the manufacturers can sell a complete bike far cheaper than you can build one (to the equivilent spec).

It could well be worth your while spending a bit of time familiarizing yourself with the various standards that apply to MTBs, there are a few and some are more prevalent than others.

for a first time build I would say you want to aim for the broadest possible compatibility and components which are durable (especially given your bikepacking aspirations)… Gucci, expensive, lightweight kit in odd sizes might not actually be the wisest choice if you are planning to ride unsupported away from civilization, you want serviceable, robust kit for which spares will be as easy to obtain as possible IMO.

The one bike you’ve looked at is a pretty Niche machine TBH, it’s got some really nice features, the 135mm front hub spacing as I understand it it is to give you a bit of redundancy should your rear Freehub fail in the arse-end of nowhere, you have a spare one on the front of the bike and installation is simply a wheel swap away…

But it’s not a “Standard” bike by any real measure, take it into a few bike shops with a problem and there could well be a bit of Umming/Arrring and teeth sucking while they try to assess the gap between your disposable income and your technical knowledge of bicycles…

A lot of people like the Jones bars and I’m pretty sure there are more normal, standard versions and cheaper copies available that people have fitted to more common bikes

You’re probably put off of gears by their complexity relative to SS/Fixed, but if you have to haul heavy items about off road then some sort of multispeed drivetrain starts to make sense. That could be derailleur or Epicyclic hub based, but I think you need to consider gears for bikepacking.

There’s a pretty broad spread of bikes that fall under the “Mountain Bike” banner, try a few out if you can before nailing your colours to any particular sub-type.

You may be better off to start by riding an “off the peg” bike for a bit, to get a feel for it’s strengths and deficiencies and then start thinking about speccing your own build once you have more direct experience to reference.

There’s no real substitute for riding a bike in anger to tell you what you really need. Ultimately what you are after is fitness for purpose, which only you can really decide on.

Don’t worry – it’s not something I’m going to rush into. The bike shop did say I could try out other bikes, and take them out on the trail for a day. It’s just that the Jones jumped out at me – and I did ride up and down a kerb in the car park! I’m more likely to go with gears than a singlespeed considering the sort of riding I’ll be doing. I’d be happy with an off-the-peg bike if it didn’t need much tweaking, and a nice secondhand one would also be fine.

I do have a mothballed Saracen from the 1990’s which I’m tempted to ride for a bit. I think I just need some MTB tyres on it. It’s fully rigid, and has a long and low riding position which I remember used to give me pins and needles in my hands. It also has canti brakes which aren’t great. I also remember on some descents being rattled around so much I couldn’t even focus on the route, and of trying to control a rising feeling of abject terror. Is that just normal mountain biking, or are some sorts of bikes a bit more relaxed and controllable?

Scandal 26 frame 125
Superstar stem 26
fsa headset 26
RF bars 28
slx hg81 cassette and chain (10speed) 50
10 speed slx shifter 15
wheels 100

All above comes to £370 and its OK kit found half price or more in sales. Already had cranks, bb, pedals

Everything new apart from the ztr olympic wheels on pro 2 hubs (good price from friend)

OK, i need some more bits….seat stem and saddle, forks (carbon on ones for 149) a fwew bolts etc but thats about it.

All in I reckon it’ll be £600……….but if I was in a rush I wouldnt have the time to sit around and wait for offers like I have.

I’d say go for it, build one! So long as you don’t get drawn into buying all the best parts, and are willing to look around on here, eBay and Pinkbike to find secondhand bits, then you should do it for a decent price. Also, check online shops as they often have bargain clearances.

I built my bike with mainly second hand parts for £1900, but it is probably now more closer in value to £2200ish, or more judging by Pinkbike buysell.

You have to be prepared to take the time though, it can take ages waiting for the right part to turn up.

I’ve just totted up some figures, and with the cheapest Jones frame, an Alfine 8, BB7s, Thomson seatpost and stem etc it looks like the total cost would be around £2000, with room to manoeuvre either up or down. Excluding the Jones-specific bits, there’s around £800 in components. I thought something like the Genesis Fortitude Adventure with Alfine 11 speed is a similar sort of bike (maybe not in ride terms), and they’re around £1500 off-the-peg.

The main thing is to work out what sort of bike to go for, but at least I’ve got a better idea of what it would cost for me to build up a frameset. In an ideal world I’d be able to sell or trade-in a bike or four to help pay for it – and to make room for it!

Im in the process of building a Cotic Soul. Original budget of £1000 slowly crept up to around £1600 when reasearching parts.
I bought the frame, with head set, BB and seat QR, wheel set (excl tyres), fork and gear shifters 2nd hand. The rest i trawled the net for deals and its cost £1200. Its taken a few months to source all the parts though.

If you want to do it with a reasonable price you just need to be prepared to comprimise on parts. For example, I regret buying renthal bars and stem, granted they feel great and the quality is good, but a set of nukeproof bars and stem would be near enough half the price, and to be honest, I doubt it would affect the handling of the bike at all. I also wish I had gone RS or ‘zocchi instead of Fox, and a cheaper frame over my Five, but hey ho!

If you are willing to to compromise a little bit on parts you can effectively end up with a bike that will basically do the same as your “dream bike” but at a fraction of the price, at the expense of a little weight and less labels.

Hunt around the sales, there’s some good gear out there. E.g. This morning someone had a link to Rockshox Sektor Air forks for less than 200 quid. Then there’s the dialled bikes sale announced this afternoon. You can get a good frame there.