Apart from the first owner taking the hit for buying shiny at RRP.

I am contemplating a hardtail build at the moment and want to hear what you think. I’ve costed it up and buying frame and forks 2nd hand will save me a whopping £200 ish if I can get them for what I’m offering, but is it worth not having someone to shout at when things go wrong?

Looking at Fox forks I doubt most people will ever be able to honestly pull off a successful warranty claim given the amount of service it need, so forks seem the first place to save money buying 2nd hand. Some other brands seem better value first hand, but there still seems a 40-50% saving off RRP to be made.

Frames seem quite interesting. Seems crazy you can get a pretty decent full suspension frameset from the classifieds for £400-£600 which is a lot less than what a lot of boutique hardtail manufacturers are asking for their frames.

Is the service from these companies so good that it is worth shelling out RRP?

Without knowing if £200 is a lot or a little of the RRP it’s a bit hard to tell

I wouldn’t shell out full price for either frame or forks

All my main kit is second hand. And usually dirt cheap. It’s not bling but I like to think my strava shows that new kit does not make you faster.

All I will say on the subject is warranty.
Most manufacturers do not carry warranty onto second owners.
Why are the frames / bikes being split.

My voice of experience of second hand bikes.

I get a fair amount of my kit second hand – not bought a frame 2nd hand, but have bought a couple of sets of forks. Generally had good experiences (2 sets of forks)

If possible try to see before you buy.

If the frame/forks have seen a decent amount of use (and are up to about 3 years old) but are in good condition, then they’re worth about 50% – 60% of the brand new price

I’ve bought my last three frames secondhand via mail and they have all been good VFM, sellers were decent people and accurately described the frames. If buying FS always assume that you’ll be replacing all bearings and servicing the shock too, which means you’ll be looking at around an extra 120 ish depending on the frame. A dent on the top tube, chain or seat stays would be a dealbreaker for me but a minor stone ding or two on the down tube wouldn’t worry me. As for forks as long as they are in decent nick and everything works you’ll probably be fine just do the usual checks before buying if you can. I paid the price of a good hardtail frame for a Blur LT2 and even with bearings and a TF tune I’ve still come in at around 1/3 new for a good condition frame with many years of life in it. I wouldn’t buy new just doesn’t seem worth it.

Cheers for the opinions guys.

The frame and forks I’m after new + headset would be around £800.

A similar frame + forks + headset that can’t take tapered forks or a dropper post would only be worth around £450 to me. Once you add in service costs for the fork then I reckon it’s around £550-600. That’s where I’m getting my £200 saving from.

£200 would easily pay for a weekend trip to somewhere nice to ride some trails on my new 2nd hand beauties. Perhaps the best compromise would be to buy a new frame that will let me swap forks out later on and potentially add a dropper post if the fancy takes me so I have the options if I need them.

Any frame can take a dropper. As for a tapered steerer, it’s not a duel breaker for me.

Thought the 27.2mm tubes wouldn’t? I stand corrected in that case!

Buying used i think its good to go and and see what your getting.
Buy a used frame / fork / bike from the guy on the bike to work scheme that bought a bike because all his work mates did, and used it 4 times.
Bargain. Great buy.
Or buy off a forum a second hand set of fox forks from a 15yo kid that hammered the life out them dirt jumping….. No thanks.
That said I have only once bought a brand new bike. Kept it 2 years and broke it up. After that bought an almost new Turner frame (ex demo) still under warranty.
Bought a full bike that was from an almost unknown (in the UK) brand and robbed all the parts from it. No problem with the used forks wheels chain set etc. You pays yer money……………

For 27.2mm seat tubes you can get any of the following dropper posts…

KS i7 dropper
KS Lev
X-Fusion Hi-Lo
Forca (see EBay)
T Mars (see EBay)

Last bike I bought/built….

’08 S-Works Enduro SL – got 40% off rrp, bought in ’09 for £1500 against £2500 for frame/forks/shock/headset/bars/XTR front mech/Thomson Elite post.

Built it up with XT, Hope Tech M4’s, Roval Traversee’s for a total of £2.5k – for a £4k bike. Ok, it didn’t have an XTR chainset and rear mech, but still a helluva saving with better brakes to boot and not a 2nd hand part in sight.

Don’t think I’d put XTR on a bike ever again! SLX/XT all the way for me from now on!

Thanks to cycl1ngjb for the dropper post info! I will keep that in mind.

Still seems like new frame is the way to go and 2nd hand forks. Though the X-Fusions are looking tempting.