[Closed] Can you build a bike up cheaper than off the peg?

i'd lose the cup of tea - that's unnecessary weight.

Difficult to do it cheaper, but you should definitely end up with a bike that's better suited to you and what you want to do

Nice use of the mug of tea there...

To be honest I think you'd stuggle to beat most complete bike builds on price. Even when you look at something like £4500 worth of Santa Cruz full build, it'd be really hard to beat it unless you're getting some serious discounts or buying some used parts (I know, I've tried). Of course, building your own means you can have your pick of components, which might be worth the extra hassle/coin. I reckon if you're after a sub 25lb for £400, a visit to the classifieds is the only way!

At the lower end, you'll almost certainly get a *better built bike* if you make it yourself, if not cheaper.

Aye, you should have asked!

I've always found it cheaper to buy off the peg and customise it with some judicious buying and selling afterwards.

The tea was completely needed I can assure you...

I got the frame for £42 brand new off ebay
wheels as new for £59 ebay again
Forks off here again as new £50
SLX shaddow for £28

I thought with a start like that I was onto a winner,had a few bits n bobs already and the rest was Wiggle and CRC..

Its the wifes bike and she is happy with it and appreciated the effort, but I did wonder if it was all worth it, coulda bought something similar and put a few anodized bits on it...

Looks ok that Tins. Um sometimes you can and sometimes not. The 29er bike I just built for around £500 quid would cost me well around £1100-1200 if I had just bought it and even them it would not have hada decent headset, seat clamp, grips, pedals. Small things like that are how the big companys save a shed load of cash. They are all important parts though. Most of my bike was new stuff or nearly new classifieds stuff from the many bike tarts on here! If you buy an old model bike though you can sometimes get a decent price and if its a low end bike, then bits of bling are not needed. So you may be better going for a 07-08 model bike with a good whack off the price

I suppose its not just down to money though. I learned how to do all my bike mechanics through building and specing my own bikes. Doubt I would know half as much if I had kept buying bikes off the peg. I also enjoy building them up from a bunch of parts and having a decent bike at te end of it

Saying that I sold a CX bike on here to fund this one and have lost money.

Well I learnt what an intergrated and a semi integrated headset was all about thats for sure!!

So many variables, I knew as it was a little bike I needed 170mm cranks for it, that restricted me somewhat to new cranks and added a lump of wieght to it, but its got a brand new drivetrain on it so will do Tinsetta for ages, and a few niceties that you wouldnt usually get like braided cables and some shiny bits..

I cut about a foot off them forks and got another foot to come off now we have found the happy bar height, headtube is so short on it, they will be a throw away forks once the next foot is cut off...

It can be done, but you need to put some work in and have a bit of luck
I built a Kona King Kikapu for my wife a couple of years ago. The full bike sold for £1500 with some pretty low rent components. I picked up a brand new frame for £400 then went to town on the rest of it - Rebas, Full XT, King headset, Easton carbon bars, Hop/DT wheels, Nobby Nics, the works. It worked out at £1600 almost exactly including all postage costs.
Admittedly the £ was stronger and a lot of it came form the USA and Germany at the time, but it can be done if you try.
😀

I'm building up an '08 S-Works Enduro and the total build will come to around £2700.

Noticeable differences in my spec from the complete bike will be XT chainset, Shadow Mech and XT shifters instead of XTR, & X0. My brakes will be different, but a similar cost (Hope Tech M4's, rather than Avid Ultimates). Wheels (Roval Traversee) will be as stock, but I could have got them £90 cheaper elsewhere, but didn't really shop competitively, as I wanted to lump them on the 3 years credit with my frame.

The complete bike is £3300 in JE James (£4k rrp), but I think you may be able to get it as low as £3k.

So, I've saved a bit - mainly in areas where I didn't see the need for quite such high end stuff

I once worked out - taking the **list** price of the frame from the price of the full build - that Litespeed were actually charging over list price for the other bits ie you could buy the frame at list and buy the other bits separately and it would be quite a bit cheaper, which given what they charge for frames in the first place i thought was a bit naughty.....

My own bike have been built over time and evolved and though I dont know their cost (scary thought) I know it would be loads more to buy an equivilent off the peg.

Just dont think you can do cheap bikes cheaply if you see what I mean.

Now gotta keep an eye out for stuff to lighten Tinsetta's up a bit.

Looks good. So how much did that lot cost then? There was a thread on here a little while ago with folks listing their specs for, I think, a sub £500 build - with plenty of links to cheap components. Reckon I wasted the best part of a day speccing a nice little singlespeed jump bike . . . never did get to materialise though.

It has never worked out for me, but I maybe wasn't so canny. Mrs. Squirrel has a Cube full suss with RP23, full XT, Reba U-Turns and awesome finishing kit (such as a £70 saddle) - £1200. We wouldn't (and haven't) changed anything. We got to £1200 adding it up really quickly and still hadn't accounted for most of the bike.

Depends on the brand but with some bikes, the manufacturer is cutting corners and you might need a new headset, seatclamp, saddle, brakes etc. quicker than you think thereby resulting in a false economy.

I've come to no conclusion.

At the lower end if you were to use second hand parts yes.

The main advantage of doing it yourself is that you get to decide where to spend the money. Personally I run cheap cranks and cheap cranks, casettes chains as they wear out and I can cope wit the extra weight. However bits with bearings (headset, hubs, bb) are where I prefer to put my cash as the improved performance and life is noticeable.

Generally off the peg will have a few bling bits to catch your eye, like the rear mech, but they will hold back in other areas like the headset to keep costs low. Also check things like shocks and forks as often they are no the same as the aftermarket ones.

And finally, tyres, lot's of off the peg bikes need the tyres changing straigt away as they are set up for somewhere warmer and drier than the uk.

Ultimately for me the main reason I build my own isn't price it's because it's part of biking for me. Knowing the bike I ride was built by me and having decided on everysingle component just gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

Mamadirt, a tad over £400 but I did have a new cassette in my box and the seatpost (wich lets the bike down) its got deore shifters and SLX mechs, a decent if inexpensive BB and a decent chain so should run well for ages.

Had a sniff on some cheap SID's but cant get hold of the seller, WILLY if you looking I will pay the price you wanted for them!!!

If you can get a decent second hand frame and forks that will start you off nicely. I've built two bikes up like this when me and the missus needed something beefy to take to the Alps last year. The price of everything adds up really quickly though. £400 is setting the bar really low, it's easier to build up a bike with fancy second hand kit as it depreciates more than cheap stuff.

Well Mrs Removed recently bought a womens' (woman's?!) specific Carrera off-the-shelf for around £330. It's the Kraken. It's not a bad bike, and the bits are mainly alrightish, but by thunder it weighs a bit.... Certainly well over 25lb! Most of the excess weight is, I suspect, in the massive and truly awful Suntour fork - I'm at her to spend a bit of cash and replace it with, well, almost anything else!

Also, doesn't look nearly as nice as yours! Cheers for headset advice in the other thread also.