been looking for a bike for the wife.
found a suitable tourer for £1k, so I thought I would make a build list with same or similar parts.
self builds used to be a way of saving a bit of cash…..this no longer seems the case….. 😕

Was it ever?

bike companies buy in significant quantities and add in Shimano/Sram etc have that nice OEM price to help lock you into aftermarket sales.

A good quote on building a £1k ht – buy a Cheap full sus for parts and sell the frame. Cheap/Value builds are put together by accountants 🙂

I reckon when you self build you try and buy all the bits you would really like rather than upgrade over time on a stock bike…so in the end it works out even but makes you more skint at the beginning.

if I built it with parts I want, it will cost about a grand more… 😉

Just make a build list then hunt down the parts from different suppliers or speak nicely to the LBS…

It can be done. I’ve done it many times, but you’ve got to be canny. Used, nearly new, stuff is where it’s at. My current hardtail was £2600 as a full bike. I’ve built one up with better spec for under £1200. My wife’s bike would have been around £2500 for the spec at the time, I paid £1600 and that bike was all brand new apart from stem and seat post.
It takes time and effort to get a nice bike for cheap. Anyone can pay full whack and have it done in 3 days….. 🙂

Don’t use new stuff – second hand can be in very good condition

pp, thing is, I don’t have any passion for it nowadays.

I am building my latest bike mainly for the reason matther01 said, could buy 2k bike but will never be 100% your preferred parts so you might spend another £500 on tyres, brakes etc or just spend £2.5k from the start and have exactly what you want.

I have a spreadsheet of what I have spend on parts for my ht build and it scares me (£1.5k and counting 😯 ) but no way I could of afforded to drop 1.5k in one go.

I’d agree with you. I do wonder if stock builds hide cheap bits. OEM tyres and tubes, bottom of the range cables etc. But even so I’ve one spread sheets where I’ve sourced eveything as cheaply as i could find new and its still looked pricey. Especially when you start seeing deals on bikes….

nearly new is alot cheaper. but again just as true in whole bikes

Having done my last one as specified parts on a build it cost more than buying off the peg but there was no chance of getting what I wanted.

Some simple build tricks however..

Deore Cassette on XT drivetrain
The strange tyres not in the catalogue
Forks with less adjustment/lower spec than Retail ones
Crap Spokes and nipples

As I said above the other bit is SRAM/Shimano will take a hit on the OEM kit as if you have an XT drive train you will probably replace with an XT, it will cost you more to go SRAM so they will get 2/3 years of aftermarket full RRP sales from a discount/cost sale to the bike manufacturer.

My LBS does a lot of swapping on and off new bikes for people wanting to upgrade/change stuff so often has some OEM wheels or full drive trains available for people to pick up at great prices. Hence the missus has RF NExt Carbon cranks on her bike…

Mike, I know it won’t be, but I’m really hoping your mrs’ bike is some shopper BSO 😈

tomhoward – Member
Mike, I know it won’t be, but I’m really hoping your mrs’ bike is some shopper BSO

Absolutely, if it makes you feel better 🙂 we dropped an XX cassette on it too on that upgrade 🙂

I built a cotic soul up recently for the girlfriend. Saved £250 by getting a used frame in very nice condition but it still added up to £1300 for a nice but not bling build. I could have got a very nice off the shelf bike for £1K but as said above there are always rubbish parts hiding in there. So the self built bike has good quality hand built wheels, good tyres, decent headset, easy to service fork etc.

So I reckon it’ll payback in reduced ball ache over the coming months / years as I fulfil my mechanic duties.

Suspension is where a lot of cost cutting occurs. Factory OEM is often a downspecced version of the aftermarket version, especially on high volume product (how often do may reviews make veiled and sometimes not so veiled comments about the forks performance for example)

I just buy the whole bike and sell the bits I don’t like straight away as new and then hunt down bargains to customise to my liking, it always works out cheaper this way IMO.

I priced up building my own trance 29er. For £1200 less than the stock trance X 0, I would have a better bike.
Full XT Group set
Stans Arch EX on hope Evo
Rock Show Rev dual air
Reverb post
Carbon bars
Thomson stem
Fox float CTD trail kashima
A saddle that fits my butt
Etc

This time of year works out good on new parts with merlin and CRC offering 10% discount

I decided to hold fire with all this 650b BS..

Just about to finish a ht build with fox forks, xt group set, dropper and hope hoops for 1450. Seems the going price for this sort of spec but I got to chose my parts that suit me better.

I am building a SC Heckler 650B
I have been cany buying NEW parts when I have seen good offers

I picked up the following recently from CRC a few weeks ago when they had a mad sale for £250

X9 shifters
X7 rear mech
XT cassette
2 x PC971 chains
SLX front Mech
SLX Double Bash with BB

Then got my Pike RC3 from bike discount.de for £588

Set of Mint M4 brakes off the forum for £120

When i got my frame (£1349) i blagged a hope taper headset supplied & fitted

Just need wheels now (cheapest i seen is £330)

it will be a £2800 build a bit more than the complete bike from SC but that has crap spec for £2600

There was a bike on here the other day that would reputedly cost £2700 to build but was for sale at the bargain price of £1200 so it can be done 😆

The main reason to build, rather than buy (for me, at least) is to get exactly the spec that I want. (Can’t remember the last time I saw a bike spec that was 100% in line with my preferences)

The way that I approached it was…

* Buy the bottom of the range bike, as they generally all have the same frame.
* Sell the parts that I don’t want (Usually SRAM, purely because I’m used to Shimano)
* Stalk the internet to get the bits I do want
* Build it up
* Ride around with a big smirk on my face, knowing that…
* I have exactly the bike that I wanted
* I saved a bit of money (this bit is optional, depending, on how well i did)

To do on the cheap….

Cat1 – Bits to buy new as they are basically consumables….

Chainset (cranks will last for ever but since you always need new rings and BB – may as well buy all together)
Cassette
chain
tyres/tubes
cables
grips

Cat2 – Bits that will wear out eventually, and sometimes need servicing…. but you can get away with “nearly new”

Forks
wheels
suspension frame
headset
dropper post
brakes
derailleurs
pedals

Cat3 – stuff that doesn’t really wear out or need servicing and only dies when you brake it in a crash – second hand is fine

Stem
Bars
normal seat post
seat clamp
QR skewers
Saddle (possibly Cat2 if its a boutique build)
Hardtail frames (possibly Cat2 if its a boutique build)

Anything iv forgotten there……?