I’m going to be building up a new frame, and whilst the obvious thing to do is swap everything from my old one, much of it as actually quite long in the tooth.

So, given that the groupsets/builds on some bikes (I’m thinking Cube as an example) are pretty astonishing for the money, one idea is to buy a new bike and strip it for the parts I need, selling the rest.

What I’m after is a decent drivtrain, maybe some wheels and possibly some 120-130mm forks.

Let’s see your suggestion for donor bikes.

First that come to mind are Boardman (SRAM) or Canyon.

one where the fr mech & seatpost are of the right size.

Can we have an idea of the spec you would class as decent?

have you priced up your ideal spec of parts buying them individually?

i reckon if you used rose bikes you would get fairly close if not a fair bit cheaper than buying a full bike to split …

YT Industries bikes.

Can we have an idea of the spec you would class as decent?

Well, I currently have a mixed X9/XT/SLX drivetrain, 717/Hope XC wheels and some 2007(?) RS Revs. I’d want the same ‘level’ of stuff again, but not too hung up on brands.

have you priced up your ideal spec of parts buying them individually?

Admittedly, no. This is kind of an early morning idle thought distracting myself from starting work kinda thing…

yt industries, its cheaper than buying all the bits and then gettign a great frame for free..

I have contemplated this too. Where would you stand with warranties on the parts if they have been removed and fitted to a different bike?

I ask this because despite many examples of great understanding on the part of many bike companies, the wording of many bikey warranties are so tightly worded that it looks like you need to take the bike back to an authorised dealer just to move/remove a headset spacer, never mind build a whole new bike with the parts.

definitely yt industries, no question

I’m guessing the real question is

“If you were abusing a Cycle to work scheme which bike would you get in order to canibalise for parts to build up your new cotic (or whatever) frame?”

I’d probably just opt for whichever Boardman fell in the right price bracket. Its the Quick, easy, lazy option which seems to be what you are after here… Right?

Rose bikes are very competative for parts.
A quick look on there site suggeests you could get a full SLX drive train with XT casette for £225 ish

From Merlin you could get
Rock Shox Rev RLT’s £335 ish
Hope hoops for £260 ish

So that is about £820 ish for parts with the wheels being a bit of an extravagent choice.

The Canyons are worth a look, but they tend to be lightweight XC builds.

Such as this.

Something from Paul’s Cycles?

I’m guessing the real question is

“If you were abusing a Cycle to work scheme which bike would you get in order to canibalise for parts to build up your new cotic (or whatever) frame?”

Nope, no cycle to work scheme involvement.

Who stocks YT industries? A quick Google finds the bikes, but no sellers.

I think I might be going down the Rose Bikes separates routes however.

done this a few times and I’ve had most success in terms of getting money back by buying the cheapest option (lowest spec) for the frame i wanted. The philosophy being

1/ that you always have to mark down your parts by a certain % below CRC / merlin, but 10% lower on a £120 set of brakes is £12, on a £200 set is £20.

2/ at the more budget end of the full bike offering i think pricing is that bit more competitive, because there are more people interested in bikes at around the £1000-£1500 level say than the £2500 level – hence the bike cos. have to compete harder. If you are a genuine enthusiast with £2500-£3000 to spend, chances are you want the ‘Giant’ and just because the parts spec on the ‘Trek’ is slightly better you aren’t going to be as swayed as at the lower price level. Also i guess ‘Giant’ have better pricing for the bigger volumes groupsets of SLX and X7 than XTR and X.0 hence at that level you’re getting your groupset already that bit cheaper than at the higher end.

Where you differ though, of course is where you say some of your kit is getting ‘long in the tooth’ – that said nothing wrong with slapping eg: a deore front mech on for now and then upgrading later. Or use the money you save to upgrade individually anyway. depends how much has to be changed.

best I managed was a Trance from paul’s cycles – effectively swapped out a Sugar onto a brand new frame for a little over £250 out of pocket cost.

If you are going to be looking at the canyon bike then don’t forget to have a look in there outlet section, at the end of the day i’m gonna guess you will not be too fussed on the size of the frame you buy so this could save you a few hundred euros.

A mate did this a few years ago by buying a top-end Decathlon XC bike with full XTR. Transferred all the XTR to his own bike, sold the frame and it came it way cheaper than buying new XTR.

Boardman, Cube and Canyon all seem to be excellent value for money.

Oh and buy a Medium frame, it’ll be the easiest one to sell on.

have a look at last years bargins at paulscycles too.

I’d also recommend YT Industries, by far the best value complete bikes at the moment. IHN – they’re web only direct sales from Germany.

Who stocks YT industries?

they are one of those German direct sales companies aren’t they?

[edit] yes

Are they? The ones I looked at appeared worse value than Canyon, who would get my vote.

YT only do jump bikes or full sus, so I don’t think they’d be viable.

That YT 160 limited with all the BOS kit on it and the Crossmax wheels.

It’s a similar spec to my spicy and when I see it I cry a bit because it’s so cheap.

cookeaa – Member
I’m guessing the real question is

“If you were abusing a Cycle to work scheme which bike would you get in order to canibalise for parts to build up your new cotic (or whatever) frame?”

**** me there’s food for thought! 😀

Would of thought Canyon, YT, Rose or some bargains from last years (Pauls, etc). Otherwise I would just hunt around and build up my own spec.