The low-cost 26in bargain photo thread

For those of us who’ve snapped up our little-wheeled bikes since the bottom dropped out of the market.

Built this up with bits I already had, but the frame was cheaper than the one I sold so it actually made me about £150 if memory serves…

Reach is a very modern 460mm, low bb, short chainstays, slack HA – only downside is that it weighs half a ton.

NOS carbon frame cost e200
Wheels were e200
A fast and light bike perfect for the riding I like to do.

Bought an xs Hardrock frame on fleabay this morning for £21 , looking round my shed at parts this afternoon I’m going to have to buy a 10sp cassette and chain. So for circa £70 my 11 year old lad will be getting an upgrade from his Trek MT220.

Pics to follow when it’s built(about 2 hours after the frame arrives)

Is it acceptable to subtly offer 26″ bargain frames in this thread? 😀

oh yes please post

Ti456 at a bargain price is keeping me in 26ers.
At least for gears that is.

@big yes, and any other bits

I have a pal in Sheffield in need of bargain bike…under £200. What you got….

I want a quality, slack, small frame with about 160mm of travel and a good shock.

Just mentioning in passing.

The classifieds is over there…

😉

OK, maybe 26 really is dead then.

Reach is a very modern 460mm, low bb, short chainstays, slack HA – only downside is that it weighs half a ton.

See my old vs new thread. My 2007 26er seems to have quite ‘modern’ geometry too

£80 quid for the piglet 2 frame , built up with spare parts except the brakes. Love it on the pump track and it is also my turbo trainer mule (hence the double).

Fun on some local man made trails (I.e smooth) but horrible when it gets roots and bumpy!

As mentioned above, I got everything together for my eldest sons first 26er.
Spesh Hardrock xs frame £21.
Crank Bros seatpost £17.49.
KMC chain £17.49.
XT gear cable set £12.49.
Everything else I had as spare bits.
Reba Forks , Bars and stem from my Boardman, Hope MK1 headset ,10 speed X7 shifters + rear mech , FSA Comet double cranks , DT Swiss M1800 rims on Chris King universal hubs , Avid DB3 brakes , Conti Trail King tyres(will be replaced with something narrower and lighter) and WTB Vigo saddle.
The little guy is made up with it and to tell the truth so am I.

Nice bike, Carlos. How tall is your lad out of interest?

11 years old and about 140cm but on a bit of a growth spurt at the moment. The saddle is set at 29″ ( sorry for mixed measurements but I work in old money and mrscarlos works in new and she measured him the other week)

Cool, my son’s the same height but only 8 (well, next week) and he’s starting to look big on his 24″ bike so I had been thinking about looking at a 26.

Does the find the front OK? Looks pretty high in relation to the saddle.

He’s only been up and down the road on it and says its fine , I set the forks at 115mm when I first got them(’05 stantions/internals ’10 lowers) and may yet pull them apart to lower the travel to 80/100mm.

140cm at 8 years old 😯 your boy must be head and shoulders above his classmates.

He certainly gets noticed though these days I don’t think it’s that uncommon

My 7 year old daughter is 140 cm, currently riding a 24inch hoy bonaly but will soon make her a bike from the spares bin.

Picked up a medium Cannondale prophet frame with a crack on the BB weld for £62 on ebay.

Arrived yesterday, stripped it down and dropped it off to get chemically dipped. Picked it up this afternoon and headed round to a mates to get the crack welded and build it up.

Installed some offset bushings and transferred everything over from my hardtail.

66deg HA, 12.5″ BB, only ridden round the street but it feels like a lot of fun.

Still needs a little bit of tweeking, chain needs shortened and i’ll probably service the shock. Feels good to have a full sus again.

£200 for a virtually unused frame with the xt cranks, chain ring, chain & headset. rear wheel was quite pricey but the front was a bargin (free rim from a very nice forumite and £17 for a gold pro 2 hub from another, the rest was knocking around the house). love it. Also picked up some really really cheap racing ralphs from on-one too 🙂

I built this Maverick Durance a couple of years ago I think it cost me 300GBP as most parts came from an older bike.

Not bought 2nd hand, but at £1,600 brand new, it’s a bargain. It’s by far the most reliable bike I’ve ever owned, despite being the one that probably sees the most abuse. I hanker for a Tues or the new Sender “when this dies” but based on past reliability, the bike will be going for a long, long time. Yet to notice the lack of “big” wheels, and the trail still feels alive…

£200 eBay purchase last weekend, it’s in very good shape. Came with some carbon forks too which I’m trying to punt back onto eBay for £50 and offset some of the cost.

Replaces my 29″ 120mm Full Sus, so it feels like quite a change of scene.

Could do with a fatter tyre up front & possibly a bigger freewheel.

Bloody strava – here’s a tiny picture of Phil, he owes me about a grand.

Frame was £325 new, swapped all the bits from my carbon 456 and sold that on.

Since added bargain 150mm Sektors, Offset bushes and -2 degree Works slackset, all combined to give roughly 64 degree head angle static. recently put a 35mm stem on it…. it’s my larking about on bike, and it’s brilliant fun!

Genesis Grapil

PS, both the Cannondale & the Canyon above look stonking – great work bringing the ‘Dale back from the brink!

Now this thread is getting somewhere!

Love the Prophet. Want to see a pic of the Grapil (not showing for me, hosted in a private gallery?)

🙂

My Ragley Blue Pig, frame cost me £70 and I had most of the bits to hang of it already. Upgraded to Zee 1×10, CK headset (second hand off here) and it had some new tyres and grips since!

My Commencal Meta AM. My mates old bike bought it off him when he bought a Canyon Strive. Paid £350 for the bike, inc Lyriks, XT rear mech, saint shifter hope pro II’s with Mavic/DT rims, Truvativ cranks with hope N/W, Nukeproof bars and Formula R1 brakes. I’ve since added a reverb, XT cranks and RSP EGO DH Carbon bars and a Hans Dampf front tyre. Freakin love it!

Arse, google picasa has changed their ability to direct link. Will re-host.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha VICTORY IS MINE!!!

IMG_20160606_181016 by Ceep[/url], on Flickr

SNAP!

Bloody hell Chakaping DON’T SAY THAT NEAR A GRAPIL!

Just thought I’d add this to show off my new bars!!

Are 26er bars cheaper now too?????

Not a hugely massive bargain as such, but I bought a small Sunn Charger 170mm frame with shock earlier this year for £250-

which I built up with stuff I had kicking about and is my new steamroller local DH race bike. I also realised, after a bit of nerdy geekery with a CAD program, that I can shorten the travel on the forks and shock to get it to around 140mm at the front and 125mm at the back and it’s not a kick in the backside off a short springy 4X sort of frame which is ace for chumping around the woods on- two bikes in one (sort of)! 😀

In other bargain 26″ news I got a Commencal Absolut frame for £20 off ebay.

Bloody hell Chakaping DON’T SAY THAT NEAR A GRAPIL!

😆