as opposed to building/speccing their own parts? Out of the mates i go riding with i’m the only one whos built their own bike, everyone else has bought theirs new off the peg. I wonder how many people off here do the same? i would have thought there are a fair few off here who start off with a frame and build it up. It struck me that people who build are getting a far better deal. Two of my mates have full carbon FS’s and they’re always complaining about spongy brakes/non-qr seat clamps/poor finishing kit/failed shocks, but then again they each paid over 2 grand so they expect everything to be perfect. Also the thought occured to me that my bike is probably unique there’s nobody else with the same bike. which is ace! also i have a lot fewer mechanical problems and the bike’s set up just the way i like it. I wonder what the satisfaction ratio is of people who buy off the peg compared to people who build their own?

I’ve bought three bikes off the peg, Gary Fisher Big Sur, Orange 5 and On One Pompino, built up a singlespeed out of bits and now building up an On One 456.

unless you’re just starting out, are looking for a step change in the quality of your bike or want an alternative type of bike there’s no need

the last off the peg I bought was my commuter which was a replacement for a stolen bike

I also tend to buy 2nd hand frames, forks and wheels but buy everything else new

off the peg bikes don’t feel right to me – you don’t get to seem them grow, to mould them, to create them

66%

21.22316%

I only buy off the peg for bike to work where I have to (well, pretty much have to)

Think you are kidding yourself if you reckon you get better value building yourself – unless you buy second hand/extremely carefully in sales etc.

Most decent forks cost about half as much as I paid for my whole bike.

And what does a failed shock have to do with self-building or not?

I can see you get more satisfaction from building yourself though, and I have changed a few minor bits on mine to get it just how I want it.

depends, both my hardtails are self builds, its cheeper, becasue if you know what you want first time round then theres no upgrades/changes to make. And the whole unique thing is nice, no one rides quite like (longer than is fasionable stem on a “hardcore” bike, super fast forks) me so why should we ride the same bike?

but i’m looking at full sussers, and a £750 frame is only £1100 built up, as someone said, you can’t get forks for the difference in price!

I’ve had custom build for ages now mainly because I can have the bits I want and not have to waste money changing stuff.

But I’ve just bough an off the peg Pitch and apart from fitting a bash ring and some lock-ons it’ll be staying standard. Yeah, sure there’s bit I could change, but it wouldn’t make much difference, so I won’t. Not until they wear out, at least

What bash ring did you get – do you have a double and bash or just a bash on the outside of the big ring?

Buy mine off the peg and change any cr&p parts when they break/annoy me

I’m buying a stock bike this year, and I’m in the trade. With the way parts prices are going it’s now cheaper to buy stock, sell on the guff parts you don’t want and upgrade as nessecary.

I worked out I’ll be saving over £250 that way and I pay trade prices.

if you can take advantage of the economies of scale that the big bike companies utilise then OTP offers vastly better value for money.

you cannot really compare a brand new OTP with a collection of 2nd hand parts, and building a bike from new parts is very expensive.

1xOTP – seriously altered in the last 4 years
1xself build

Grumm – A Truvative one because it’s black with bronze stripes and matches the bike. I’ve removed the outer ring and fitted a 36t middle to keep the big gears!
I worked out that you really only loose the top gear (44/11) from the outer of a 3 ring set-up and the bottom gear (32/34) from the middle ring by fitting a 36t, which should be prefik. (Not ridden yet though)
🙂

Ive never bought a whole bike, I bought my first frame when bikes with decent spec were mentally priced and couldnt be had in sufficient variation. From then I’ve only ever upgraded parts/frames as and when needed. My other half bought a £780 bike (dawes team edge) for £400 as it was old stock, came with decent forks, frame is fairly nice and not too heavy (by normal standards) and it had a decent groupset – couldnt have got the parts for less than 550 at the time.

The last whole bike I built was about 9 years ago and I started changing bits within a couple of months. My two bikes are self builds with a collection of SH and new parts as I cant afford to buy new.

If I had 3k sitting around I would buy a brand new Orange Blood AM whole build.

The past 6 bikes ive had ive built myself, not bought one off the peg since 2003 i think.

Only 2 of my current 7 bikes were bought new; one was frame only, the other was complete bike. All the others are 2nd hand although, of them, 2 were bought as complete bikes. So, that makes it about 14% off the peg but about 43% bought as complete bikes.

All of them have been tweaked to suit me and my idiosyncrasies though 😉

I’ve done it both ways more than once.

I like the feeling of riding a bike I’ve specced to my exact needs, but I always feel a bit cheated that I could have got more bike for less money and way less hassle had I been happy to settle for an off-the-pegger.

Last off the peg was an ’01 Spesh, and I wouldn’t go down that route ever again. Every possible corner is cut to meet a price point.
Buying a used (ie. under used) frame and finishing kit with a new fork, drive train and brakes will get you a MUCH better bike IME.

It been a complete mix for me. As it happens all but one my road bikes were “custom” built from a stock frame and I would expect this to be the case in the future. But my history with MTBs is that most have been bought off the peg or at least to start with and then bits changed.

Cheers Peterpoddy – sorry bit clueless -would I need to buy a bash guard in whatever size middle ring I am going to have? Which 36t ring did you go for?

grumm, i’m running a mix of well chosen new and second hand parts, with a second hand frame. new cranks, cassette, second hand XTR rear mech, new bars and stem, etc etc. it’s cost considerably less that OTP, more than a thousand pounds less, and probably about 1.5 grand less than all the parts bought at RRP. i was lucky with the deal on the frame and forks though.

as for the failed shock, it just seems silly that my mate paid 2k+ for his bike and the shock broke after a couple of months when i paid under half that for my bike built from a second hand frame and shock and it’s been fine. My mate dosen’t even know how to change his own gear cables – he takes it to the bike shop and they charge him 40 quid every time.

petrpoddy i’m running a 36 and bash, grumm yes you’ll need a 36t bashguard for a 36t chainring. CRC do a steel Deore one for 8 quid but they were out of stock last time i looked. If you don’t mind spending a bit more try the Middleburn hardcote ones for about 25

you cannot really compare a brand new OTP with a collection of 2nd hand parts

it depends where you get them from soobalias. STWers quite often sell some very nice kit in pristine condition, sometimes for half the rrp. If you know a thing or two about bike bits/compatability etc and you have a few tools, STW is a bike fettler’s wet dream

I usually buy off the peg (heavily discounted), sell the bits and replace with my own.

Or sell the frame and use the bits on another frame (if bike to work).

It’s become part of the fun now, and it’s great to have a bike just how you want it from the start.

Spec up the build normally, only bought one bike off the shelf and that was my Demo which was never intended as a keeper, just something to use over Xmas then sell on, it was cheap enough not to have to take a hit on it.

Of course Xmas is long gone and i still have it with a multitude of new parts on it. Doh.

My first bike was a “custom” off the peg from merlin. Since then for the alst 5 years I’ve just replaced whatever broke. I built my commuter up from second hand and cheap bits (more for the fun of it than the cost) and my road bike was off the peg but will be like my mountain bike if bits need replacing.

I’ll probably build all my bikes from now on unless I see a real bargain OTP. It’s fun and I enjoy riding something I built myself.

how much did you pay for your demo SQ? is it heavy?

chapking that very cheeky what you do with the bike to work thing

Ive bought a few bikes and only my most recent is my own custom build

Ive had a Kona scab which was factory, then i added disks and suspension

Kona coiler again factory spec then i stuck some Mono m4s on it

07 Stumpy FSR was again factory then i specced it up planning for a custom build on a new frame in future

Then i bought a heckler frame off here, bought some new pikes and a few other new bits, stripped the stumpy and put a few nessecary parts on the heckler plus the new bits. After i’d build it it gave me a lovely feeling 😆 and i’m keeping it

jonb i’m with you on the building my own thing, although as peterpoddy and a few others on here have noticed there are some great deals now on bikes like the Pitch. It’s easy enough to get a half price set of bars/stem /seatpost/saddle on here too if the finishing kit dosen’t grab you.

rich-6 i too got my heckler frame off here and i love it to bits. I always get comments on how nice it looks and it’s great to be able to tell them i built it myself. respect!

Building a bike is much more fun than off the peg. Surfing all the different stores for the best deals on components, buying and flogging some of the bits on eBay and this is a great place for frames. You get exactly the spec. you want and you can perfectly tailor the bike for your intended use. The problem is when you have done a few bikes, you can’t wait to do another. Can be cheaper if you are careful. The headache is compatibility with the array of different standards.

The problem is when you have done a few bikes, you can’t wait to do another

tell me about it, i’ve just broken one down and sold it due to under-use and i’m looking at I_Ache’s Blur 4X thread and thinking mmmmmmmmmmmm…….

I dread to think what i’d be capable of if i actually had money

Cheers bomberman

what Ziggy said except for the buying at trade bit! 😆

1st = Off the peg (spesh hard-rock)
2nd = Off the peg (merlin rock-lobster 853)
3rd = Custom (on-one)
4th = Off the peg (merlin malt-4)

I enjoyed building my 3rd bike, but after it got nicked I couldn’t be **** to build one up again. I just wanted to get riding as soon as possible. Off the peg was also way cheaper for me (by like £400).

The only OTP one I’ve had was my Condor Pista, which I got through bike to work. The rest (10 of ’em over the last 15 years) have all been customs in one form or another.

Of current bikes,
HT MTB – new frame, mix of new & s/h parts
FS MTB – new, shiny, complete and cheaper than sum of parts
Nice road bike – new frame, all new parts but built by me
Tatty road bike – s/h frame, various s/h parts, paint by Hammerite.

Panicking slightly about the FS cos if it breaks there’s all sorts of bits on it that are new to me, pivots, hydraulics etc. Have to work it out I guess.

Bought my Enduro 2nd hand but it was a stock spec. I’ve since spent a fair bit building it up to my spec (drivetrain, forks, bar/stem etc).

Any useable parts coming off it have been inherited by my second bike.

Off the Peg 06 Orange 5 Hope pro for me, Wanted a Heckler but My spec put it way out of my budget.

Haven’t had an off-the-peg bike since I was about 13. 25 years of mis-matched frankenbikes for me.