Cheaper to build your own?

zedders

I have just ordered a Ribble for £1650. (Light carbon frame, decent wheels, centaur groupset etc).
If I was to have brought a Wilier Izoard, or Scott R4 or something similar with the similar/same spec it would have cost around £2000. (I have recently done lots of looking around).
I might be worth considering somewhere like Ribble or Planet X, as then you can do what I've done - Get someone else to build it to your requirements. Also it will be competetively priced?
Zedders

cougie

Bizarre conversations today.

All the reviews I've seen of the Boardman are very good - so either its a conspiracy with all of the magazines and riders, or it doesnt matter a jot what frame you bung on there. So why bother with the Colnagos and Cervelos of this world ?

(actually I suspect there may be a grain of truth in there - law of diminishing returns etc)

In the olden days I always used to build bikes up from scratch. Custom steel frame and add exactly the bits that I wanted. Nowadays groupsets are so good that I cant really see why you'd bother chopping and changing away from them.

My next bike will be an off the peg one - I'm really not as fussy about specs as I used to be - the important thing is not the bike - but the experience - get out and ride rather than agonising over this pedal being x grams lighter than the other.

Slow1972

Good points Cougie, still easier and cheaper to lose 30 grams off your gut than off your pedals too.

Everyone seems to have also ignored that the OP seems to be new to road biking - so is he going to know enough about this component and that component to spec his own bike anyway? From my own experience you don't know what you like and what you don't like until you've ridden a few different bikes and tried different kit. Even then, depending on how / how much / where and what you ride some people will notice the difference in components more than others. I think even your level of fitness / weight will affect how much you notice differences between bikes compared to other people.

Seems to me that the Boardman does offer good value for money and it also appears that they have (sensibly) mixed and matched the components to save money where its not as noticeable rather than speccing a full gruppo.

As for LBSs and build your own - think that depends where you shop and what you want. The one I use will buy in the frameset and build to spec instead of just getting in the OTS built bike if that's what you want (and the frameset is available that way). Apart from the one off giveaway / promotional deals, my LBS usually beats or equals on line prices. Most of the time it just involves opening the hole in your head and asking. Plus for me going in the shop now and again, having a chat and looking over a few bikes / kit for half an hour before finally buying / ordering my stuff is way more enjoyable than spending an hour in front of the computer trawling the internet to save a few quid.

I know one thing though, buy the Boardman (or another OTS bike) and start riding it - will be more fun than internet shopping unless of course being a techie bike geek is the bit about cycling that you like the most. Personally, I like riding my bike out in the fresh air more than I do working on it or buying bits for it.