Build vs. Buy?

Donimo

I think I can put together a nice winter bike with

Compact 7005 frame with carbon forks
Full Tiagra groupset
Campagnolo Khamsin wheels
various other inexpensive finishing bits

for about £500. I can't find anything close to this spec from mainstream manufacturers. Any suggestions for better/cheaper parts? Any suggestions for a full bike at this pricepoint?

Thanks,
Donimo

STEFANOS4784

2nd hand, plenty of bikes hardly ridden for that kind of cash/spec or better.........

Unless you are confident in building, might be satisfying, personally i'm as useful as a fart in a space suit and got very frustrated just trying to change groupset on my 'dale......

inseine

Ribble? Thye're about £560 I think with Tiagra.

Slow Downcp

+1 for the Ribble, comes complete with mudguards for £550 with Campag Mirage/Xenon.

Donimo

Thanks for the tips so far. Yes, I am comfortable doing the assembly myself. I saw the Ribble winter/audax for £570, but unfortunately, I'm in ireland and they want £126.50 for delivery.... Wiggle & CRC have some nice bikes with free delivery but nothing like this quality for this price point. Bikes at retail shops here in Ireland are outrageously priced by comparison.

The frame I'm thinking of is actually the Ribble winter frame with sloping top tube for £104 (+£15 del.) including carbon forks. A bargain methinks!

Donimo

GyatsoLa

Its rare that you can put a bike together for less than a full bike retail, but if you've priced it up, I guess its possible.

But since you are in Dublin, don't forget that the tax 'cycle to work' scheme is still in operation here. If you are in employment and your employer is willing, you can get a bike for effectively half price.

Slow Downcp

GyatsoLa wrote:

Its rare that you can put a bike together for less than a full bike retail, but if you've priced it up, I guess its possible.

I think that's a bit of a myth - I saved around £500 building up my Enigma, compared to off the peg. I did buy a Bianchi Via Nirone for £900, only later did I price up the relevent parts (like for like) and it came to well under £800 - many off the peg bikes compromise on wheels, saddles, and tyres so you upgrade quite soon after buying.

You do get one's like Ribble, Decathlon etc but on the whole I'll always self build

top_bhoy

Slow Downcp wrote:

GyatsoLa wrote:

Its rare that you can put a bike together for less than a full bike retail, but if you've priced it up, I guess its possible.

I think that's a bit of a myth - I saved around £500 building up my Enigma, compared to off the peg. I did buy a Bianchi Via Nirone for £900, only later did I price up the relevent parts (like for like) and it came to well under £800 - many off the peg bikes compromise on wheels, saddles, and tyres so you upgrade quite soon after buying.

You do get one's like Ribble, Decathlon etc but on the whole I'll always self build

Sourcing your own parts and building your own bike probably won't cost less overall (don't forget to include tools, postage, etc) but you should end up with a better specced bike with the components tailored to suit the rider.

In general I believe cost depends on the timescales and whether you collect the parts over several months and get them on 'special offer' or buy at standard cost. There are large cost differences between a 2009 and 2010 model.

Droops

Maybe pricing is similar, but the satisfaction of KNOWING every single component is exactly correct, greased, torqued, carressed & blessed is extremely satisfying (as most of us seem to suffer OCD to some degree when it comes to our bikes!).

inseine

It seems that entry level bikes are pretty good value but the same frames with better kit get really dear. I bought a Giant TCR advanced in July and now I've changed everything 'cept for the saddle and seat pin. Worked out cheaper than buying the better spec'd bike and I've got viirtually a spare bikes worth of gear for a winter bike!

top_bhoy

inseine wrote:

It seems that entry level bikes are pretty good value but the same frames with better kit get really dear. I bought a Giant TCR advanced in July and now I've changed everything 'cept for the saddle and seat pin. Worked out cheaper than buying the better spec'd bike and I've got viirtually a spare bikes worth of gear for a winter bike!

mmmm...Apologies for my scepticism but I'd need to see a complete list of what has been changed to think this is possible. I can't imagine buying a cheap bike and upgrading an entire groupset, wheels, stem, bars, works out cheaper than buying the better bike in the first place. This is also assuming that the frame is exactly the same between the cheap and higher end model - which in many cases, it isn't.

inseine

Don't blame you top_bhoy, but it goeas something like this;

TCR advanced 3 (105 groupset) £1650 (+ I got £100 off)
SRAM Force group £600
Dura ace cl24 wheels £500
Ritchey (white ) bars stem £120
Tyres tubes (pro3race) £50
Total £2920

TCR Advanced 2010 £3250 SRAM Force + Mavic Ksyrium SL

I wanted The DA wheels and you couldn't get Force 2010 when I got mine. Also the small size comes with the wrong size bars/ stem for me so i'd need to change. Granted I've got an Ali steerer on my forks , not the full carbon, but I've got an extra groupset....

carl_p

The most difficult thing I found about building a bike was getting the outer cables right in terms of length to get a smooth gear change. To look good they need to be perfectly symetrical on both sides of the bike as does the bar tape. You might find factory bikes are much better in this respect, but not so much an issue on a winter bike I suppose? I actually found it difficult to source really nice outer cables at a reasonable price.

spanielsson

Donimo wrote:

I think I can put together a nice winter bike with

Campagnolo Khamsin wheels

Any suggestions for better/cheaper parts?

Don't buy Khamsins!! I think if you are going Shimano (you listed Tiagra) go for a pair of WH - R550's instead, they have cup and cone bearing's as opposed to sealed bearings but work much better.

I've had both wheelsets in the last few years and would suggest you stay away from Khamsins due to the poor bearing quality, weight and a poor ride feel.