Maufacturers frames

Justinjured

Dont know if this is a silly question or not, but do manufacturers ever sell just their frames as a single item?
The oldest bit on my bike now is the frame, and it doesnt make sense to buy new bike just to update the frame!

RealMan

Yes, all the time. What sort of frame do you want? Hardtail? Full sus? What fork do you have, what size wheels? Different frames take different size seatpost, so you may need to buy a new seatpost as well.

Northwind

Not all, mind. And sometimes the price for the frame alone makes no sense when you can get a full build for a few hundred more (Giant in particular)

The Spiderman

Giant do a frame only option of most of their models as do,Kona.
Trek and Specialized only seem to offer their high end stuff as frame only.

Frame only options tends to be more of a speciality of the more niche/UK brands such as On One,Orange,Charge,Genesis,Kinesis ,etc.

Northwind

The Spiderman wrote:

Giant do a frame only option of most of their models.

Yup, but like I say, the prices are daft. £1000 for a 2010 Anthem X frame vs £1400 for an X4 complete built.

njee20

Actually Specialized have all bit given up on frames, and Trek only have a couple now, it's just not a cost effective way to buy a bike any more, and with increasing levels of integration with forks/chainsets etc it's easier to only sell complete bikes.

Where are my stabilisers?

There are some cheap frames on Chain reaction website at the moment

Airienteer

One of the only 'bigger' brands I know who do frames of all their models is Commencal, if you class them as a 'big' brand. Your best bet for a wide selection as previously said is a British make like Orange or On One.

njee20

I'd have thought Orange probably sell as many bikes worldwide (certainly in the UK) as Commencal!

Giant sell a full range of frames, as do Scott, both are disproportionately expensive though!

Matt N

If your looking for a frame only, i'd get it from a smaller company like cotic, curtis (jump bikes), rock lobster or just orange

The Spiderman

Northwind wrote:

The Spiderman wrote:

Giant do a frame only option of most of their models.

Yup, but like I say, the prices are daft. £1000 for a 2010 Anthem X frame vs £1400 for an X4 complete built.

Pauls cycles actually have a 2009 Anthem X3 for £825 at the moment.£175 cheaper than the 2010 frame only deal!

Sell off the spare bits and you get the frame for almost half price.

Only difference is the colour and the fact that the frame only option comes with an RP23.

loltoride

Most do but mainly the higher specced models in most cases you will find it cheaper to buy built bike and upgrade parts from there.

P-Jay

Some of the best frames come 'frame only' IBIS, Santa Cruz, Cove, Intense etc, but most offer 'build kits' now which is kinda like a off-the-self bike, only you get a lot more choice and price range.

Building a bike from sratch from new bits is rarely cheeper than a complete bike, but it's not a far a gap as you might first thing.

Most complete bikes have a weak point that'll fail early doors, and most will have something on it that the end user won't like and will upgrade early on - all adds up.

Plus if you buy all your bits from the same LBS and have them build it they'll usuall give a decent discount.

When I had my shocker built it came in at way over £5500 at RRP, but the shop built it for just over £4000, insane money I know, but it was, spec considered, in the ball-park of complete DH bikes. This was before the world went mental and prices jumped 30% though.

Northwind

The Spiderman wrote:

Pauls cycles actually have a 2009 Anthem X3 for £825 at the moment.£175 cheaper than the 2010 frame only deal!

Yup. Thought it was fairer to compare 2010 models even though there's no real difference