Just a Thought.

I Don\'t Get It

Following the tyre rant, it would be informative ( and gob smacking) if somebody with the time and patience could work out the cost of building a typical mid range full suss bike entirely from full price shop bought spares. Do you suppose it would break the ten grand barrier?

john74

if you dont like spending money. mtbing is not for you.
buy a pair of speedos and take up swimming job done..

nicklouse

10K easy
take the Merida O.nine XX 7K€ off the shelf.

llamafarmer

I'm sure there's a horde of eager volunteers already busy on this exciting challenge as we speak! :roll:

jairaj

no way with that kinda budget you might have to go 2nd hand or stick to a hardtail

RichMTB

Based on a Santa Cruz Heckler frame and XT drive train and using the srp's listed on wiggle

Frame £1150
Fork RS Rev 426 £670
Wheels: Hope Hoops (SP2 5.1d) £290
Brakes Avid Juicy 5 £230
Cranks: Shimano XT £200
Mechs F&R XT £44 + £75
Cassette £75
Shifters XT £100
Headset FSA £30
Stem Race Face ride £25
Handle Barb Race Face Evolve £40
Seatpost Race Face Evolve £50
Saddle SDG £35
Tyres Conti Mountain King £44
And lets say another £50 for odds and sods

=£3180 !!!

I Don\'t Get It

Sorry. Didin't make clear. Meant every single seperate nut washer etc and not complete components. Realise though that you won't be able to buy them seperately. e.g. all the seperate parts of a tele fork. But isn't that the point? I'm lucky and have a lathe so I can reprofile cassete cog teeth when I replace a chain, rather than just binning and buying new. (In practice I can do this twice before there isn't enough metal left.)

The serious point is that we are conditioned to throw things away rather than rework them. This may suit young hot-shots who eat sleep and live for cycling, but others have mortgages, electricity bills etc. etc. to feed. We HAVE to make do wherever possible.

P.S. Sun trying to break and dry and just off to Dales for good ride.

cougie

Struggling to see the point in this ? Yes its going to be far more expensive than buying a full bike. Stands to reason ?

bails87

This is a wierd topic! Bike companies exist because they're better at making bikes, and can do it cheaper, than you or me.

Just like the bike companies buy aluminium from aluminium producers, because they're not very good at mining!

You don't drill into the ground to drill and refine your own oil to make petrol, you buy it. And the time you save by doing that, you spend doing something that you're good at, building houses, selling cars, mending computers etc.

The person paying you to build his house, provide him with a car or mend his computer is very good at being a doctor, so that's what he does, rather than giving up his (valuable) time to do something he can pay someone else to do, while he goes off and earns more money than he'd save by doing the job himself. Just like you do, just like the bike company does, just like the aluminium miners do, etc etc.

It's an economy.....

:?

bannedbiker

I Don\'t Get It wrote:

I'm lucky and have a lathe so I can reprofile cassete cog teeth when I replace a chain, rather than just binning and buying new. (In practice I can do this twice before there isn't enough metal left.)

The serious point is that we are conditioned to throw things away rather than rework them. This may suit young hot-shots who eat sleep and live for cycling, but others have mortgages, electricity bills etc. etc. to feed. We HAVE to make do wherever possible.

You could afford to buy a lathe, but not to replace a cassette?! You have got some serrious ecconomy issues dude!!

Briggo

Yup, I dont get it.

cat_with_no_tail

Lame Troll is Lame

lawman

dude you crazy altho the thought of building my own FS frame does seem rather interesting completely bonkers of course, i have no idea how leverage ratios work, or how to TIG weld etc

RichMTB

Maybe welding a frame isn't going far enough,

If you look at how much bauxite, crude oil and iron ore cost, surely you could make a bike for a few quid

GHill

RichMTB wrote:

If you look at how much bauxite, crude oil and iron ore cost, surely you could make a bike for a few quid

Even better, ammonia and propylene are pretty readily available. A little bit of catalyst and you have acrylonitrile. Polymerise into fibres and get weaving

26 to Life

Don't forget to include the cost of the food for the digger driver.

I Don\'t Get It

Obviously I was togue in cheek - and the lathe was bought 20 years ago from a closing down factory, for £50!

It was a silly way of trying to make a point. The cassette for instance. As far as I know seperate cogs are not available. Assuming a new one costs say £60, and only some of the cogs are worn enough to make the chain jump, why should all the other components ( spacers, bolts, screw in ring, and unworn cogs) be junked? If seperate cogs were sold at a fair price (say one tenth of the cassette total for a 9 speeder) you may only need to replace 5 @ £30 which is half the cost of the full cassette. (But then the manufacturers would probably price them higher to deter us.)

It isn't just about cost, it's about waste of perfectly serviceable parts. It goes against the grain - a sign of age, I suppose.

stevet1992

Im on to you Colintrav ... Its no use changing your name :twisted:

delcol

being westoners aint we supposed to be a waste nation...

if it's worn bin it and replace it,,,

strang topic :? :?

I Don\'t Get It

Sorry, I'm out of place here. (Retired but by no means dead, and still a keen cyclist.) Clearly there's a generation gap thing and different mindset nowadays. Nobody's fault, just a fact of life, so I'll bow out. Good riding everybody, and keep the faith.

Mancunianfightingcat

I hear you!

I've got a worn out XTR cassette in a draw in the garage, there's 2 worn cogs on it and 7 perfectly good ones, plus all the bits in between! £109.95 for a new discounted one (RRP is £165!!!)

Chaz.Harding

I Don't Get It

I understand where you are coming from. I like to invent ways of bodging stuff back together if it's possible, and it works as well / better than factory. If not, then I need a new one.

I don't like the ''Use once and throw away'' idealogy - 'frinstance - car (or any motor vehicle alternators) if the diodes in the regulator are burnt out, then we (the British Army) replace the whole thing... However, it's REALLY cheap to just dismantle the plastic case, and replace the burnt out ones - assuming it's not properly fried... I takes about 60 seconds to check, so it's not a laborious process.

Anyhow, yeah, I like to refresh old stuff so that it works. But theres no way I'd consider making a WHOLE bike, from washers and ball-bearings... But if my forks were buggered, and needed a spacer (or something similar) I wouldn't think twice about machining a replacement where possible. The trial and error process is half the fun!