First road bike put together on a serious budget ! - UPDATED

mr_sj

starting riding an old mountain bike after a running injury and got hooked, ridiculous bike envy from watching guys fly past me on their road bikes and i just had to get one ! so this is it, this is my orbea.

it was bought from ebay 2nd hand and needed a fair bit of work to get it going, its been a very steep learning curve fixing and putting it together and ive watched every youtube video and read everything i can, even gone so far as fabricating my own tools for gods sake !

in total it has cost me £300 to get to this stage. the bars, bar tape, seatpost, saddle, brake calipers, wheel set, tyres, inner tubes, headset, some cables and forks are all brand new and the rest is what came on the bike. everything has been bought from forums, ebay and negotiations with a few local shops !

i know its not the greatest bike out there but i absolutely love it

mr_sj

frame - orbea (not sure of model !)
brakes - tektro r350
headset - cane creek s2
seat post - fsa carbon pro
saddle - selle italia xo flow
bars - bontrager select
stem - itm alu 6061
wheelset - pro lite como
front tyre - continental attack
rear tyre - continental 4000s
forks - ambrosio a7 carbon

Ben6899

Smart for £300!

Mr Dog

Now to shoot down a few new carbon copies. 8)
Looks fantastic.

mr_sj

thanks a lot would love someday to upgrade from the sora groupset but money just wont allow it, but i think as a budget build its great and as i say, i bloody love it 8)

carl_p

Well done mate - nice bike.

federalski

Tis a very nice looking bike. I like the colour a lot, never though I would like lime green as well...

mr_sj

bit of an update as after riding it for a while i was having a few issues, so after chatting with my LBS they advised me to go for a shorter stem and try some shallower bars as my hands are the size of a small girls so also took the chance to change the seatpost to an all ritchey finishing kit.

shopped around as usual and sold my old stuff i took off and got some absolute bargains,brand new stem for a fiver !! and some nice biomax ritchey bars for less than £20. also changed the old wellgo spd pedals to shimano spd-sl and chaged the spd cheap shoes i had to some shimano ro99 ones. still total cost inc everything comes to less than £350.

Elio

That's a very nice bike you've got there, especially for that budget. Maximum bang for the buck!
As an alumnium afficionado, i am curious to hear how you find the ride. Orbea alu frames have a very good reputation, i understand. Did you already find out what model it is exactly?

Cheers,
Elio

mr_sj

i contacted orbea and going by the colourscheme they said it was probably an orbea enol from around 2006.

as for the ride its great ! dont have much to compare it against as its my first road bike but its very smooth and very responsive.

ugo.santalucia

Remarkable effort for 300 pounds!

MountainMonster

I admire you for being able to build that up for only 300, quite a lovely build.

Valy

That's pretty amazing for £350!

mr_sj

thanks for all the comments, ive really enjoyed doing it and learning about bikes on the way. i think having to hunt around for bits and putting them on myself has made me appreciate it a hell of a lot more than just going out and buying something shop built.

next job is to research replacing the cables and then get that done, then maybe just waiting and saving until the day comes i can afford to upgrade the sora groupset.