building own bike and benefits...

scazzer
scazzer Posts: 254
edited October 2012 in Road buying advice
ive been thinking of buying another bike mainly for summer and use my current bike for crap weather rides....

Been looking at carbon frame bikes around £1500-£2000.Im quite good with hands on as in maintenance on my bikes so was thinking of building my own,as i wont need it till next year was thinking i could buy bits each month ready to throw together..

So if i was to build my own to similar speck of the above price range wud there be much of a saving???

Also,guys that av built there own were are the best places to source parts??

Cheers

Comments

  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    Probably no saving at all. Groupsets can be £1800 alone.

    The benefit of self build is not that is costs less overall rather that you can spread the cost and get exactly what you want.

    Also satisfaction of doing the job.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • I am about to start a build ad i will save about £3000-£4000 i have picked up a cop frame from Flyxii for £300 and it weigh 1200grams with fork and seat post and i will kit it out in full carbon and 105 for a price of £1200
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    I am about to start a build ad i will save about £3000-£4000 i have picked up a cop frame from Flyxii for £300 and it weigh 1200grams with fork and seat post and i will kit it out in full carbon and 105 for a price of £1200

    Where are the parts being stolen from? :lol:

    105 groupset is about £500
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • jordan_217
    jordan_217 Posts: 2,580
    £1000 for 105????? £450 tops, but can be had for £400 with offers. DA can be had for little over £1k with Ultegra costing anywhere from £600-700

    EDIT: Above post edited from £1000 to £500 for a 105 groupset. Hence my post here.
    “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
  • nochekmate
    nochekmate Posts: 3,460
    smidsy wrote:
    Probably no saving at all. Groupsets can be £1800 alone.

    The benefit of self build is not that is costs less overall rather that you can spread the cost and get exactly what you want.

    Also satisfaction of doing the job.

    ..and let's be honest which groupsets are costing £1800 alone??? - we are not talking RRP are we 'cos we all know that that can always be beaten. Yes I know Campag Super Record is a helluva price but you are not comparing like with like here. A bike that costs £1500 new is not going to feature any of the top groupsets from either SRAM, Shimano or Campag.

    I have built a whole host of bikes by buying secondhand and if you are patient and have the time to scour the various forums, it's amazing what you can put together for less than around £800.
  • jordan_217
    jordan_217 Posts: 2,580
    OP - do you have any 'donor' parts or would you be buying everything?

    I replaced everything, barring the frame on my bike a couple of years ago. I think it cost me approx £800, as I'd owned the bike from new I knew the frame had been looked after, so in my mind I was riding a new bike.

    I sourced the parts from wherever was cheapest (not including eBay as I don't use it), so Ribble and Merlin mainly. Places like Amazon also came up trumps for bottle cages and a Jagwire cable set. It was just a case of googling around to see what was on offer at the time. I got a pair of Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels for £200 as someone had bought a bike from my LBS and didn't want the wheels, the LBS sold them on to me, as new a little cheaper than the SRP, so that helped. I already had new(ish) pedals and a saddle so that saved a bit of cash.

    An equivalent spec, new bike would of cost me £1500+

    I've noted a few people on here have managed to buy the groupset components individually and saved a bit over the price of a complete groupset package.

    Have you considered just buying a lower spec groupset etc, sticking that on your existing bike which will become your commuter/winter hack and transfer the nicer parts on to your new frame? Might save a bit more cash.

    I really enjoyed doing it TBH, I learned a lot too. If you don't already have one a workstand will be pretty useful (I'd actually say essential) as will some decent tools and cable cutters.

    In fact I have a TT bike I'm stripping down. Will sell the frame and keep the rest of the parts to make up a road bike for racing next year. So hopefully not much more to buy and the sale of the frame should more than cover the cost of the frame I want and any other parts such as drop bars and shifters.
    “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    I took it that he was looking at carbon frames upto £2k and therefor quoted top groupset prices. e.g. SRAM Red

    On re-reading it maybe the OP's 1500 to 2000 was for a complete bike.

    Hey Ho.

    I still say that you will not always do it cheaper when you include wheels, tyres, saddle, seat post, stem, cables (inners/outers), Group Set etc.

    Good fun though.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • StorckSpeed
    StorckSpeed Posts: 291
    edited October 2012
    I've built a few bikes now and in my opinion there's no real saving.
    Let's say you want to build a Focus Cayo bike, to the exact spec of one on the Wiggle web-site. By the time you buy the frame, forks, wheels, tyres, seatpot, seat, headset, gears etc.... I reckon it will cost you about £300-£400 more than just buying it from the web.
    The first bike I built; I thought initially that I had saved around £200 but forgot to include things like, handlebars, stem handlebar tape, headset and Saddle in the cost.

    The real benfit of self-build is flexibility. You can make compromises where you want to do so, and not where the manufacturer dictates, maybe on the frame but not on the wheels, or on the saddle but not on the chainset. Or make absolutely no compromises at all.

    The real cost saving is if you've been upgrading your existing bike gradually, then decide that all you need for your perfect bike is a different frame. You may already have some top quality components such as Dura-Ace groupset or Zipp wheels so for an extra £1000 you then have your dream bike......
    There's warp speed - then there's Storck Speed
  • iPete
    iPete Posts: 6,076
    There is no real saving but you'll be happy with the spec and can build it over time. If you have spares already, even better.

    The saving will come later on, building is great for learning maintenance and being able to fix everything yourself pays for the tools needed very quickly!