Building bike or Buy?

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sparkyman

sparkyman

Kinamortaphobic
Location
Blackpool
I fancy a Surly LHT and i have seen the Frames going for £350 and the Built Bike going for £1100.

I was thinking maybe i could build it my self on the cheap buy buying a Frame and using parts from a Mountain bike as i can pike one of those up for a couple of Hundred or less.

example bike Rockhopper 1999 specialised hard tail I am hoping to use wheels Gears sets and Brakes and if lucky bootm braket i have Handle bars and seat already.


does any one have experience of building a bike with parts salvaged from other Bikes?

basically looking for advice


SparkyMan
 
MacB

MacB

Lover of things that come in 3's
Location
Farnborough, Hampshire
not with salvaged parts but I did it with a Surly Crosscheck frame & forks. I would say it cost me 20-30% more than a complete bike would. But it didn't have anything on it I didn't want and wasn't lacking anything I did. I think the wheelset was the big expense, I went with Mavic A719 rims and also an expensive hub gear. However you often read advice about the wheelset being the first thing to upgrade on a new bike.
 
MacB

MacB

Lover of things that come in 3's
Location
Farnborough, Hampshire
lukesdad said:
Nothing wrong with cannibalising.
Click to expand...

agreed, I just didn't have anything to cannibalise at the time.

But if you spec things up it can be cheaper to buy a complete bike and sell the bits you don't need.
 
PpPete

PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
I've done it with almost 100% salvaged & second-hand parts. You very quickly learn what is compatible and what's not. You do end up buying quite a few tools that you might otherwise not acquire until later in your cycling career.
Even if you manage to get the "big-ticket" items like wheels & gear shifters cheaply you still probably need new cables, chain which all adds up.

The big downside cost-wise is that you could (like me) end up with an incurable ebay habit.....:laugh:
 
PJ79LIZARD

PJ79LIZARD

Über Member
Location
WEST MIDLANDS
if you've got most the components go for it. If you don't i wouldn't bother. I built my ribble commuter road bike from scratch bought all the parts second hand off ebay except the wheels. In the end i bet it cost me a third more than if i'd just bought the bike second hand built. But i did it cause i wanted to put it together myself just to see how i would get on with it. I wouldn't do it again now it's just not cost effective.
 
John the Monkey

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
The stock LHT makes some choices I personally didn't like - so I built mine up (plus I wanted to learn how to build wheels, and had a spare set of Tiagra STis in the shed).

Think about what you want from the bike - the stock LHT is well specced, but if you want to learn by building one yourself, buying stock won't help with that ambition - if you hate Surly's choices for the parts & will end up changing most, the stock may not be ideal either.
 
threebikesmcginty

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
I'm not sure I can see the point of buying a new frame and then buying second-hand parts on the cheap (unless you're really set on an LHT). Why not find a second hand frame too to save even money, there's plenty about - or even an old bike, you get a frame and more bits to pick and choose from then too!

As porkypete mentioned a big expense can be tools and, yes, do go easy on the ebay, it's worse than crack!
 
OP
OP
sparkyman

sparkyman

Kinamortaphobic
Location
Blackpool
Its Part wanting to build it myself, part cost saving as i think I could build this for less then £700

Issue with stock bike are Price, drop bars and bar end changers.

I have a bike that i could use the parts off now but i was thinking of making this an expedition (dreams of cycling the ends of the earth one day) bike so thought that 26" wheels would be better, hence thinking of buying one or two mountain bikes from ebay.

I have a lot of the tools already (mostly unused) bought over the years so tool costs not an issue.

Wheels should be usable (though i would like to build one with a dynamo hub)
handle bar i have already (butterfly type)
Gear set ,I'm not sure about this as i think a touring bike needs differnt gear ratios?
Brakes should be usable
gear leavers again should be usable
bottom braket (new one)
Cranks and pedels should be usable

might und up costing more as i upgrade items but at least i can tell the misses i tried to do it on the cheap B)

sparkyman
 
G

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
I've just put two LHT's together for me and the missus. Built them up myself as I didn't like the OTP spec and I could use 8 speed stuff which is a bit cheaper (second-hand jumble stuff) and a bit harder wearing. Furthermore i wanted the new 56cm frame with 26" wheels which doesn't come built up to my knowledge (also wanted flat bars and v-brakes). Here's my cost breakdown for my own bike:

Frame/fork/headset - £350
Rear wheel (home built) - £62
Front wheel (used) - £10
Chainset/BB - £60
Front & Rear mechs - £17
Shifters - £8
Cassette & Chain - £20
Brakes and levers - £15
Bars & Stem - Free (flat bars from an old mtb donated)
Grips & bar ends £50
Mudguards - £25
Seatpost & Saddle - £20
Rear rack - £20
Rack light/reflector - £12
Cabling - £4
Tyres & Tubes - £26
New brake pads - £10
Bottle cages - £8

So that's £719 all in. Got mix of Deore/LX and even an XT rear mech of various vintage but mostly quite recent and it's all bombproof anyway. I even picked up some emergency old school friction shifter for £4 to take as spares.

Best part is the piece of mind I have knowing that everything is set up correctly, every thread is greased with anti-seize etc.

*Edit - the wifes cost more with a new front wheel and tubus rear rack.

I looked at donor mountain bikes but the biggest problem was that you didn't get 36h wheels with anything but the ancient bikes which have then seen too much use. The standard is 32h and I wanted to make sure we had the strongest possible wheels for peace of mind. That said, if the right bike had come up then I could've used everything bar the wheels.

It's all doable with careful spending - I got most of the dirt cheap parts from our local bike jumble as ebay is a bit crap for cheap prices. Also some off the CTC forum.
 
OP
OP
sparkyman

sparkyman

Kinamortaphobic
Location
Blackpool
GrahamG said:
I've just put two LHT's together for me and the missus. Built them up myself as I didn't like the OTP spec and I could use 8 speed stuff which is a bit cheaper (second-hand jumble stuff) and a bit harder wearing. Furthermore i wanted the new 56cm frame with 26" wheels which doesn't come built up to my knowledge (also wanted flat bars and v-brakes). Here's my cost breakdown for my own bike:

Frame/fork/headset - £350
Rear wheel (home built) - £62
Front wheel (used) - £10
Chainset/BB - £60
Front & Rear mechs - £17
Shifters - £8
Cassette & Chain - £20
Brakes and levers - £15
Bars & Stem - Free (flat bars from an old mtb donated)
Grips & bar ends £50
Mudguards - £25
Seatpost & Saddle - £20
Rear rack - £20
Rack light/reflector - £12
Cabling - £4
Tyres & Tubes - £26
New brake pads - £10
Bottle cages - £8

So that's £719 all in. Got mix of Deore/LX and even an XT rear mech of various vintage but mostly quite recent and it's all bombproof anyway. I even picked up some emergency old school friction shifter for £4 to take as spares.

Best part is the piece of mind I have knowing that everything is set up correctly, every thread is greased with anti-seize etc.

*Edit - the wifes cost more with a new front wheel and tubus rear rack.

I looked at donor mountain bikes but the biggest problem was that you didn't get 36h wheels with anything but the ancient bikes which have then seen too much use. The standard is 32h and I wanted to make sure we had the strongest possible wheels for peace of mind. That said, if the right bike had come up then I could've used everything bar the wheels.

It's all doable with careful spending - I got most of the dirt cheap parts from our local bike jumble as ebay is a bit crap for cheap prices. Also some off the CTC forum.
Click to expand...

Gives me hope

Thanks..

Sparkyman:smile:
 
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