Mountain Biking - $250cdn for a Kona Caldera Frame

So, i was looking at getting a Phobia Vertigo frame from bikeroom.com for 199, but when i emailed david, he told me they sold out of them.

So, i went to my lbs, and asked them if they have any frames, and i was told i could get a Kona Caldera/cindercone/blast frame for $250 with BB included, and about $20/30 less without the BB. Im going to build up a commuter for just riding around town and going to work. Plus, it will serve as a backup if anything happens to the Cannondale. Im going to buy a Kona Project 2 disc fork for $80 and stick that one for now. I might try find a closeout on a decent suspension fork later and put that on.

So my main question, is $230cdn a good price for a Kona Caldera frame?

Do you have all the parts laying around to build said bike? For a beater a $250 frame and $80 (sweeeet) fork seems like a lot of money to me. If you need to buy most of the drivetrain, wheels, attachment bits you could end up with well over $500 in this bike.

If you do need lots of parts why not go with something like a Kona Lana'i (super low end at $450) and swap the fork for a P2? Also the Kona Smoke would be a sweet beater. Personally I picked up a craptastic Norco a couple of years back for $230 at Blocks. It's on it's second drivetrain and I changed a lot of the parts to stuff that I had collecting dust (wheels, saddle, stem, cranks, etc). I call it the uber beater, you can tell all the parts that are steel as the are now Ferric Oxide color (rust!) from two winters of Regina riding!

Do you have all the parts laying around to build said bike?
here's what i have lying around....

Wheels/hubs - Mavic X-117/Deore
Tires - Michelin Wildgrippers
Shifters - Deore 9 speed
Derailleurs - XT rear, Deore Front (31.8mm, hope it fits kona frame)
Crank/BB - Truvativ FireX ISIS. (hope BB fits kona frame)
Casette - HG50 i believe
Chain - HG50 i believe
Brakes - Avid BB7 front
Saddle - Stock saddle from my brothers Gary Fisher Pirhana
Pedals - might buy a set of candy's for the cannondale and use my coda pedals on commuter

What i need to build said bike:
frame, Seat post, clamp, headset, handlebar, grips, cables.

That was one thing i was half thinking of doing was buying a whole bike, swap the fork out for a rigid (i dont want a heavy low quality suspension fork on there) It seems like it might be a better way of doing it. Might go have a look at what blocks has to offer too.

Well it looks like you have almost all the parts you need, so why not go for the Kona! The 05 Caldera's were, imho, nicer frames as the 06's have gone "freeride". Still can't go wrong for $250. You can pick up cheap seatposts for <$20, same with headsets and grips. Dutch has a big box of old used handlebars, if you asked nice I'm sure you could get one of those for free assuming you are OK with a narrow flatbar. Dutch collected them all when everyone was trading in their flats for risers (fools! :)).

Check out Blocks, he might have something decent laying around or will subtract parts from a floor bike so you can use what you've got.