Inertianinja

as i've gotten to learn more about bikes this year, i've gotten pretty decent at building and repairing them. it's a blast for me to look at a frame, dream up a set of components, and then build the bike - not just the "best" components, but the "right" ones for the bike.

for example, i recently stripped down a stock steel bike that had a set of components that were just all wrong...obviously the manufacturer built it to a price point for mass appeal. and turned it into something much more aggressive and race-worthy. total blast. but and expensive habit.

next project is a restoration of an '84 Ciocc.

so the idea is to do these custom builds using parts below retail and then try to make my money back selling the bikes on ebay as unique custom builds.

hell, even if i can't make a profit it would be nice to make my money back.

ColKrenzer

Intertianinja - I too have been building bikes. The thing i've found is that the shipping costs
on all the cool parts i buy really adds up. If somebody bought one of my bikes through ebay
they'd have to pay me back all those shipping costs, plus the cost of shipping the completed
bike to them. Now if i had a Colnago frameset from the goodwill and a Campagnolo groupo from
ebay that i paid $55+s&h for, i think i could come out on top. If it's an old Azuki built up part by
part....not so much.
Can you build up a bike for what a similar one sells for on ebay now?
Disregard all this if you live near the SRAM factory!
Good luck.

CCrew

There's a guy on DC Craigslist that rebuilds old Cannondales from the ground up. From the pictures he posts he does a really nice job of it, and he freely admits that he does like 20 or so a year and it's a labor of love. They're not cheap, but they're priced fairly for the market. We're talking most seem to be in the $5-$700 range. They're worth what he's asking IMHO. We're talking DC which has no shortage of people with $

That said, they don't seem to be brisk sellers. You'll see them for a month or so usually. So I don't think you could make a living at it, but it could probably be turned into a self-supporting hobby. Just my take based on what I've seen.