Originally Posted by cyccommute
By the way, building your own bike can be fun and rewarding but it is never cheap. Whatever you figure on the price add more since you will need something else before you are finished. I'd bet that the price of the Surley would climb to be much more than the price of the Cannondale before you were through.
We're also talking Australian dollars here. my Fuji when I bought it ws around USD$700 in the States, AUD$1750 landed here. That;s why the Mongoose does indeed represent excellent value.
By the way, I said disposable in my previous post. I should temper that by saying it is far from a disposable bike the *mart sense. Rather, if dreamy finds his touring aspirations are satisfied by a trans-Am crossing, he will likely sell for not much less than what he paid for it. I don't quite see the same with the others.