Ah well, although I'm mechanically inclined and would enjoy building up my own ss29, I'm also poor and have a slim selection of tools to build with. It's too bad these niner bikes are just coming out now, last year I bought a race bike and after riding it for a while, I realize that it's just too fragile to be my everyday rig (top line stp 400 that got lost in the back room of my local bike shop). I could stomach 1500 or 1600 for a nice complete but from what you said it seems that after building the one 9 up it would be more like 23 or 2400.