Originally Posted by
NikZak
cheaper to buy a brand new ready made bike from a store? i disagree
by scanning ebay and buying the cheapest parts you can find and finding an old road bike in a dump/rubbish pile out the front of someones house you can build up an 'acceptable' fixed gear bike for under $200
i'm not saying for this money you'll have a fabulous quality bike but it's something you'll have built for yourself, you'll know how it works and you'll know what you like and dislike when it comes to upgrading later... also you get some experience on cheap materials so if you break something in the beginning it wont be so bad money wise
While this is entirely possible, the time involved in trolling the internet waiting for that 'great deal' to come up on the parts you need to finish, just to get the thing up and running... Plus you might have to deal with issues like, "Well I need a stem, but the only one they have left (at amazing price) is 120mm, and I don't feel like stretching that far or running my bars backwards to compensate.." ?
Or if you get lazy and go to the lbs, prices shoot up way before you realize what's going on..
Unless you're going the route of buy a wheelset, get a new chain and run it off a multi speed crank, and the rest of the bike is complete from wherever.. Then you get cost of bike + ~100ish?