Photo first, read below it for the silly details.
Recently had some fun seeing just how cheap I could build up an around town bike. Almost everything on the bike is used though I did give in actually put new cables on it, my used cables were mostly too short. Total I spent was right around $100. Frame is from a company I'd never heard of before and found very little information online about called Aerocat. It's a fairly lightweight aluminum road frame with a terrible factory paint job (several runs in the paint) that I threw some comfortable bars on. I'd seen it on marketplace for a while at $100 but didn't think much of it until the seller dropped the price to $50. He lived just a few miles away so I figured why not. I got lucky in that even though I believe it to be a late 2000's frame, all of the cable routing is external, way easier to run cables on than internal which almost all decent road bikes by then had.
Total weight is right around 22 pounds. It's eventually going to get an old, very light Cannondale rack I have mounted on the back. I unintentionally made my new favorite around town bike to putter around on. It is exceptionally comfortable and weighs nothing (for what it is). For those curious, here's the cost breakdown:
Frame - $50
Rear wheel - $30
Bars - $10 - theoretically, my brother gave them to me, said he'd charge me since they were new but has yet to ask me for money
Seatpost - $7
Shifter - $3
Cables - A buck or two
Everything else I had floating around in my stash as take-offs from projects or included as free extras with a previous bike.
I will concede that the rear tire is a brand new Schwalbe Marathon though I don't know why I have it, my only bike running Marathons is 700x35 and this is 700x25. I think my brother got me the wrong size a couple of years ago so it's just been hanging on the wall. Components are largely older Shimano 105/Deore LX level so durable but not highly valuable. Front chainring pant leg guard is actually a very worn out 42t chainring that I ground all the teeth off of.
Front tire is a bit of a gamble. I had that on the rear of another bike until I ran over a 3 inch nail that stabbed a sizeable hole in the tire (and tube and the rim!). Hole was big enough that I felt the need to replace it but didn't toss the tire. It sat around for a few years until this project. I put a couple strips of gaffers tape on the inside of the tire to cover the hole and keep the tube from blowing out and it's been holding fine.
I may eventually get a taller stem if one lands in my lap but the current one is still comfortable and fairly tall as it is.