BUILD IT.
- building your own bike is amazingly rewarding. its almost impossible to put a dollar value to that. also, if you are careful and calculative, building a bike could be much cheaper. even with the shipping cost and everything. Also, bike industry is pretty standardized these days so its relatively easy to figureout what sizes and specs you need. Also, you have this forum as your first hand resource to get some good and not so good ideas.
If I were you I would consider a few other alternative for frame - Kona Kula and Giant XTC. I saw some Kula frames go on ebay for pretty good price...Base Kula was sold for about $150 and delux and Primo were around $250.... and the XTC frame is $280 or something very close...
so yes, BUILD IT....I have just finished (the seatpost is arriving on Thursday) bulding my first bike. It was cheap, it was really rewarding, and I got exactly what I wanted. It took me some time and energy to piece together everything. Also, I did some careful and patient shopping to keep the price down.
here is the detail
Item/Parts--------Name/Model-----------------Original Price---------------Price I paid
Frame------------Haro V5---------------------N/A------------------------$45+$14 shipping (ebay)
Fork--------------Manitou Splice Super--------$300+----------------------$49.99+$10 shipping
Wheels-----------Mavic XM317+XT hubs-------~$300---------------------$89+$14 shipping
Crankset---------Shimano DeoreLX M580-------$115-----------------------$46 + $6 shipping
BB---------------Shimno Deore----------------$35------------------------$10 + included with cranks
Shifters----------SRAM X-7--------------------$67------------------------$20 + $15 shipping
Rear Der---------SRAM X-7--------------------$60------------------------$27 + included above
Front Der--------SRAM X-Gen------------------$35------------------------$10 + included above
Brake Front------Avid BB7 160mm---------------$110----------------------$44 + $7 shipping
Brake Rear-------Quad 5 160 mechanical--------$50-----------------------$35 + tax (bought locally)
Brake Lever------Avid FR-5---------------------$35-----------------------$5 + shipped with the shifter
Handlebar--------FSA FR 270-------------------$60-----------------------$15 + free shipping
Stem------------FSA FR 200-------------------$60-----------------------$15 + free shipping
Headset---------Cane Creek S-8---------------$70-----------------------$25 + free shipping
Saddle----------WTB Rocket V-----------------$70-----------------------$18 + $6 shipping
Cassette--------SRAM PG971------------------$39------------------------$19 +$6.99 shipping
Chain-----------SRAM PG951------------------$25------------------------$7 + shipped with the chain
Pedals----------Kona Jack --------------------$35------------------------$15 + shipped with the tires
Tires-----------IRC Backcountry 2.25----------$100-----------------------$15+$10 shipping
Tubes---------- Ritchey tubes-----------------N/A------------------------Came with the tires
6 bold adaptor for center lock hubs-------------$30------------------------$15
seat post -------FSA SL-280------------------N/A------------------------$15 + $6
cables and Housing (bought from the local LBS, they figured out how much/long I neede without any cost) and I paid about $40 for that. I bought the cable when I bought the rear disc brake from them. The local bike shop also put the headset in the frame which cost me $30.
so the total cost of my build is about $660. I dont know if I could just pick up a complete bike with this kind of spec for this kind of price.
I have spend a bit more on shipping cause I bought the items over a long period of time, but it also let me spread out my expenditure over a longer period of time. I did not even feel that I bought/build a new bike....
my purchases were done carefully....ebay, cambria bikes, blue ski bikes, wheelworld, Pricepoint, Bobs bicycles etc were some of the places where I got most of my itmes.