Originally Posted by fireworks
Hi,
I was wondering if anybody can help out by listing good retailers with regard to price, for assembling your own bike?
I'll accept any advice too. I don't have any experience assembling bicycles, but I'm pretty mechanically inclinded.
Basically, it's driving me nuts trying to find a out of the box bike that I'm comfortable with spec and price.
My price range is about a $1000 CDN.
Thanks!
You can build a bike for the same or slightly more than an out of the box bike, but it isn't easy. Lacking the proper tools and mechanical skills makes it much harder. I just built a mountain bike. I used fairly good components throughout, and ended up spending about $1100. This took a couple of months of scouring Nashbar, Performance, Jenson, CBO, Ebay, the LBS, etc. looking for clearance items and free shipping deals. When looking at factory bikes, I found I could get close to the specs I wanted in this price range, but there was usually some skimping here and there. Mostly found one derailleur and/or shifters were downgraded, and the wheelsets tend to be ok (heavy), but not great on $1000 factory bikes. I'm sure there are some out there with good wheels, but none were to be found at my local shops. Here are the specs, all parts were new:
Motobecane hardtail frame (Go ahead, bash away. lol)
Manitou Black Elite 100/120mm fork
XT front & rear derailleurs and brake levers/shifters.
Cane Creek sealed bearing headset (the model escapes me at the moment)
Truvative two bolt seat post
Truvativ straight bars
Ritchey stem
Truvativ Firex Team crank & bottom bracket.
Bontrager Race Lite Disc Wheelset
Bontrager Jones Tubeless tires
Avid BB5 mechanical disc brakes
SRAM PC991 chain and 990 11-34 cassette
Shimano cables/housing. (had the housing laying around, saving a few bucks)
Saddle was a new takeoff from my road bike, again saving a few bucks.
Ended up right at 25.5 lbs. and capable of any riding I'm going to do. It's not a downhill or freeride bike, but it wasn't built to be either. For a few hundred bucks more, I could have bought a Jamis FS frame, taking the total to something around $1400 for an XT equiped full suspension bike. Pretty competitive with the factory builds. What you miss with this is the support of your LBS if you have issues. I have a good relationship with one of the local shops. They very happily handle repairs on my bikes when needed whether I bought from them or not. However, I don't get the free tune ups, wheel truing, etc. that come with a new bike. YMMV