Originally Posted by
neverjared
I work at a bike shop. Everyday kids come in with their conversion projects dumping more and more money into them and then regretting it later when they realized they could have started with something nicer on the cheap and upgraded components as they went.
Just sayin'
This.
I started off this way. Picked up a crappy bike with a half-decent frame. Ripped all the old parts off, found most of the un-usable, shopped around for a set of fixed wheels, realized that even my basic Alex DA28s and formula hubs severely outclassed the frame, ended up putting together an entirely over-priced IRO build myself.
Don't get me wrong, it's a fun bike and I enjoyed putting it together, but money-wise it was a bad series of decisions, and bad monetary decisions tend to stick to the back of my mind. YMMV.