This post is mostly for curiosity as I've yet to get a job after college, pay the deposit on the new house, etc, etc... But I can always look and plan...
So I can see that I have a few options for a commuter bike. Use my road or mt bike until I buy/build a touring/commuting bike. Buy Jamis Aurora, buy an older road bike and rehab it... Or the most fun option is to buy a Nashbar touring frame and build it up. So my question is where have you guys found a source of good bike parts. My goal is to use as many nameless but quality parts (ie, an Uno or Kalloy seat post) to keep price and black market value down. In all honesty, I hope the bike is ugly when completed. I figured this forum would know the best source of such parts.
1, What's your impression of price of bike shop vs online retailer. Are bike shops realy more expensive?
2, Has anybody bought a used bike purely for the parts? Basically buying a bike and replacing the frame.
3, Good sources outside a bike shop? I found bikepartsusa.com that seems to be full of nameless parts. Anybody have experience with them? Other sources?
Thanks,
scott

1) I personally haven't noticed too much of a difference, but if a I get a great deal online, I'll go there especially if it's something I can just do myself. For anything that I need to the bike shop to help me with or if I need advice, I'll just go to them even if it's more expensive 'cause I like buying from them and they usually let me come in the back and watch and ask ?s.
2) I've bought new hubs on ebay before to get the cartridge bearings out of them to replace the ones in my wheels.
3) nashbar.com, performancebike.com, speedgoat.com, airbomb.com, even rei.com occaisonaly has some good stuff on sale, to name a few. I'm sure there are others out there.