I'm thinking of building my own bike. Here's my idea.

I want to find a frame I like and then buy another bike that's already built. This bike will probably be on a steel or aluminum frame. Take all the parts from this bike and put them on a better frame. Would this be cheaper than buying part at a time?

I found a frame for $150 and a older bike with 105 components for $350. That's a $500 bike. Maybe less if I can resell the old bikes frame for a few bucks.

If you have built a bike before how did you do it?

I always (ok, twice now) just buy a new group or build kit and put it on an old frame that I'm upgrading or acquiring.

If your "better frame" costs $150, I'm wondering how worthwhile this project will be.

If you don't already have a bunch of bike tools, you may need to factor that into your budget.

You also may run into compatibility problems when trying to move parts from one frame to another.

I'd say if you're doing this project with disposable income and the purpose is to learn about bike mechanics, then it might be fun.

Its for fun mostly. Just to learn about bikes.

I hadn't figured bike tools into the budget. Something else to consider. Thanks.

I picked up a vintage, 1987 Specialized Sirrus frame for cheap. I spent about 2 months searching for Suntour Superbe Pro & Specialized components from that era and finally built it up. It turned out excellent:



And the best part is that I spent about $400.

If I were to take the time and effort to build a bike, I'd build it from a new frame and new components. If I were to do a used bike, I'd buy it complete. You do realize you can get a nice frame, and 105, both from last year, for around $700, right? And, that $700 will almost certainly buy you a nicer frame than you can get for $150.

There are a couple things to look out for when swapping parts around:

• Rear wheel spacing. The current standard is 130mm (i.e., the drop-outs are 130mm apart), but it's changed occasionally over the years to make room as more-and-more gears were added to the rear. If the frame is steel, you can re-space the frame. If both bikes had the same number of gears, then this isn't an issue.
• Head-tube sizes have changed. Older bikes had threaded forks and quill stems; newer bikes don't. What that means in layman's terms is that you can't necessarily pull the stem / fork / headset off one bike and put it on another bike.
• The method by which front derailleurs clamp to the frame isn't exactly standard. There are a couple different seat-tube diameters out there,and then there are braze-on vs. clamp-on derailleurs. Translation: not all front derailleurs fit all bikes.
• Same thing with the seatpost itself. Not all seatposts fit all bikes ,again due to the fact that the tubing diameter of the frame's seat-tube isn't standard.