My first road bike (custom built parts off ebay) had it about a year and had several good 100 mile rides on it.
Cheap chinese carbon frame and fork, nice light wheels, most other parts are pretty cheap but do the job. Cost about £700 and weighs 7.9KG.
Worst photo ever, I know, but it's the only photo I've got!

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5867/t77j.jpg

Welcome to the 41, 390T!

That's quite the first road bike. Did you assemble everything yourself?

Thanks ChrisCar!
Yes, built it myself over a few weekends, my brother bought a road bike and I couldn't keep up with him so I had to get my own.
The first few weeks of use I rode it without cycling shorts, never have I experienced such a sore arse :)

Nice purple! I thought Bridgestone at first, but seatstay caps and fork crown seem wrong.

I believe that's his re-painted Centurion Ironman. Super sweet bike - I've got an '87 myself.

LesterOfPuppets - Thanks!

revchuck - correct!

although it's difficult to tell from the picture, the group is a 10sp shimano mix, featuring DA7800 downtube shifters.

2012 Allez Elite. I paid 800 on ebay this past Fall and the bike was in like new condition. It has all stock components, except I changed the standard Tiagra brake pads with Scott-Mathauser salmon pads and cartridges. Changed out the white bar tape with blue and swapped the tires for some Michelin Pro4's. The only other thing I am going to swap is a Thompson Elite zero seatpost and possibly a new saddle in a couple of months. My last bike I had years ago before I quit riding, had all Ultegra and I can say that I am actually impressed with Tiagra. Not quite as smooth but runs great after I adjusted everything when I got it. I am a very happy camper with this bike and glad I finally got back into riding again. Still contemplating whether I should go with another white saddle or black as well as the cable housings. What do you guy's and gal's think?

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...s2084d008.jpeg

I like the lines of the bike overall and the color of the frame a lot, but the sidewalls and tape leads to blue overload for me. A big part of art and design is being able to direct the viewer's eyes - to me, the that bright blue everywhere I look causes my eyes to continually wander without ever settling down. I think that simply going to black tires would solidify things considerably.

I couldn't have said it better.

i love the frame but agree there is too much blue. I also think the white washes it out. I would be tempted to try black tires, stem, saddle and bar tape. I think doing all of this will really make the color of the frame stand out.

Edit: I would leave the housing white. Don't go crazy either, if you are wanting a different saddle or need tape and/or tires, try black black. Don't needlessly spend money.

this.

I've been lurking for a while and I've seen this in multiple post. I agree, to an extent, I just wonder what you consider a larger frame to be?

I'm on a CAAD 8 58cm frame and it looks large, but proportional. I think it looks pleasing to the eye, IMO.

To me, I consider a 58 or larger to be a LARGE frame. I was speaking in general, not that ALL larger frames cant be. It all depends on how it is set up, but that goes for ALL bikes IMO, not just larger frames.

Holy hell, how did I ever not see this thread? Submitted for budget hot-or-not:

https://b2h6kw.bn1304.livefilestore....509000_iOS.jpg

That's a Motobecane Vent Noir frame/fork purchased from Bike Island last year, populated with parts off of an older Trek 5200 I picked up for $200 (which included the Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels, Ultegra cranks, FD, cassette, brakes, and shifters, Dura Ace RD, Bontrager Race Lite CF seatpost, Blade CF bars and Rice Late stem, Look Keo Classic pedals, and Specialized Riva saddle.)

Looks good. Great buy on the Trek parts bike!

"Parts bikes" or "Donor bikes" are where it's at! I picked up an all 6600 Ultegra donor last year for Project Bierwagen for less than $350. Kept the entire drivetrain and auctioned the rest for a profit.

How does one account for such transactions in the "Total" for a budget build? Do we actually get to deduct the profits from total build cost?

~$1200 build

http://i.imgur.com/LeRh0er.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/f4okdcP.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/aIf3rAz.jpg

Seriously Hot! Amazing build for 1200 bucks!

Sweet! Well done!

Well sorted, but, unfortunately not hot for me.

I would say no, otherwise my bike has actually cost me nothing. :D

It's because it's not in the right gears and not against your garage door, right? ;)

In addition to the gear selection, the valves stems aren't aligned and the cranks are WAY TOO short. ;) 62cm?

The gear selection and valve stems I can fix... that pic was taken moments after I'd tightened everything down. In fact, I don't even think the brakes are hooked up in that shot, heh.

The frame was purchased as a 60cm, and the cranks are 175s. The head tube is AMAZINGLY big for a 60cm, though. I've long wanted to compare the Bike Island/Bikes Direct geometry measurements against, like, Trek or Specialized or something, but it fits me like my other 60cm bikes do. I held the frame up against my Trek 5200 frame, matching at the BB shell and the rear dropouts, and both the seat tube and head tube are angled backwards on the Motobecane by comparison, and the top tube rises up higher than the Trek. So... it's an interesting frame. Really comfortable. I think it takes a hint from the Specialized Roubaix*, placing the rider in a more upright position than a more race-y frame, but that could just be a wild assumption in my head. :)

*I think it's the Roubaix, I'm not a Specialized scholar, heh.

On a purely aesthetic, damn the fit, basis: While the bars look about right, the brifters are too high. Moving them down so that they provide more of a level hood area would help the look quite a bit.

One of the other things that catches my attention is the presence of three different reds. The wheels, post and pedals don't match. Accent color/shade needs to be consistant to work.

Then there's the confussion about whether white, silver or grey is the secondary color.