sneakyflute

I'm a novice but I have an itch to build a custom bike. I was looking at $8,000 dollar bikes from Guru and Seven just to get an idea of what a high-end bike looks like. That price just seems exorbitant to me. Is it possible to build something for 1500, 2000 dollars that will rival those types of bikes?

tekhna

Diminishing returns is anything more expensive than a Cannondale CAAD10 with 105.

sced

Do you mean custom as in starting with a frame made for you personally or do you mean buying a frame and putting the parts on it that you want?

greenlight149

Custom as in custom frame or off the shelf frame with the components/wheels that you want? You can get a off the shelf bike that costs 3k that will be just as fast in terms of speed, the rest of the money is probably for di2 and carbon bars and wheels. But the most important component is the engine, which you can't buy.

modelmartin

In reality (at least my kind of reality) unless you are at the perfect weight you are wasting money on making it light. Good components are great but do you really need them? Since you are new I would suggest starting out with something economical and mid-range to see what works for you. Buying a real high end bike starting out is like getting a lambo as soon as you get your driver licence. People can have a lot of fun and enjoy lots of riding on cheap bikes. Expensive is great and the bikes are awesome but would you be able to appreciate them?

greenlight149

Beat me to it lol

datlas 

Yes. Once you have a properly fitting entry level road bike with decent wheels and tires, the equipment will not be slowing you down significantly.

sneakyflute

Having a frame made for me and then buying all the parts separately.

Bandera

Scratch away:

"Mercian Cycles began in Derby in 1946 and are still building bespoke lightweight steel frames, by hand, using traditional frame-building methods with one craftsman building each frame from start to finish."

Mercian Cycles - Custom Cycle Frames & Cycle Shop



A custom frameset built to one's exact specifications fitted with the precise componentry one required would be very nice to ride for a few decades.

-Bandera

txags92

Once you get one step above the manufacturer's base level carbon frame and 105 11-speed, you are mostly paying for weight savings and won't notice big differences in ride quality. In Trek bikes for example, there is a significant difference in ride feel between a 300 series carbon frame and a 500 series frame. You can get a good second tier carbon bike with 105 for $2500-3000 from most manufacturers and one with Ultegra for $3000-4000. Above those prices, you are mostly paying for lighter weight components and better wheels.

If you are talking about custom steel frames, I assume your price range is just for the frame? I doubt you will get a custom frame from anybody for much less than that price range.

obed7

I guess the point of diminishing returns will depend on what the return you are looking for is.
Comfort? Speed? Resale value? Durability? There is about a 3K price difference between my least expensive bike and my most expensive bike... there is almost no difference in my speed on both bikes, I am afterall the motor, the "horsepower". There is however a great deal of difference in the comfort (feel ) of the bikes and I can ride much further, for much longer, in more comfort on the more expensive bike than on the cheaper bike...

rms13

You can get a 800 g generic carbon frameset from china (with fork, headset, seat post and clamp) for $500, DA mechanical group for $1200 and decent sub 1600 wheels for $400. That puts you at $2100 and add bars, stem, saddle, pedals, bar tape, tires, tubes which I'd estimate another $500 for decent and lightweight stuff (but not super weight weenie) and that brings you to $2600.

So for $2500-3000 in parts you could build a bike that would probably rival a $5-6000 name brand complete. To get to something that truly rivals a $8000 bike you would probably be spending $4000 (with a good amount of generic chinese carbon)

Campag4life

Was thinking the same thing. A good baseline.

rms13

And more to the actual topic of diminishing returns:

I do have the mentioned CAAD 10 105 along with a somewhat high end carbon frame with Ultegra and a 25 year old steel bike built up with 5700 105 and my returns are the same on all 3 bikes. My avg speeds doing the same routes is negligeable regardless of the bike. I just broke some PRs the other day riding the steel bike on a course that I do multiple times per week on all 3 bikes

Seattle Forrest

$1,500? Surely you can make just as good a bike with $20! Or maybe not.

If all you want to do is go fast, it's the engine and not the frame or the wheels.

tekhna

Diminishing returns aren't necessarily a bad thing though. We're all here because we're bike enthusiasts. You're not going to be measurably faster on a 8,000 dollar bike but it might be more fun and you might be more comfortable.

WhyFi

Whether we're talking about road bikes or anything else, the point of diminishing returns depends entirely upon the buyer's pocketbook.

merlinextraligh

There's not a point of diminishing returns. Rather there's a curve that gets steeper and steeper ( with dollars on the vertical axis, and performance on the horizontal axis).

The curve is pretty flat going from say a GMC Denali to a $300 Bike's Direct bike. You can argue that it stays fairly flat until you get to about $1000. At that point it begins to get steep, given that $1000 will buy you a very functional bike. From about $1000 to $4000 the curve is progressively steeper.

Around $4000, the curve approaches (but doesn't reach) vertical, given that you can get a full carbon frame, high end group, aero wheels, and a power meter for that money. Once you've got all that, the curve is going skyward.

So the question isn't where the point of diminishing returns is, but rather where the sweetspot is on the curve. And the answer for that is going to vary by individual based upon their wallet, and their priorities.

sced

One can also buy yesterday's superbike used at a big discount. Bikes depreciate rapidly.

greenlight149

Buy the most expensive bike you can afford, but can't afford to replace. Just kidding....

Lazyass

Buy whatever makes you feel good and looks cool. It would take me a minute to mentally remember all the bikes I've had, and I was never faster on one than another. Frame material, number of gears, weight, downtubes or STI, makes no difference. But if you're going to spend big bucks you may want to be a strong rider. It would be embarrassing to get dropped by a guy on a bike that cost a fraction of yours.

bonz50

so basically you're saying that once you get past a thousand bucks your performance return on dollars invested begins to diminish, right??

mercator

Since you say you are a novice, I would recommend avoiding the custom bike until you have done a lot more riding and owned a couple of regular bikes. As you progress you will find there are specific things you like/dislike about some bikes, and your fitness and flexibility will change as well. Buying a custom bike made to fit you in your novice state is likely to have you looking for a new one in a couple of years.

bonz50

on top of having a hard time selling it to anyone else since it wasn't made for them.

merlinextraligh

No, I'm saying they begin to diminish once you get past the point of having wheels, and pedals. The rate at which the returns diminish starts to tilt pretty steeply upward around $1000.