I’m looking to get a tri or TT bike and was wondering if you folks felt it was better/ more economical to build up the bike or to buy one complete ready to roll??? opinions???thanks
Assuming you go with new parts to build it is more economical to buy a complete bike.
Always cheaper to buy complete. That is, of course, assuming you don’t go change out a bunch of the parts. When bicycle manufacturers buy components, they get a special OEM price. The savings are somewhat passed on to you because they buy the stuff so cheap.
It all depends on your budget and if you’re picky about your parts. I prefer to build up framesets because I’m picky, but when I got a cyclocross/commuter bike, I just did the complete bike to keep it cheap (and heavy…).
Depends. Both my road and tri bikes were built up and worked out cheaper than buying a new equivalent.
This was because I watched ebay carefully and used either discounted and in some cases second hand. My wheels and frames were second hand but in excellent condition. In fact my Lemond road frame was only three months old and I saved about 60% off a new frame.
If you’re going to order new over the counter parts it would no doubt be cheaper to purchase a new ready to roll bike.
I’m looking to get a tri or TT bike and was wondering if you folks felt it was better/ more economical to build up the bike or to buy one complete ready to roll??? opinions???thanks
Buying a complete bike should be significantly cheaper than building your own.
If you have the tools and the patience you can do it Johnny Cash style (One Piece at a Time) by getting components on Ebay and Internet shop specials. However this could take some time (took me a year to build my E5). But, you can really customize your bike this way.
I just bought parts because I would have wound up switching out the crank, wheels, and others from the stock bike.
There are plenty of deals out there! I got the last year’s Ultegra brake calipers from Nashbar or Performance (sale price + discount coupon) for about 50 dollars for the set (that’s like 70% off). One of them also had this year’s Ultegra STI for about 120 dollars off last week.
I bought a load of parts from Chucksbikes.com a complete build kit. I built it up and it definitely worked out cheaper than buying an equivalent bike. I also learned a lot about maintenance, and that’s saved me a fair amount of money and continues to do so.
Guess it depends what level of bike you’re looking for and how much you’re thinking of spending.
And, GVHBikes has some cheap build kits. I think they have the Ultegra 9 speed kit for 850 dollars. 10 speed is 200 or 300 more and comes with Mavic Open Pro wheels.
I bought an Allez Comp frame cheap on ebay. I should save about 400 dollars over new.
Also check out Chuck’s Bikes… Dura Ace 9spd $850.00
Without a doubt, it’s more cost effective to buy a complete bike. Then, you can slowly upgrade components as you see fit–and maybe sell some of the old stuff too.
Good luck,
Rob
I built up a road bike a few months ago and came out pretty good on it. But I got the frame a few other accessories dirt cheap. I paid $300 for the frame, seatpost, stem, handlebars and headset. I had a fork, so that saved some money. I bought a Centaur build kit from Total Cycling, and picked up the wheels, tires and tubes from my LBS. When all was said and done, I had about $1550 in the bike, and that includes shipping, pedals and paying my LBS to build it. I think that’s a pretty good price for a Centaur bike – I haven’t seen any Centaur bikes new for $1500. Depending on what you’re looking for, you can find some deals out there. But generally speaking, it’s cheaper to buy complete. That’s what I would have done if I hadn’t found such a good deal on the frame.
RP
depends on the spec you want the bike to end up, and if you already have some extra parts lying around. i took the brakes, wheels, cranks, and STI shifters off another bike i wasn’t riding anymore and built up a superprodigy frame with DA-10 front and rear deuraillers and an fizik aliante saddle. it came out pretty nice, though it’s a little of a mismatch in some component areas, esp with the 9spd shifters and cassette. i’ll probably upgrade to full 10sp after the season.
that said, it can work out well if you already have some of the more expensive items, and want to part it up how you like. but from what it sounds like in your situation, your best bet is to go for the complete bike build, as the parts spec’d with the complete build will be more cost effective due to the mass purchasing ability of the manufacturer. then if you want to upgrade later to a different frame, you could swap out some of the parts you already have.
Cheaper to buy complete.
Example: 2004 Cervelo Soloist Team on sale at Supergo for $1700. The frame alone could cost $1400.