Save money buying just frame and building own?

[brian4610]

I was wondering if it was more efficient to buy a frame and build it yourself (as in, buying the parts opposed to buying the the bike totally equipped). It doesn't seem like it would be, and the only advantage i see is that you could but every part you wanted on the bike..for an example, i could get a Cervelo team soloist carbon frame for $2800, but the total bike costs $5000 (dura-ace)...are wheels, DA Groupo, stem, etc. less then $2200 if you bought them on their own?

in your experience, do you see any way that you could save money by just getting the frame?

 

[sogood]

For low-end bikes, definitely not worth it. For high-end, the price curve overlaps at some point, especially when you can source components with significant discounts over the net.

Bike companies aren't going to lower their high end bike prices so low that people would buy it and then part the bike off for all those high end parts with a profit. For low end, there's no great interest for most to bother with that tiny bit of profit.

 

[aubinmg]

I was wondering if it was more efficient to buy a frame and build it yourself (as in, buying the parts opposed to buying the the bike totally equipped). It doesn't seem like it would be, and the only advantage i see is that you could but every part you wanted on the bike..for an example, i could get a Cervelo team soloist carbon frame for $2800, but the total bike costs $5000 (dura-ace)...are wheels, DA Groupo, stem, etc. less then $2200 if you bought them on their own?

in your experience, do you see any way that you could save money by just getting the frame?

I've done some homework on building up a bike from a frame. My conclusion is that there's no money to be saved. Even if you scour ebay for the parts you still have to buy tools and other equipment. In the end, you'll probably spend more than if you bought the bike from your friendly neighbourhood lbs and you'll have some tools that will never get used again. On the plus side, you will have the satisfaction of having done it. So its not about the arithmetic.

 

[Animator]

You only save money if you get a screamin' deal on the frame. Your lbs maybe be willing to build it up for you.

 

[Adam-from-SLO]

The bike I ride now, it was about $2K msrp for the frameset. At the end of 1999 I was able to buy it for $1K, and I already has several components laying around for it! I was able to build her up for $1800 total, where as if I bought it totally new/built up = about $3500 easily.

Keep an eye out for end of year deals, on 2007 (or possibly way left over 2006) model year frames .. then go from there. Get an idea of what your groupo is gonna cost you, and do the math to see if its worth it to you, or not