Cheapest 'good' MTB build
Discussion
So I wanted a cheap but good mountain bike to leave at work so I can pop out for lunchtime rides. I started looking at complete bikes and almost pressed the button on a Voodoo Buntu as for £320 it's a bargain. However I then started thinking I may find it frustrating when I'm used to normally riding high end bikes so I thought I'd build the best bike I could for as cheap as I could but sticking to new parts as 2nd hand is such a lottery in getting worn out or damaged junk. Anyway spec has ended up as follows :-
BX HT01 650b frame, aluminium £116
BX zero stack headset £20
Suntour 650b Radion fork £159
Clarks M2 brakes £37
Deore BB & cranks, rings (will sell the rings) £49
10spd Deore shadow + mech £37
Novatec 650b wheelset £95
Planet X stem & seat clamp £11
Clarks lock on grips £4
Then I did have some spare stuff left over in the garage, cable and housing, a chain I'd cut to short for my DH bike when fully compressed, Continental X Kings, Commencal ride alpha bars & seatpost, fireEye 34T NW ring, XT 11-36 cassette and a sella italia saddle.
Think it'll actually be a really quite good bike.
I could have gone cheaper on the frame On One Parkwood £89 but I really didn't like the geometry. Also could have gone 26" but felt I didn't want to go backwards buying a quickly dying standard and I had the X Kings in 650b.
So what 'cheap' but good build would you do?
BX HT01 650b frame, aluminium £116
BX zero stack headset £20
Suntour 650b Radion fork £159
Clarks M2 brakes £37
Deore BB & cranks, rings (will sell the rings) £49
10spd Deore shadow + mech £37
Novatec 650b wheelset £95
Planet X stem & seat clamp £11
Clarks lock on grips £4
Then I did have some spare stuff left over in the garage, cable and housing, a chain I'd cut to short for my DH bike when fully compressed, Continental X Kings, Commencal ride alpha bars & seatpost, fireEye 34T NW ring, XT 11-36 cassette and a sella italia saddle.
Think it'll actually be a really quite good bike.
I could have gone cheaper on the frame On One Parkwood £89 but I really didn't like the geometry. Also could have gone 26" but felt I didn't want to go backwards buying a quickly dying standard and I had the X Kings in 650b.
So what 'cheap' but good build would you do?
I'd definitely go singlespeed and save the cost/faff of gears, and give serious thought to going rigid upfront (f'nar!) if a set of RS Rebas/Revs (with decent uppers!) or basic 'zocchis can't be found.
S/H on-one inbred (loads on eBay), with wheel size being a non-issue (plenty of cheap 26" bits around and will be for years ahead).
S/H on-one inbred (loads on eBay), with wheel size being a non-issue (plenty of cheap 26" bits around and will be for years ahead).
Already have an On One Inbred single speed pub bike, think it was one of the very 1st inbreds amazing I didn't snap it back when it was my main bike as many did (chain stay issue on old ones), they are a good bike if a bit heavy.
The single speed things ok if you are approaching every ride as a training ride or real potter about (going to the pub) but I think it detracts from having fun so I'd want gears.
Full rigid indeed I did think of that and it was my intention however not so simple if you want modern trail type geometry as ridgid forks all tend to be to replace 100mm forks when most trail type frames want 120 / 130mm they are also not massively cheap most I found that would stand up to drops and jumps were about £70, so yeah saving against reasonable suspension. Could have gone Rockshox TK they can be had new for £110 but steel stanctions. The suntour Raidons are actually quite a good fork, whyte spec them on some quite expensive bikes.
The single speed things ok if you are approaching every ride as a training ride or real potter about (going to the pub) but I think it detracts from having fun so I'd want gears.
Full rigid indeed I did think of that and it was my intention however not so simple if you want modern trail type geometry as ridgid forks all tend to be to replace 100mm forks when most trail type frames want 120 / 130mm they are also not massively cheap most I found that would stand up to drops and jumps were about £70, so yeah saving against reasonable suspension. Could have gone Rockshox TK they can be had new for £110 but steel stanctions. The suntour Raidons are actually quite a good fork, whyte spec them on some quite expensive bikes.
paulmon said:
Bookmarking this thread with interest as I'm looking to build my son a 26 inch bike rather than buying something off the peg. Finding a decent 26 inch frame in XS is quite a challenge. The on one inbred looks good value at £144.
I built an Inbred XS up for my middle son, now 11, and he loves it. Second hand frame for £70 in perfect condition.Total spend on building the bike up was around £400, with a fair chunk of that being second hand Mavic X321 (or something like that) rims on Hope Pro II hubs.
In addition to that, he's got 1x10 using Shimano Zee cranks and SRAM X5 shifter and mech, plus the 26" Raidon forks, Shimano M565 (?) brakes (but darling wife, it really does make economic sense for me to upgrade my HT's brakes!) and a mix of left over bars, saddle (conveniently, although he was only 10 at the time, he's got the same sit bone width as me) and seatpost.
Well that escalated quickly. I wanted to capitalise on some of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday offers so after spending a fair bit of last night researching I have today bought:
27.5 Wheelset from Superstar with Stans Crest rims and Switch hubs £129 discounted from £199. I have these on my 29er and they are superb and a bargain at this price.
Suntour Epixcon XC 100mm Travel - £149.99 (ebay) - Needed a non tapered steerer which has restricted my choice
152mm Crankset with 28t ring - £35 (Islabike) - Phoned them up and told them I needed spares. Bit cheeky but finding good quality cranks at this size is nigh on impossible.
In usual PH fashion it looks like my initial £450 budget is going to get blown out of the water and I expect this to come in closer to £650 but it will be a very smart bike at that price.
27.5 Wheelset from Superstar with Stans Crest rims and Switch hubs £129 discounted from £199. I have these on my 29er and they are superb and a bargain at this price.
Suntour Epixcon XC 100mm Travel - £149.99 (ebay) - Needed a non tapered steerer which has restricted my choice
152mm Crankset with 28t ring - £35 (Islabike) - Phoned them up and told them I needed spares. Bit cheeky but finding good quality cranks at this size is nigh on impossible.
In usual PH fashion it looks like my initial £450 budget is going to get blown out of the water and I expect this to come in closer to £650 but it will be a very smart bike at that price.
Beginning to think I should have got a 15mm through axle fork, silly but glad I just went for it and bought what I did. More thinking would have increased the spend no doubt. It escalated in one day from a £320 voodoo to a £500 custom build, another's week and it'd ended up £700 or so.
Herman Toothrot said:
Beginning to think I should have got a 15mm through axle fork, silly but glad I just went for it and bought what I did. More thinking would have increased the spend no doubt. It escalated in one day from a £320 voodoo to a £500 custom build, another's week and it'd ended up £700 or so.
lol... ive done the same thing as you. Multiple times!I started off with one mountain bike which i loved. Then i started buying spare parts that were a steal on ebay/gumtree or discounted in shops...
...I now have 6 full mountain bikes. All of which are highly specced up! (3 carbon frames, XTR, X0 parts etc..)
I absolutely believe its cheaper to just buy a 2nd/3rd hand bike on ebay then it is to buy the parts and put it together yourself. For £500 you could have had a brand new bike albeit a rather low end one. Same money - You could have a second hand machine that has 100 miles done on it looks like new and was worth 1k+ when new. But... wheres the fun in that?
I really like spending time choosing the 'perfect' part and putting the bike together myself. Its a good hobby and very pleasing to start with just bits and end up with a really good bike that you can easily maintain as you built it. Not the cheapest way really, but the most enjoyable definately - well, if you like building bikes.
I can now tell you how much every single part weighs on 4 of those bikes and have spreadsheets that have weights and cost. Seriously anal but ...why not. Just hopes the missus never finds out what all those 'little parts' add up to cost wise.
I'd love to be able to do this but wouldn't know where to start! All sounds terribly complicated!
(I've got this mental wall about bikes, I've rebuilt many many car engines, engine swaps, gearboxes, axles, endless MOT repairs, 2 stroke tuning, all sorts, but I'm fecking hopeless with a bike!)
(I've got this mental wall about bikes, I've rebuilt many many car engines, engine swaps, gearboxes, axles, endless MOT repairs, 2 stroke tuning, all sorts, but I'm fecking hopeless with a bike!)
Huntsman said:
I'd love to be able to do this but wouldn't know where to start! All sounds terribly complicated!
(I've got this mental wall about bikes, I've rebuilt many many car engines, engine swaps, gearboxes, axles, endless MOT repairs, 2 stroke tuning, all sorts, but I'm fecking hopeless with a bike!)
If you can do the that building a bike will be super easy.(I've got this mental wall about bikes, I've rebuilt many many car engines, engine swaps, gearboxes, axles, endless MOT repairs, 2 stroke tuning, all sorts, but I'm fecking hopeless with a bike!)
Huntsman said:
Herman Toothrot said:
If you can do the that building a bike will be super easy.
The actual assembly yes, I'm sure I could, but buying the bits would be a mess! It'd end up like a clown bike.The main thing is to start with making sure you've got the right size and type of frame for the riding you want to do, which is easy enough with a bit of googling.
Then make sure you've got all the specs for the frame. Most of this will be absolute - type of headset, bottom bracket, wheel size, type of rear wheel axle, seat tube diameter and type of fork steerer - and there will be a recommended range for fork length.
From there, so long as you adhere to that, it's relatively tricky to go massively wrong, especially as most of the parts sites like Chain Reaction will tell you on the part description whether the part is designed for XC, Downhill or whatever.
Finish off with wide bars, and you can always cut them down if you decide you want them shorter.
You could always plan out a proposed build and post it on here for people's views.
Edited by Kermit power on Tuesday 29th November 17:32
Got my Raidon forks today from Tredz - advert clearly said steerer material : alloy, steerer size : Tapered. What I've received is a steel straight steerer version. Also a big chip on the bridge. Have emailed them to see what they have to say. Not the biggest problem in the world if they don't actually have a tapered version & offer a free adapter lower race, but then it looks a bit naff an internal tapered frame going to a spindly 1 1/8 crown. Not best pleased.
Herman Toothrot said:
Got my Raidon forks today from Tredz - advert clearly said steerer material : alloy, steerer size : Tapered. What I've received is a steel straight steerer version. Also a big chip on the bridge. Have emailed them to see what they have to say. Not the biggest problem in the world if they don't actually have a tapered version & offer a free adapter lower race, but then it looks a bit naff an internal tapered frame going to a spindly 1 1/8 crown. Not best pleased.
Send them back loads of choices for tapered forks. I'll let you know how the e-bay ones from China are.Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff