Self Build - Donor Bike Bargain & advice.

[tjdixon911]

I am thinking of Building myself a Hard Tail, currently looking at Orange Crush / Bird Zero AM - whilst I may be better off going for a built Zero direct, if I go the Crush route would this be a good start for a donor bike?

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bik...

Currently with 10% intro offer, further 10% BC discount + voucher discount of 10% I can get it for £1050 ish.

I'd use the Forks, Brakes, Groupset and probably wheels, sell the frame/surplus bits and I could be looking at £7-800 for those parts, much cheaper than buying them individually with a final decent spec Crush (better than the entry level one) dropper seat post etc for around £1500 if not less.

Thoughts on the donor option and bike choice please?

The other bike that keeps popping up is the Whyte 905/9...

[Don1]

I'm in the same boat - I have a BFe currently, but really fancy a Mondraker Vantage RR 650b+.

Frame ordered, but don't know whether to strip the majority off the BFe or to get all new....

[anonymous-user]

tjdixon911 said:

I am thinking of Building myself a Hard Tail, currently looking at Orange Crush / Bird Zero AM - whilst I may be better off going for a built Zero direct, if I go the Crush route would this be a good start for a donor bike?

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bik...

Currently with 10% intro offer, further 10% BC discount + voucher discount of 10% I can get it for £1050 ish.

I'd use the Forks, Brakes, Groupset and probably wheels, sell the frame/surplus bits and I could be looking at £7-800 for those parts, much cheaper than buying them individually with a final decent spec Crush (better than the entry level one) dropper seat post etc for around £1500 if not less.

Thoughts on the donor option and bike choice please?

The other bike that keeps popping up is the Whyte 905/9...

Why would you not use the bars, stem, bb etc from the Boardman? I think you would be lucky to get much more than 500 for the frame and shock personally. Agree its a decent spec crush for not a lot of money but a lot of hassle and the stock Crush S comes with the Revelation fork which is, from experience, buttery smooth when set up properly and better than the Pike (IMHO!)

[tjdixon911]

pablo said:

Why would you not use the bars, stem, bb etc from the Boardman? I think you would be lucky to get much more than 500 for the frame and shock personally. Agree its a decent spec crush for not a lot of money but a lot of hassle and the stock Crush S comes with the Revelation fork which is, from experience, buttery smooth when set up properly and better than the Pike (IMHO!)

I have some carbon bars to use, and I think I'd go for a shorter stem, the BB is push fit on the Boardman and threaded on the others (I think) and so it would only leave the Headset which your right I could use - my calcs (below) were only based on getting £2-300 for the surplus bits so any more than that would be a bonus...

Boardman £1050
New Frame £500
Sale of frame/surplus (£300)
Reverb £200
Sundries £100

Total spend £1550.

Is it more hassle than it's worth?

Anyone got experience of the Bird Zero v crush? A similar spec'd zero is around £1500..

[tjdixon911]

Don1 said:

I'm in the same boat - I have a BFe currently, but really fancy a Mondraker Vantage RR 650b+.

Frame ordered, but don't know whether to strip the majority off the BFe or to get all new....

The Vantage RR is a good looking bike..

[jamiebae]

tjdixon911 said:

Is it more hassle than it's worth?

Building bikes is fun, given the choice I'd build my own rather than buying a fully built bike anyway

[Kermit power]

Wouldn't you have to change the cranks as well to fit the different BB?

Also, purely from personal preference, I have no problem with not having fork lockout on a full suss, but I really wouldn't fancy losing it on my hardtail.

[tjdixon911]

Kermit power said:

Wouldn't you have to change the cranks as well to fit the different BB?

Also, purely from personal preference, I have no problem with not having fork lockout on a full suss, but I really wouldn't fancy losing it on my hardtail.

Would you just not buy a bb to suite the cranks threaded or push fit? May be wrong... I've a set of xt cranks I've used with both a push fit and threaded bb...

I didn't pick up on lack of lock out, I'm not sure it would worry me too much though as I barely use it on the bikes I have.

[Kermit power]

tjdixon911 said:

Would you just not buy a bb to suite the cranks threaded or push fit? May be wrong... I've a set of xt cranks I've used with both a push fit and threaded bb...

You may be right. I'd always assumed the actual axles were different diameters, so you'd need adapters to put whichever was the smaller crank in the larger BB, and wouldn't be able to go the other way?

I may be completely wrong, of course! I did start looking into this when thinking about going 2x10 to 1x11, but I only got as far as looking at gear ratios before realising it would be a daft idea until I got significantly lighter and fitter!