building up a bike.... what first frame or components

come on guys...

ilovestacy said:

hey yall. i dont have a ton of cash, but i am going to do a custom buildup...in steps. here is the situation. i currently have a specialized allez. aluminum frame/fork. i want to buy a burley fox hollow, mavic krysirums equippes and centaur. i am planning on buying the frame and possibly the wheels and building it. then when i get more cash i will buy the campy kit and convert it to that. is this a better move than buying the centaur kit and building it up on the allez? thanks so much. -pc

You'd probably be better off if you buy the bike as a package....have everything assembled for you. Save your money until you have what you need.

Agree with lohsnest. No disrespect, but you mentioned you are cash limited. If building a bike from scratch, it is almost always cheaper and much easier to simply buy the bike you want. Particularly...since you are asking the question.
HTH,
George

The deal was that the wife said "no more bikes!" So instead of buying a bike I bought a frame and fork (not a bike...technically) and I built it up (now it's a bike). I spent quite a bit doing it but I think that I did pretty well. I agree with the other posts that you could do better if you bought a whole bike rather then building your own but if you are not in a rush you can do pretty well buying the components as you find them and building the bike slowly. If you are curious:
Litespeed Saber w/ Zipp 909's, full Dura Ace 10, Profile carbon/carbon fork, Profile Carbon X aerobars, Fizik TRI seat, Easton EC90 post= $2,400.00. A bit more then I wanted to spend but, boy, does that bike fly!!!

Im gonna have to say you need to think it over very well. I just biult a bike to specs at what i want. This wasnt cheap and i could have bought two nice bike for what i paid but i wanted what i felt was the most comfortable and durable to my style of riding. I cant beleive im going to say this but dont worry to much about the weight weenie stuff either. My last bike was 19lb's the new one is 16.3 w/ pedals.There is not much diff between the two bikes.So i picked a few mph in the hills.If you go the build it yourself route just keep in mine you dont have to buy the lightest stuff but get what you can AFFORD and what fits you. I think you would be most happy if you got your bike from a lbs.Most shops give free lifetime adjustments and if a part ever fails most of them will swap it out and only charge you for the part. Alot of shops will size you up and make sure everything on a new bike is for you also.All great things to take into consideration.If you dont know alot about sizing and picking out all your stuff then it might be alot cheaper and get on you on the road faster if you just save up and go the lbs route.

A new brand out is Blue Competition Cycles. They have really nice bikes. full carbon, Al and carbon, and a TT bike with aluminum and carbon.
www.rideblue.com