[buggyman]

I just bought myself and my wife FS rides and really enjoy them. SO much so its time to maybe sell the road bike. I also took my HT and bought a small frame for my son and swaped everything over. Well now I have this Haro ICS 4.0 frame and if I sell my road bike I was considering building up the Haro hard tail for some local riding. I was surprised at the weight of the frame coming in at just under 4 pounds. Any one have any sites selling build kits for pretty cheap or would I be better off doing a slow build here and there? I would love to keep the bike around 20 pounds if possible.

 

[Ratt]

How much do you have to spend?

I just bought myself and my wife FS rides and really enjoy them. SO much so its time to maybe sell the road bike. I also took my HT and bought a small frame for my son and swaped everything over. Well now I have this Haro ICS 4.0 frame and if I sell my road bike I was considering building up the Haro hard tail for some local riding. I was surprised at the weight of the frame coming in at just under 4 pounds. Any one have any sites selling build kits for pretty cheap or would I be better off doing a slow build here and there? I would love to keep the bike around 20 pounds if possible.

a 20 lbs kit is tough if you are on a tight budget, will be more like 24-26 lbs on an average budget build kit. If the skys the limit then by all means full '07 XTR would get you there. Not sure what key words to search for your budget build but maybe posting in the Save some Weight forum will get you pointed in the right direction for the sleeper cheap light weight stuff. Its possible to build your 20 lbs bike for cheap but it will take patience and research.

If lightweight and cheap are your goals have you thought about building a single speed out of your frame?

 

[gabe0807]

If you are looking to stay cheap take a look at the Pricepoint build kits. They seem pretty reasonable, but they aren't going to be super light, especially the wheels. Jenson has rolled out a fully customizable build kit system and their prices are usually pretty good so you could head over there and try customizing a few to see what you can get at your price point.

It depends how cheap you want to go. Occasionally you see full Shimano or SRAM build kits on eBay for pretty cheap but that's a wait and see sort of thing.

 

[pinkheadedbug]

The pricepoint X9 build kits are actually very light for the price, except for the wheels. However you can delete or swap the wheels in the build kit and they will adjust the price.

 

[KirtM]

Not very lite just cheap.

http://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/GP400A00-Xlt+10+Trail+Bike+Build+Kit.aspx

 

[palmermtb]

I was also considering the SRAM X-9 kit at Greenfish but wasn't to keen about the Race Face cranks. That's when I decided to check Ebay.

I just pieced together a a full 760 XT groupo including hubs, cranks, front and rear derailleurs, shifters cassette and chain for about $420 bucks including all the shipping. Not exactly cheap, I know, but relatively speaking a full XT groupo with hubs for less than $600 is definitely a good bargain.

If you take the time to look it can be done. I found a couple of things by using misspelled searches. You can't beat a full XT groupo for quality and durability unless of course you buy an XTR groupo. Check out what I paid below:

XT Cranks $158
XT Shifters $59
XT Front centerlock hub $24
XT Rear centerlock hub $35
XT Rear Derailleur $40
XT Front Derailleur $15
XT Cassette 12-34 $39
XTR Chain 7701 $18

Shipping from the different sellers was about $22

These were all Buy It Nows so I didn't have to wait long for the parts.

 

[Bikerbob.com]

Ebay magic

I was also considering the SRAM X-9 kit at Greenfish but wasn't to keen about the Race Face cranks. That's when I decided to check Ebay.

I just pieced together a a full 760 XT groupo including hubs, cranks, front and rear derailleurs, shifters cassette and chain for about $420 bucks including all the shipping. Not exactly cheap, I know, but relatively speaking a full XT groupo with hubs for less than $600 is definitely a good bargain.

If you take the time to look it can be done. I found a couple of things by using misspelled searches. You can't beat a full XT groupo for quality and durability unless of course you buy an XTR groupo. Check out what I paid below:

XT Cranks $158
XT Shifters $59
XT Front centerlock hub $24
XT Rear centerlock hub $35
XT Rear Derailleur $40
XT Front Derailleur $15
XT Cassette 12-34 $39
XTR Chain 7701 $18

Shipping from the different sellers was about $22

These were all Buy It Nows so I didn't have to wait long for the parts.

Wow! You got some mad ebay skills.
Was it all new stuff?
Send me your secret. I never find new stuff for under wholeslae, and then there's shipping.

 

[gabe0807]

Yeah is that including shipping? If so that's pretty crazy. I buy tons of stuff off eBay, most lightly used, but I can never get the small parts individually like that because shipping is just too much for each little part. I find its usually cheaper to find a whole bike with the spec I want then just sell off the frame, fork, parts I don't want, etc. :thumbsup:

 

[palmermtb]

I can usually find a couple of great deals now and then, here and there. But I was on a roll this time. I bought all of these items within a couple of days. The secret is to do as many combinations of searches as you can think of for whatever the item is. The problem is that the EBay search engine sucks. So you gotta be smarter than the search engine. The other secret is that people always make mistakes in the titles of the aucitons

For example if I am looking for a 29er frame

I will do a search for the following words twenty, twemty, niner,ninner, 29, 29", nimer, 700c/29, and any other combos that come to mind at the time.

I'll give you a better example got to Ebay and do a search for BWM you will find numerous listings where people mistyped BMW.

I actually found the rear deraileur by mistyping the word "raer".

Give it a try