Hello – I'm wondering how feasible/cheap it would be to build something like this? I come across frames like this pretty regularly on FB marketplace for ~£50, but this restomod was sold for £495 which seems ridiculous! I'd like to recreate something similar – let me know what you think & what considerations I'd need to make when accruing parts.
I've got the description for the listing here: ''Here is a custom built gravel/ touring bike, equipped with a wide range Shimano 2×10 drivetrain and strong calliper brakes. This bike has been built with a brand new drivetrain, complete cabling and complete new brake system. With lightweight 700c wheels and 32mm touring tyres its ready to take some abuse both on and on the road.''
by Golfwanguk
4 Comments
>I’m wondering how feasible/cheap it would be to build something like this? I come across frames like this pretty regularly on FB marketplace for ~£50, but this restomod was sold for £495 which seems ridiculous!
Buying a used bike like that for 495 pounds would be ridiculous. But that’s probably close to what the seller paid to build it if they bought parts specifically for this build…and it’d be about how much you’d have to pay too. But many of us just have a shit ton of take off parts in our garage, so it can effectively cost me only $100 to buy parts I don’t already have.
Here’s a rough estimate of what it can cost, but you can price it out yourself:
* $75. Used quill stem, used bars, new grips.
* $100 One used wheelset
* $50. New low end saddle and seatpost
* $50. New low end long reach brake calipers.
* $50. Used low end shifters and derailleurs.
* $50. New cassette and chain.
* $50. Used crankset.
* $20. Bottom bracket.
* $20. Pedals.
* $40. New cablers and housing.
* $50. Frameset.
You’ll aslo need about $100 in cheap tools: Cable/housing cutter; chain whip; lockring tool; bottom bracket tools; allen wrenches; and crank puller if you need to remove existing crank in frame.
From what you’ve written, it doesn’t sound like you know too much about bike components or compatibility – which is fine. We’ve all been there at some point.
Thing is, without a good knowledge base of parts and compatibility, it’s going to be a lot of work and you’re going to make some mistakes. You’re going to buy parts that won’t fit or work together and then have to return them or sell them for half what you paid because they’ve been installed and aren’t returnable.
The fastest and easiest way to do this (bust most expensive) is to find a frame you like and take it to an LBS and get a quote. Show them this pic and ask for a cheap build quote and a mid build quote. Then maybe do the same with a different LBS and compare prices and components.
Doing it all yourself is a GREAT way to learn, but takes a lot of time, energy, and headache. You will have to buy tools that you may never use again. You may not be able to remove the original parts from the old frame and have to buy a different frame. It may take over a year to complete. You might fail completely. BUT if you succeed, the feeling of having built it yourself is great.
It’s completely feasible to build something like this, but the mods are going to delete your question soon because this isn’t the type of question which is encouraged here.
I think you’ll have better luck if you ask over on /r/xbiking about this. With that said, /u/DeadBy2050 is completely correct about the price. Unless you’re a bike nerd with a basement full of old parts (🙋), or you work in a shop collecting discarded wheels and such, you’re going to easily spend $500 putting something like this together. Even when you get parts for free and/or at wholesale, hardly anyone makes real money “flipping” bikes; they’re mostly trying to be made whole to support their hobby.
If you want to build one as a jumping off point to indulge your own interest in bikes, then absolutely: Welcome to the club. But if you’re trying to break even, well then I have some bad news for you.
First, the sales pitch is kind of deceptive. That’s a decent old road frame/fork that can fit 32mm tires, but barely. It’s got very little mud clearance for off-road, could easily jam up. Plus the handling will be a bit twitchy for off-road, and the rim brakes will lose much of their stopping power when thoroughly wet and muddy. Maybe that matters less, though, because the low gear looks like it’s well above 1:1, which likely means walking on lots of climbs anyway.
I’d say this is more of a city commuter/bad-pavement day tripper, except it’s got no room for full fenders as long as it’s got 32s.
But OK, for retrofitting late-model drivetrains to road frames that are 20 or more years old: I guess first find a frame and fork that you are enamored with. Then you will have clear specs to work from for things like headset diameter, threaded or threadless headset and stem, bottom bracket threading (such as with Italian frames) , rear hub spacing, seatpost diameter, brake caliper reach, tire clearance — and toe overlap.
Looks to me like the bike in the pic would have the riders’ toes sticking forward enough to contact the front tire when making sharper turns at lower speeds — like on switchbacks. That was/is deemed somewhat acceptable on road and track bikes, but can be annoying or dangerous off road. Messing with crank length and tire size can help a bit, but it’s mostly about frame/fork geometry.