Advice on buying a complete for the frame..... How's it gone for you in the past?

Hair Face

Well-Known Member
I'm sure many of you have experience with this however I don't and I'm curious how it's gone for you. I found a solid deal on a complete bike that I was eyeing up a few months back and am considering grabbing it. I would essentially be buying it for the frame and trying to sell all the takeoffs to bring the cost down ever further. From your experience how would I make out selling new takeoff wheelset, fork, brakes, bars, stem, tires and dropper? Rockshox Reba RL, Sram Level T brakes, Sram NX Group for point of reference.
 
I've done that but had a similar frame to swap the parts to.

You're going to take a bath on those parts, not a huge market for low end upgrades. The math gets murky when you account for the time and effort it's going to take to get rid of them.
 
I'm sure many of you have experience with this however I don't and I'm curious how it's gone for you. I found a solid deal on a complete bike that I was eyeing up a few months back and am considering grabbing it. I would essentially be buying it for the frame and trying to sell all the takeoffs to bring the cost down ever further. From your experience how would I make out selling new takeoff wheelset, fork, brakes, bars, stem, tires and dropper? Rockshox Reba RL, Sram Level T brakes, Sram NX Group for point of reference.
Im someone who hates that bike companies almost never sell frames....or if they do...they make them so absurdly expensive you would be stupid to buy one over a complete bike....But typically I try to buy whichever model that has the important "good" parts that I want....Not the over priced nonsense stuff. Like carbon frame, maybe better fork or shock......sometimes wheels or drivetrain, but I wouldnt pay $2-3000 extra for stuff like enve wheels....or fancy saddle...Fox kashima anything is bullshit.....Just have to look at each build and how it prices out
 
I recently bought a Kent for $180, sold the parts on FB for $150. Now I have a crappy but serviceable beater frame for the beach. There's actually a market for complete or almost complete build kits.
 
New, I've not done intentionally. If I buy a complete bike, I usually try to get it with most of the parts I want and with need for minimal changes other than the saddle and grips. The only time it has almost worked was my GT Grade. It came with SRAM road parts and I was able to sell most of the drivetrain and brakes and rebuild it with Campy parts. I'm not sure if it saved any money. That said, I intentionally bought it for the SRAM parts to see if I liked it (didn't).

Used - has basically never gone well and I generally end up with a pile of clapped-out parts that aren't what I want to use and aren't worth selling. So they sit in my parts bins for years until I usually toss them or occasionally I've been able to sell them at the Trexlertown swap for a few $. Granted, this was back in my DH racing days when a DH bike was half used up after one season.

My preference is to buy bare frames and build up with the components I want, but as mentioned that is getting harder to do these days.
 
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Important to understand the market currently... Parts market isn't good rn, especially for "used" low end take off parts. We're still in a glut from peak demand and even new stuff is immediately on sale. You'll take a bath on those things, if they even sell.

How is this complete bike priced vs you just buying just the frame new? If its a marginal difference, buy the frame and skip the parts headache.
 
I ended up passing up on the bike. And assume it's likely gone and the odds of finding another are somewhere between slim and none. But it was a leftover '23 epic evo comp for 2399. They blew them out last year and at the time it seemed like a great bargain but I wasn't looking for another bike at the time. Now I've decided buying a complete for the frame isn't worth it considering they blew out the Sworks frames for just a touch more than that around the same time last year.

As for current frame options the Revel Ranger V2 is looking really appealing and WWC is still offering pre-orders despite Revel showing them out of stock. $2105 after coupon doesn't seem bad but with the way the market is looking, part of me thinks I should just keep waiting to see if a better deal comes along.
 
Have you looked at the chisel


I glanced at it a while back but never actually considered it. I'm not a weight weenie but I do want whatever I build to be light-ish and the ranger is already pushing it upwards enough, though now that I've looked that Chisel is rather light for an aluminum frame. I'll take a closer look at it!
 
Are you planning to swap parts from your current bike on to a new frame? You will spend more than anticipated- even if all your parts fit. You’re better off buying a complete mid-level bike and selling the old bike for whatever you can get. It’ll come out about the same and everything will be new and work harmoniously. I know from experience.
 
I saw one of those ultimate builds on YouTube where a guy built a 27 lb one…. I don’t remember who produced it though.. 2k for a frame set is pretty good for a new bike.
 
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