Have any of you ball park priced 105 level components to complete a bare frame?

I'm trying to decide if it makes any sense to build up a bare frame with 105 level components compared to purchasing a complete bike. I'm specifically interested in building up one of the Chinese carbon frames. I have a crank, pedals, saddle on hand but would need wheels, derailleurs, bars, stem, chain, cassette, cables etc. .............................. have any of you done the heavy lifting to arrive at an approximate price to get their bike up and running.  I do understand that the possible range is immense so be kind.

Thanks for any informed replies.

Hugh

I built a bike like this a couple of years ago for my daughter using a carbon frame from Nashbar.  I purchased a 105 group out of the UK as well as a set of Fulcrum wheels.  It came out quite nice.  But probably cost more than I could have bought a complete bike.  And now a nice carbon/105 bike is even less.  A lot f the extra cost was due to the miscellaneous items - cables, etc.  The upside is that you can build it exactly the way you want.  This is usually especially important w/regard to wheels as often they are a pretty low spec on stock bikes.  But also the seat, post, stem, bars, pedals, tires, etc

I'd take a look at some of the stock bikes from Wiggle, Ribble, Merlin(?), etc. in the UK.  Some of the ones I've seen look quite nice.  I think you could get a complete bike and still have some budget for seat and wheel upgrades. 

I've got the cost summary from that build if interested.  If so, send PM w/email.

And after looking at the summary it wasn't all that bad   And the bike came out very nice.  A lot of the extra cost were a variety of little things - stem spacers, cable, headset, expander plug, etc.

I've also run spreadsheets to compare upgrading a complete bike from mechanical to Di2 vs building up a frameset.  Generally, it seems that buying a complete bike is the least expensive.  But that depends, of course, on finding a frameset that you like as well as a component/parts group that doesn't require much in upgrades. 

The complete 105 group-set is just €450-500 in Germany (VAT excluded). I would assume it is even cheaper in the USA? You guys seem to have way lower prices compared to Europe and Japan (though admittedly the latter is the best when it comes to almost-unused second-hand stuff, this winter I got the complete Dura-Ace Di2 set that ran for less than 1k km for what was approximately $60 in our local bike shop).

For the wheelset: if you don't want to invest too much and are fine with like 1770g weight per set (tyres/tubes obviously not included), I can recommend DT Swiss R24 Spline db. Running it on my X-Trail (it was stock) and it's pretty good for training and whatnot.

DrSpoke wrote:I've got the cost summary from that build if interested.  If so, send PM w/email.

 

DrSpoke,

I'm interested and would love to see your summary. Emails has been sent but may be in your spam filter.

Thanks!

Hugh

Xiatian wrote:The complete 105 group-set is just €450-500 in Germany (VAT excluded). I would assume it is even cheaper in the USA? You guys seem to have way lower prices compared to Europe and Japan (though admittedly the latter is the best when it comes to almost-unused second-hand stuff, this winter I got the complete Dura-Ace Di2 set that ran for less than 1k km for what was approximately $60 in our local bike shop).

For the wheelset: if you don't want to invest too much and are fine with like 1770g weight per set (tyres/tubes obviously not included), I can recommend DT Swiss R24 Spline db. Running it on my X-Trail (it was stock) and it's pretty good for training and whatnot.

Xiatian, Thanks for the reply. Perhaps surprisingly,  many of best component prices we find are from UK sites like Ribble, Merlin........ that have free shipping to the US and exclude the VAT.

Hugh

Please send again - I can't find it and, if it went to spam, I've deleted it - sorry.  Maybe try The PM on site here as it works well also. 

Sciguy wrote:

DrSpoke,

I'm interested and would love to see your summary. Emails has been sent but may be in your spam filter.

Thanks!

Hugh

To get a Chinese carbon with 105, I would go to bikes direct. You'll get a better frame and a \n bike

chas wrote:To get a Chinese carbon with 105, I would go to bikes direct. You'll get a better frame and a bike

Chas,

I've looked but don't see anything all that appealing . Can you name a specific bike you think is a good deal?

Thanks,

Hugh