Miranda,

How much is the difference in price of the valkyrie with components vs. frame alone?

How much can you sell your bike for? I'd say with full 105 components, you'll probably be able to get at least $600 easy, probably more like $800. If you were selling the frame & fork alone (I don't know what you have), I'd doubt you'd get more than $200 for it if that.

The full shimano 105 groupo is like $600 minimum it looks like from the google that I just did.

I've switched the components on my bikes a couple of times... My boyfriend got annoyed with the game pretty quickly, so I just bought the tools and learned how to do it myself. If you're reasonably handy, it's not all that hard. So I swap all the components and get the tuning mostly there, then I get my boyfriend to fine tune things.

Building things yourself is a lot more fun - and I think you end up getting a better bike for the price.

FSA gossamer cranks are not that great & not that expensive - if you watch bonktown, you'll pretty commonly see them come up for about $70-80, and the ultegra or 105 cranks come up for about $100. So you can swap your cranks without a huge amount of added expense. I'm not sure I believe you don't need 165mm cranks because I am all about them - but I think you should try a bike with 170's, and keep your 165's around just in case you want to go back. (they're sometimes hard to find in that size) If you switch to just fsa gossamers, you probably can use the same bottom bracket that you have.

I bought a surly frame off here and built it up as a commuter using some spare pieces I had - there's almost always an issue where you gotta get a front derailleur that has the right clamp diameter or braze on, 'cause what you have is the wrong size... and it does end up costing a bit more. But at the end of it all I got a surly with good componentry that I can use as a commuter or off road for less than what I'd have paid new for a bike with say sora components. I did spend more than I planned.

I bought a marin road bike at rei a few years back with 9 speed 105 components... A while later I decided I wanted to try 650 wheels because I'm short and everyone was recommending them, so I got a great deal on ebay on a 650 wheel trek with dura ace & ultegra 10 speed components. I hated the bike, but loved the components - so I shifted all the components over to my marin and gave it a nice 10 speed upgrade & sold the trek with the 9 speed 105. While shifting everything was a mild pain in the butt, in the end it cost less than it would for me to have bought a new set of components for my marin or to have bought a new bike with ultegra & dura ace components.

I also bought a scattante bike with new 10 speed 105 & ultegra components off craigslist for a great price once (basically the guy was near me, it fit great, and I wanted a 2nd road bike...) After 6 months or so, I saw someone with a full carbon frame & fork unused on craigslist for a cheap price because it wasn't a known brand for road biking at least - I found good reviews of it online, and went ahead and bought it. I shifted all the pieces from my scattante over onto it... In the end I got a 10 speed 105 full carbon bike for a lot less than I'd have spent if I went into a bike shop... or for what used carbon bikes sell for. So the scattante frame is sitting in my shed now just in case I ever crash/break my full carbon... I have done some test riding of the specialized ruby and trek carbon bikes... and I prefer mine and how it handles. That may just be because I have it fitted to me, but I don't think there'd be any advantage to me paying more for the brand name.

If I ever see a good titanium frame at a reasonable price in my size, I'm totally going to buy it & swap my marin's components on it...

I'm not sure I'm being too helpful and am not just blathering at you - but in my case I've found it worth it to go ahead and just swap parts around and keep the ones I've had... But I don't have the budget that some other people have, and while I think I have nice bikes - lots of people on here have waaaay nicer bikes than either of mine.

I've been slowly upgrading or swapping things like saddles, wheels & handlebars on the bikes as I've found good deals on craigslist or bonktown/steepandcheap/chainlove.