Quote Originally Posted by Zippinalong View Post
westtexas: Interesting, I would never of thought to have a bike built from scratch, if you don't mind sharing, about what did it cost? Was it a road bike or what kind?
So your build can be any price you want it to be, it just depends on what you end up putting on it, and what kind of deals you can find.

My bike is a Cannondale Synapse full carbon frame/fork with Ultegra and Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels. I also added Zipp carbon bars and a Zipp carbon seat post. After taxes I paid about $3300 for it.

The LBS I go to (the only one in town, haha) found a 2008 frame for me in the color I wanted that was sitting around in Cannondale's factory and had never been built. They ordered all the parts and I supervised the building (mostly for my own learning experience as now I am tackling doing all my own mechanicking when possible). Basically, I got the bike for about the same as it would retail (a few hundred cheaper), but the wheels are superior to stock wheels. They're no Zipp 404s, but they are pretty nice. That and the Zipp carbon bars are great for reducing vibration on the crappy roads out here.

From now on, I plan on building all my own bikes from scratch when practical. It's nice to know how it was put together, that you chose everything on it, down to every last detail (including the color of the cable housing - half black and half white).

You can find really good deals on frames on eBay and you can also ask your LBS to order things for you. There's a million and one companies out there making products and if you shop around you can find some pretty neat and specialized stuff.