extra points for the seriously cheap! and we dont want any of this…its got an XTR mech and i paid 120 quid instead of 140 type nonsense!. begged borrowed and stolen(perhaps!) is what im looking for.

dont need to be fancy..just usable…just!

How about this:

Was a Merlin frame (about £70) + all bits from Ebay/classifieds. Hence Deore rear brake & Hope front.

Over time it has transmogrified into this:

(Now with rather more bling Crosstrail wheels)

I built this bike to race this year, the total build came to around 500-600, borrowed bits and was given bits to build it up. the stylo cranks on it in that pic fell off the bike when i was preriding the scottish champs course in FT. william.

full carbon XTC frame costed me £300.

the bike looks a lot different now though, I've changed the wheels and the forks, the cranks and other bits and bobs.

Not ratty enough really to compete but…

Malt 1 frame and seatpost, £50 from ebay
MXC fork cheap off the classifieds here.
Wheels/tyres/brakes/cranks from the spares box.
Saddle from Lidl 😀

Mrs Flamejob's Five, frame was from classifieds, cheap forks from the net, wheels and other bits were from another bike, brakes from my bits bin. I think the newest bits were the chainset and grips.

It's still going strong.

This was built from scratch for my stepfather for £120 this summer.

Donations from some generous people on here (including frame!) and my spares bin, but mostly classifieds.

v8 shin print is winning so far…
p.s. commuters and winter/hack bikes are more than welcome…
double,extra points for reserected bikes found in streams, hedges or friend sheds…

Not a great pic of the bike, but it was found in a skip and worked pretty well from the off:

Little bike I built for my son. Frame was something like £50 either here or on Ebay, virtually everything else was from the parts bin e.g. saddle and rear mech were originally from my Epic, bars and stem from my old Kahuna, old Mars Elite forks had been on various bikes, shifters from my Inbred. I think the only new bits were the Shimano mechanical disks and the seatpost and they were both cheap from Ebay. Drivetrain is mostly XT (shifters, mechs and chainset) and even had an XT cassette on until I swapped it back to one of my own bikes.

As he's grown a bit since it was built it's getting a facelift (longer forks, better wheels & tyres) now.

My Specialized Hardrock comp pub/shopping/rat bike.
Donated by a mate from the local bike shop. Previous owner didn't want to buy a new front wheel for it, so left it with the shop. They needed space and gave it to me.
Total cost to be made road worthy, £30 (the trailer I already owned).

My Genesis Altitude 853 which you may not think is such a bargain, until I break down what it cost me…

Frame: £180 brand new clearance from a shop
Forks: £180 (yes really!) brand spanking new (yes really!) including hub off ebay
Headset: Kooka Colours brand new off ebay for £12 (RRP is about £60 iirc)
Brakes: XTR calipers (£30 each off Chain Reaction), XT levers (£50 the pair off ebay I thnk) with goodridge hoses (which were about £25 each, so not that much of a bargain I suppose), XTR rear rotor (came with caliper) Hope 180mm front rotor (about a tenner off ebay)
Rims: Mavic 819 UST rims for £30 apiece (so half price!) from Chain Reaction
Spokes: DT comps bought yonks ago for £3 for a box of £100!
Hubs: Front free with the forks, rear Shimano XT for £32 from Chain Reaction
Tyres: Bontrager Mud X's for £20 each
Cranks: SLX for £80 off Chain Reaction
Pedals: £15 off ebay new
Cassette: SRAM PG980 for £26 from Merlin Cycles
Chain: SRAM PC971 for a tenner off ebay I think
Rear Mech: XT Shadow for £30 brand new off the classifieds!
Front Mech: XT for £15 brand new off the classifieds
Shifters: XT one ride old, £30 off the classifieds
Seatpost: Thomson for £35 barely used off the classifieds
Saddle: Charge Spoon 1 ride old £15 off the classifieds
Stem: FSA pictured (£12 off ebay), now changed to Thomson (£35 off the classifieds)
Handlebars: Easton EC70 couple of rides old £50 off ebay
Grips: £5 off Chain Reaction
Extras: (Including cables, headset spacers, tubeless sealant) £10

Total build cost over time… £1,000 exactly with the FSA stem (£1,023 with the new Thomson Stem)…

Ok, not the cheapest bike in the world, but when you consider that if I'd paid RRP for everything it would be well in excess of £2k, and that the top of the range Genesis Altitude is less well specced and cost £600 more at the time, I think I've got a very good bargain personally!

The fact I owned a lot of stuff before I built the bike (bars, wheels, brakes) certainly helped cost wise when I built the bike last year too! In fact the only parts of the whole bike I didn't get at what I feel was a bargain price were the brake hoses and the cranks!

Frame off ebay for £16
Forks were ~£15
Other bits from an old supermarket special and spares bin.

It's also a bodged ss using half a knacked derailur and a lot of cable ties…

The guy with the genesis hasn't a clue! £1000? I've a Mongoose Transfer trials bike built up for trail (double seatpost = awesome.) That owes me about £150. it is awesome.

RSP commuter thing
£200-ish

Cost me £160, and I use it every day for commuting.

Nowt, nadda, nuffink! Given to me by a mate who didn't have room for it @ home when he moved back from Uni.

Now got flat bars outta the shed and normal brake levers that I've swapped the hooded ones for.

i will have a lovely one in next few days when ive finished it 😉

Frame and forks were £45 from On one's 'priceshaggers' sale, wheels from a mate, with tyres and cassette! Shifters/ cranks from the classfieds, the rest of the drive train from shed bits, and bars/tape/ stem etc all from the shed, new bits were the mudguards. About a month ago I purchased a spec toupe from the classifieds, as I realised I had my least comfy saddle on the bike that gets me to work everyday and does the majority of the grimey road miles throughout the winter. I quite like it. Including new bits, about £240.

looking good.i seem to be missing all these ebay steals tho.
must try harder..

Ok, it's very clear to me that some of you just havent got a clue what this is all about. That most definitely includes MaverickBoy with the genesis… WTF?! It may have been a bargain, but that bike doesn't belong here.

I think I have a rather fine example of what odannyboy meant. I originally picked it up from a police auction at my uni, but it was in the pile of discarded cr@p at the back, the stuff that the police even thought no one would be interested in. I said how much for the bike, they said, whatever you want. I chucked them a bit of shrapnel, which totalled about £1.70 I think. Then I got a chainring off ebay for a quid inc delivery. Everything else I either already had, or blagged from the lbs (cheers gone biking mad!) or anyone I knew really! I loved this bike, but it came to a sad end when the frame cracked in 2. 🙁

I wanted to use my v-brakes, but the frame didnt have any mounts, so…

Also needed a cost effective way of keeping my chain on…

Here's the original bike before I got started on it by the way:

That is gold ahahahahahaha…snort..ahahahahahaha!

Jammy-p , that's top bodging! Like yer style!
I can hardly complete, but here's my old Marin that came out of a skip in 2001 and rebuilt with other peoples' old crap (oh no! Did i put that apostrophe in the right place?)
The pannier is the only thing of value, but it rides like a beast and does for most of my commuting.

This was built for my OH`s father. I got the frame from a friend for free, had most of the bits like forks, shifters, brakes, levers, chainset, bars and stem. His son gave him some of his spares and only thing he had to buy was wheels, chain, rear mech and cassette. All in cost him about £120 but the bike is pretty light and has decent (but older) kit on it. Lx shifters, stx-rc levers, xtr front and avid SD7 rear brake, Judy XC I had to respray as old paint was flaking. It replaced his old town bike that weighted a ton and he even started to race in marathons on his new bike.

spares, second hand bits, 4th hand forks, a 135 quid frame and a reshuffle of other bikes.
whole bike cost 300 quid i reckon.

and this is 100% spares bin 😀
but now at home, as my sister wanted a bike.
gave it to her over easter.
its not been out yet. ^o)

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1698678/

Started out as an XTC SX,bought for £500,sold all the original parts for £350,so frame was £150,XT groupset was free (won as part of a prize for filling in an WMB reader survey),Reba forks were £150 off the classifieds,XT/717wheels were £70 off the classifieds,RF bars and stem were £50 (new off CRC),Gobi was (£50 Cycle surgery bargain),Thomson post was £30,Nics were £40(ebay).
So total cost £550.

all good but jammy p takes the crown.the rear v brake upgrade is just inspired. loving the use of jubilee clips. 😯

sir…i salute you!!

No disputing jammy p wins here, top bodge indeed.

However, I love the cat-spoke modification on Reluctant's marin! Must make a hell of a noise…

OK so it's a cable rather than a shoe string, but I think the effect is much the same

Thanks guys, it was a fantastic bike, it rode really well, and was actually the bike I learned to bunny hop on!! It always looked complete cr@p to everyone else, but it was actually very good! 🙂 I miss it dearly 🙁

Jammy_p's gold thing is a proper pub bike

I think this subject could make a good magazine article. You can always tell if someone is a mountainbiker, even if they are riding some old piece of crap.

I love this type of thread!

The trouble with a thread like this is that one persons shoestring is a big pile of cash for someone else

This is mine which was built from a v cheap frame, NOS stuff and the spares box…except the forks that I had to buy new coz I couldn't find any 1" steerer forks secondhand (£70) so stands me at about £200 all in.

Bike pic was as I got it from the tip for £5 plus some free (worn) tyres off a mate.

I then lent it to another mate who commuted on it for over a year without spending a penny on it other than 2 new tyres and tubes(didnt put a spanner on it either!). Got it back, serviced it new bar tape, lube up and a better saddle and now my nephew runs it, could do with new wheels now though.

I like this thread.
Building a 2nd cross bike for trail riding (no pics yet) need forks and cables will have done me for about £200 All based around a ebay budget CX frame.
1990 Campag wheels plus front & rear mech my old parts.
S/H 8 speed Ergos, Salsa Belles Laps, twenty year old Ti railed saddle, Ebay seatpost, old 110mm 25.4 stem, new headset I bought wrong years ago, S/H cantis, FSA chainset cheap from CRC and old Landcruiser tyres.
Just need some alloy cross forks.
Just worked out it would be £260 if I bought new Kinesis forks, not bad huh?

Oldgit….I have a pair of Marinoni (IIRC) CX/Touring forks with canti & disc mounts I'm not gonna be using anytime soon if you're interested.

I'm in Milton Keynes if you want to pop round for a look see

Drop me a mail to ken_shields@btopenworld.com

where's Simon when you need him?

'liberated' a werk form the university bike stands one night and cycled to the Chek Republic on it. OK there was some tinkering, but sill, quite impressive.