Building a Bike

99 times out of 100 it is less expensive to buy a complete bike (used or new) over building one up.  What you get from building it up yourself is the satisfaction of knowing how to do it all - or fighting through it and figuring it out - and the ability to exactly pick and choose every indivdual part that you want and can afford.

With that said ..... I only build up my own bikes the majority of the time.  I rarely buy a complete bike.

But I was also a shop and local team mechanic for 5 years and do all my own work, so a build will take me about 3 or 4 hours tops as long as I have all the parts needed.

It's a learning process. And you've just learned another (not cheap) lesson -- not all parts are compatible. There are several "standards" in the bike industry.

But even with all the headaches, when I'm wrenching, I'm in my "happy place".

"so a build will take me about 3 or 4 hours tops as long as I have all the parts needed"

Yeah, my wife is continually amazed at how fast my bikes go together... That's when I don't have to redo something like the headset because of incompatibility...

And of course that doesn't include building up wheels from pieces...

I haven't built any wheels in a bit (for myself), but tack on another 30 - 45 minutes per wheel (after putting on spoke prep and letting it dry) for that.

See, that's why they paid you the big bucks...

Seriously, though, that's some pretty blazing speed for a wheel build.