New Bike or New Bike Frame and Build?

If you are adept at bike building, including installing and adjusting drivetrains, and properly torquing bolts (especially important with carbon components) and a savvy patient shopper, you can actually do fairly well by building a bike.  I personally was heading down this path and right before I pulled the trigger I found an absolutely killer deal on a complete bike on clearance at my local shop, so I opted for the complete bike instead. 

If you are going to build a tri-bike, look at Ebay.  There are several sellers who sell very nicely made Chinese carbon frames for around the $500-$700-ish.  One of the sellers that is very popular and has a good track rercord goes by the ebay name "carbonzone".  Also look at Alibaba.  There are several Chinese manufacturers who sell direct.  One of them is the supplier to Planet-X.  You can actually buy the same frame as the Planet X bike, but for a lot less.  There are a ton of threads on some of the road bike forums all about these components, and the general consensus is that they are very good, and for a fraction of the price of a brand name. 

I have done some things from youtube help and other websites.  I will do some parts research and see what the numbers look like.  I would hate to start a project then half way through figure out its as expensive or more thatn just buying a bike outright.

Keys to doing the frame-and-build are:

* Knowing what you're looking at. Parts aren't just parts, and you need to know what works with what, and if used, how they wear.

* Know how to put it together. And have the tools at your disposal to do so.

* Are NOT in any kind of hurry to get the job completed. Rush is how you end up paying more for the parts than you would have otherwise.

What he said. Lots of knowledge and lots of patience or you'll pay lots of money.

In general you get a discount on parts when you buy a complete bike. As part mfg pass on discounts to large buyers (bike mfg).

If you want to do it to save money, probably best to look for older model clearance bike. If you want the challenge of building your bike over time, different story.

Kathy has it bang on. Traditionally you will get a better price on a whole bike opposed to piecing it out.

You may want to spec out your bike as to what frame, components, wheelset you would want...then shop around and see what a complete bike costs compared to buying and building seperately....you may be shocked to see what you find out....in the end, its not always cheaper building up yor own ride....but it is much more rewarding.