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If you want to buy a racing bike frame to build your own bike, you will come across an increasingly limited range on offer from the industry. The vast majority of bikes are sold as complete bikes. Jonas Tenbrock from mail order company Rose regrets this: "With the Xlite 06, we have a great frameset for customised builds, but unfortunately demand is low," says the product manager. What would be the advantage of customising the bike? Every part could be selected according to personal preferences and the (integrated) cockpit could be truly customised from the outset.
This freedom is great. But if top parts are used at every point, will it probably be very expensive? We did the maths and built the Rose frame virtually using parts from online retailers. The website r2-bike.com is a great guide because it also shows the weights. The result of our calculation: The customised assembly with a new SRAM Red AXS The bike with an extravagant 1x12 aero drivetrain, as ridden by Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France, would cost around 7500 euros, including a Hammerhead computer. We have calculated with basic aero wheels from Leeze, high-end tyres, carbon handlebars and a high-quality saddle and pedal set.
Build your own road bike: Custom build can be cheaper
On the one hand, that's a lot of money, but on the other hand it's cheaper than the standard bike with the same groupset and Rose Aero wheels, which costs 7999 euros. The bikes differ in detail and are not directly comparable, but the example shows that a similar price can be achieved despite customisation. Rose is still one of the cheaper providers. A bike with this groupset can also cost 15,000 euros. This calculation may therefore look different for another manufacturer that sells its frames at a higher price, but the principle of being able to choose every component individually is appealing to experienced mechanics. However, if you go the whole hog for all items, five-figure prices can hardly be avoided, even when building the bike yourself.
The alternative to this is to buy a cheap road bike, say for 2000 euros, and upgrade it with selected components. Aero wheels from Leeze (900 euros), Top tyres (160 Euro), Saddle of your choice (150 euros) and Favourite handlebars (200 euros) would make the wheel 1410 euros more expensive, but would bring it up to a level in terms of contact points and wheel and tyre quality that many complete wheels for 3500 euros cannot offer. Customisation would therefore also be possible in this price range.
The frameset of the Rose Xlite 06 costs 2,499 euros and has all the features of a modern racing bike. However, if you want an aerodynamic bike with an aero frame as the basis, it is impossible to beat a well-made complete bike like the Giant Propel, which costs €3000 in its cheapest version.
Maximum customisation: Spoking
However, the supreme discipline in self-assembly (with the exception of building the frame) is not the assembly of parts, but the assembly of wheels - i.e. spoking with all the trimmings. This potentially has the same advantages as building the frame. And no, it's not super complicated and doesn't necessarily require special tools, but it is a craft and the first time takes a little longer. But it is all the more satisfying when you get the hang of spinning strong wheels from thin wires.
However, affordable lightweight wheels are only possible with Far East rims, such as those from Far Sport. The range of aero rims is limited, however, and domestically produced carbon rims are quite expensive. Nevertheless, building your own wheels can be cheaper compared to industrial products - more individually, of course.
