Commuter

I forgot to take a finished picture, I don't have a camera at home to do it soon but it'll come eventually. I've been riding it single speed through the winter and it's pretty much what I wanted. The frame is better than I could expect, but the cheap fork lets it down, so maybe it'd be worth upgrading for a proper light one in the future. Anyway, I thought it'd be a useful reference if I listed the costs.

With a bit of luck this will end up at £250

Oh well. Even though the parts are cheap beater stuff, my lack of patience made me go for new stuff. Also I had a fair amount of it 'lying around' but I tracked back how much I paid for it originally and included here.

Part .................... Brand .............................. Source .................... Price

Frame ................. Viscount ........................... lfgss ....................... £50
Fork .................... Generic Steel ................... eBay ...................... £12
Wheels ................ Open Pro / Planet X hubs . lfgss ....................... £80
Tyres ................... Marathon Plus ................. JMJ ........................ £42
Rim Tape ............. Generic ........................... LBS ........................ £2
Inner Tube ........... Schwalbe ......................... LBS ........................ £17
Mudguards .......... SKS ................................. Spa Cycles .............. £27
BB........................ Shimano .......................... Chain Reaction ....... £14
Freewheel ............ Shimano .......................... LBS ....................... £20
Sprocket .............. Generic ............................ LBS ....................... £11
Lock Ring ............. Mavic .............................. Chain Reaction ....... £8
Cranks ................. Spa Cycles XD-2 .............. Spa Cycles ............. £20
Chainring ............. Stronglight Dural ............... Spa Cycles ............. £14
Pedals ................. Wellgo 964 ....................... Chain Reaction ....... £15
Clips .................... Evans .............................. Evans ..................... £15
Straps ................ Evans .............................. Evans ..................... £9
Calipers ............... Alhonga Long Drop ........... Spa Cycles .............. £21
Levers ................. Generic MTB, used ........... Bike Kitchen ............ £5
Headset ............... Miche .............................. Spa Cycles .............. £23
Stem ................... Kusuki .............................. lfgss ....................... £10
Bars .................... Generic North Rd .............. Push ...................... £15
Seat Post ............. Generic ............................ eBay ...................... £7
Saddle ................. Cinelli Unicanitor ............... Chain Reaction ....... £25
Cabling .......................................................... Bike Kitchen ........... £8

Extras
Calipers ............... Tektro short, didn't fit ........ lfgss ....................... £5
BB ...................... Assorted spindles+cups ..... eBay ...................... £8
Welding to remove stuck BB cup .................................................... £10

Which totals £470, plus £23 of unused stuff. I made my calculations as I was typing, so forgive me if I feel seriously depressed now. What an idiot.

Taking the frame out, I spent an average of £18 per component. Is not so bad, but at the same time is quite bad because I end up with plenty budget parts on a £450+ bike. Now I'll spend the rest of the day sulking over what I could have bought with this money.