To Buy or Not to Buy a Bike?

Think about it.  Even if you have all the necessary tools, you probably think twice before beginning your project customizing a bike.  The components alone can be very costly unless you know someone from Trek or UBI who can hook you up with discounted parts.  Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of connection, so I have to look for alternatives.  Stealing is probably one of my options, but it may be too risky, and I still remember what it's like to have mine stolen (sad stories).  So, I would rather buy a bike and swap out the parts I don't like, which can also be more cost effective than starting something from scratch.  For example, I recently saw a (2008?) Rocky Mountain Metropolis bike with Shimano Alfine 8-speed for $549 shipped from Realcyclist.   Unless the bicycle is used, I never seen anything with a price tag that's close to this one.  Unfortunately, whenever I see any good deal similar to this one, quite often, the choice of frame size is pretty limited.  Those usually comes with frames that are either too small or too large.  If you referred to my previous post, size of the frame matters, and it mainly determines whether or not you would want to bike or stay home tomorrow staring at your computer and writing blogs.  Because of the fit, I have no choice but to pass this deal.

Even if the prices are not as good as the one from Realcyclist.com, there are plenty of good deals which make customizing your own a waste of time and money.   I have gathered a list of bikes along with specs those belong to the same category as the one I am building.  (URL coming soon).

Buying a bike is the way to go.  No doubt.  Well... except for one small problem.  This time, I want Schwalbe Marathon's (almost a must have), Brooks, steel frame, Alfine hubs front and back, and quality headlight.  Dahon is probably the only one offering Schwalbe tires, and they are not the Marathons.  I believed only Breezer's bike offers B&M headlights, which is understandable for other manufacturers due to competitive pricing.   I can go on and on, but in the end, I decided not to buy the whole package, but instead getting the spec I wanted.