Kapusta

For crying out loud, people, you can get a Specialized Tarmac with any build you want. With more options than even Project One offers.

They sell this as a frameset, and is available in five different colors.

Custom Build with literally anything that will fit. The world is your oyster, here. It does not get any more “a la carte” than that.

GlennR

Project One comes with "some assembly required. It comes in a box with just the crank installed. everything else the LBS, or you , need to do.




But buying a Project One is cheaper than buying the frameset and all the individual parts.

jimmyodonnell

Isn't the point of 1x to offer greater chain stability in offroad / rough conditions?
It's popular (and reliable) in demanding conditions like cyclocross and downhill or cross-country mountain biking.
If that's how you intend to use your bike, then consider 1x (I guess).

I think it goes hand-in-hand with the current emphasis on greater tire clearance, another concern for offroad / gravel conditions which might warrant bigger tires for improved stability.
The tire clearance is often the very next thing touted on the manufacture's description of a bike that offers 1x drivetrain.

So bike makers are offering models with 1x and tire clearance in response to the growing popularity of gravel riding.
If you don't plan to take this bike offroad, there are plenty of road bikes in all price ranges available with the conventional 2x setup.

I'm kinda skeptical of the one-bike, do-it-all thing that's flying around now.
On pavement, my trail bike lags way behind the performance I get on my road bike . . . but I'd never try to ride my road bike on the trails here, I'd hit the deck within the first minute.
Neither of my bikes is suited for the other discipline, and I don't want to compromise my ride on road or trails in order to use one bike for both.

Maelochs

I got most of my bikes in a box, or most of them in several bags and boxes delivered over a span of time. Assembly is actually fun, for me.

However, if it is cheaper to buy the Project One package ... I could spend the extra on having an LBS do it, if i didn't have the tools or skills. I can't imagine a bike shop would charge more than a hundred or a couple hundred, and I would be riding home on exactly what i wanted.

And really, except installing the headset (built a press out of PVC tubes, but there are more professional options) what part of assembly is hard? Maybe tuning the derailleurs or bleeding disc brakes ... but both are things an owner might want to learn .... or accept the bike shop fee when those maintenance items come up.

To each his own .... but i would gladly buy an unassembled bike if it was going to eventually be exactly what i wanted, instead of spending ten thousand dollars to buy something i didn't want.

Sy Reene

Heck, somehow Ribble has cracked the code on this.. and their scale/size has to be dwarfed by the likes of the big 4. RIBBLE Bike Builder

I've argued before that there should simply be modules that customers can purchase -- picked/packed and shipped to LBS for assembly from the distributor. Frame/Color + Cockpit + Groupset + Wheelset. LBS does assembly and customer pays eg. a $200 upcharge for that to be done. LBS is happy getting a bit more $$, Customer is happy getting color and configuration that they like. Win win.

Bah Humbug

Again, Quintana Roo pulls this off as well. They do their paint in Chattanooga, so they have the bare frames there and you pick your paint and build kit. It’s absolutely doable, but maybe not as easy for existing brands used to doing business this way. However, paint tied to build kit is very common, and is at most tangentially related to 1x.

GlennR

I rather build it myself.... I trust no one.

Even on my second bike that came mostly assembled, I went over all the fasteners.

guadzilla

Call it custom build, Project One, MyOrbea or whatever - all I am saying is that for halo bikes, it would be good to have the option to get the components you want. I am not sure how asking for this makes me a hater.

guadzilla

Oh yeah - this would also be pretty awesome: being able to get a frame + groupset, and having the choice of adding your own stem/bar/wheels. There are a couple of options:
Wheels: sell the bike without the wheels entirely or have a wheel upgrade option available which does NOT require you to sell the existing wheel back at a ridiculously low price
Contact points: included in the price but you get to pick the sizes

I imagine the same process that lets you pick your choice of paint options would also let you pick your choice of groupset to put on a frame....

Kapusta

You CAN customize it. They sell it as a frame-only for that very purpose.

NoWhammies

To be fair we haven't approached the LBS about swapping out the groupo yet. Mrs. NW is no reconsidering if she does indeed want a new bike so everything is now just on hold until she figures out what patch to take. And by that time summer will be done in our part of the world and the whole thing will be moot!

Well for starters we were looking at off the shelf. But to get the groupo and build Mrs. NW wants, a custom build will likely be the way to go. Unless, of course, the LBS can swap out/in the groupo she wants.

Dean V

Are you sure 1x will not suit her?
I have it on some of my bikes and like it.
I admit that it isn't ideal for all people or applications, but for some it is great.

Seattle Forrest

Impossible. Next thing you're going to want bike companies to make frames in different sizes to fit different people.

dukeiii

The Sram DUB crank set is very modular， swap in a 2x Chainring and add a force axs front derailleur. It's easy and doesn't cost much.

Sy Reene

Ideally you want the bike manufacturer to be able to still pass along the preferential OEM pricing that the component suppliers give them. Aside from contact point sizing.. in theory you could even be picking the cassette range and crankarm lengths, etc.

Sy Reene

Not sure I'd say they do it well.. I just played a bit with their site. Moving from a 105 group to an Ultegra group adds $1100 with the same wheelset. DA Di2 adds $2400 to cost over what Ultegra Di2 costs..

Bah Humbug

I’m sure it costs more to have that flexibility. You’re not going to have flexibility and the same price as when the whole thing is boxed in Asia. Turns out Project One isn’t cheap either.

Sy Reene

Yeah, but when an Ultegra groupset costs $1100 off the shelf from an etailer, the upcharge over 105 shouldn't be the same amount.

EDIT: You might as well do your build on eg. Adrenaline Bikes if all you're getting paying is retail price add-ons

Maelochs

Everyone who has built a bike (or several) frame-up knows that the issue is parts cost—the manufacturers can get parts for a fraction of retail, and since Shimano changed its pricing policy, things are much worse.

One can either spend many, many hours online trying to find cheap and decent parts (the seller might Claim they are “new take-off” and the might even really be that) while waiting to begin the build, or bite the bullet and spend the cash …. But building your own doesn’t save much unless you are going super-high-end (because of the luxury premium) or have a huge stock of parts in your garage.

I have never priced out a build for a top-end Tarmac because I don’t need one, but the latest electronic shifting groups cost more than some of my complete builds, and wheels at that level can cost about as much.

The benefit of a Project One sort of purchase is that everything arrives at the same time, you are pretty much guaranteed that everything is what is was claimed to be (and have easy recourse if it isn’t) and everything is brand-new.

However …. If I could drop ten grand on a bike no problem, I could build some wonderful bikes, I am sure, and get them painted however I desired.

So I guess where all this leaves us is …. The premise of this thread is inane. And since we already knew that since Post #1 …. I have succeeded! I have wasted thousands of words, thousands of seconds, and thousands of seconds of other people’s lives saying Absolutely Nothing on the Internet.

Thanks for joining me on the Ride to Nowhere.

DaveSSS 

It won't be long until Campy Ekar 1x13 is available. The top gear of 110 inches is a 4.07 gear ratio. A 38 chain ring will exceed your need with the 9T small sprocket. 30 inches is a 1.1 ratio. The new 9-42 will produce a 1.1 ratio with the 38 chainring and 42 sprocket. The 9-42 has a 466% range.

sarhog

A 500% and 520% range is available now, for those that desire it.

DaveSSS 

Yes, but those cassette would be awful for road use, with 10-12-14...sprocket spacing.

Ekar 1x13 will have 9-10-11-12-13-14-16-18-21-25-30-36-42. Way better for road or gravel.

Psimet2001 

..... I'd hold off on that statement.

An individual I know, whom I won't out on a forum, who is actually "the" guy when it comes to the whole "1x" thing and I had a talk about this a few years back.

We were at Jingle Cross. It was a typical mud fest. On the day of the World Cup Races I was touring the team compounds and getting mechanic's autographs (because it's funnier than hell to see their faces when I ask for theirs instead of the rider's). I ended up swinging by the Rapha compound. Long line for Powers but there was Ellen Noble kind of hanging out. We have exchanged a few messages as she has grown up after hitting my radar at a USGP Race when she was like 14 or 15 (we share a birthday as well so she's kinda my hero). I figured I would say hey. I smiled and waved and she said, "HEY Rob!" I was floored that she remembered me/knew who I was.

We just got started chatting when "the" guy, who is hanging in the compound as well, jumps up and goes, "ROB! You've been int he pits for the last few day. You gotta tell me how you think CX1 is doing in these conditions." SRAM CX1 had just hit the market earlier in the season.

Funny part is he cut off Ellen and didn't even realize he did (he's just that passionate about what he does) and Ellen raised he head and looked over him at me and shrugged her shoulders and waived in a sort of "well I guess we're done talking now - take care" sort of gesture. Probably one of the coolest moments I have had in this sport tbh.

ANYWAY - the point of this story here (besides me being able to name drop) is that we went on to discuss chain retention. He told me in no uncertain terms that chain retention in those conditions was impossible even with all of the retention features of CX1. "You HAVE to use a chain keeping device of some sort in addition. The mud will just pack up an push the chain up and over the ring eventually. We even tell the pro mtb teams not to run without a chain keeper in really muddy conditions. You just can't do it." He then went on to explain that he had left his chain keeper on his desk at home before driving out and as a result he lost his own chain twice while racing the day before. "Of course it has to happen to me, right? As soon as I hit the ground I popped up to see who saw me first before putting the chain back on."

noodle soup when you say they have it solved I would agree to a large extent but would add the caveat - "in most normal riding conditions" - to it. Really though I just wanted to tell this story.

Narrow wide helps, Jockey pulleys with narrow wide help. Clutched RD's help....but they don't SOLVE it completely.

Psimet2001 

Also - "Forced"? Meh.

We had triples. Then compact chainrings "solved" the shifting problems and weight concerns of the triple.
Then mtb went 1x. Cross carried it over to the road market. It makes perfect sense in cross racing. Less stuff to break or clean each lap and the needed gear range can be hit easily and tweaked with 1x.

Criterium racing can easily utilize 1x very effectively.
Road racing in a 1x is plenty fine but does actually start to depend on the course.

Normal enthusiasts just riding along as their singular gearing setup to be used for the entire life of the bike in all conditions and applications? I would say 1x is a bit heavy handed there. The gearing ranges can be tweaked to "hit" everything a 2x would but it's still with some jumps and gaps that just aren't acceptable for me in particular.

This is the bicycle industry though. We will see this all go one direction then someone will come up with all sorts of marketing reasons to go back the other way. We have consistently done this for generations. 1x will be no different. People will start heading back to 2x at some point. Then I am almost positive we will see triples come back with electronic shifting. Super tight gear ratios. Synchro shifting, etc.

That's all unless all the internal hubs don't start to dominate the world.

BoraxKid

Yes. Use a 40t in the front, and 10-50t Eagle cassette in the back. Done.

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