[Closed] Ever built up a bike not expecting much but absolutely love it ?

The opposite for me.

I bought an On One 456 Summer Season frame for £150. Built it up with all of the bling, seriously good kit. It was the worst bike I’ve ever ridden.

To answer the OP I’m in the process of putting together a cheap Charge Plug, well it started as a cheap build, and I’m hoping it’s going to be the right size and ride like I’m expecting (hoping) it to.

You're not on your own regards a build that promises so much and delivers bogger all - had an Orange Clockwork I shelled a bit out for a sold it after 2 rides

30 euro old school xc orbea 29er frame, spares box 1 x 9 build, add a slackset and its perfect for 90% of the dales riding I do

You spent how much on office storage equipment!!!!!!!!!!!

Wasnt too sure how well my 90s marin would ride after I bought it off the tip for 10 pounds
I love it. It has a Short stem from new and is not twitchy.its also very comfy and great fun.

I had never never ridden a bike from that era as I got my first mtb new in 2000. Previously I had ridden an 80s kuwahara bmx and then a 80s Peugeot atb. I built the marin up with retro yeti grips panarcer tyres retro bearcage pedals shimako bb and shimano v brakes with a wtb saddle.

By the way schwalbe and their discount brand impac do a decent range of 26 inch tyres at good prices.a bit heavy but look good.saw them all on ebay new so great news.ive just got a impac crosspac cx inspired semi slicks set for my town mtb bike.bike de do a couple of them too.

No, but I've built up a bike by basically ruining a descent fast hybrid
& sold it as it wasn't a hardtail MTB!

Mostly sold because curved carbon forks aerebt rockshox)

Now got an old MTB but its slightly to big & doesn't have a battery.

I love individual custom bikes or standard bikes changed to suit.

Specialised levo hardtail verses cube Reaction Leki could retain the ability to ride & consume biscuits.

A mid 90s wishbone Giant ATX frame I built up as a pub bike /grocery getter / cruiser with a rack, Brooks saddle, riser bars, mudguards, Schwalbe tan balloon tyres, etc. Surprisingly so it was superbly comfortable and fun. Ended up riding it almost exclusively for a couple of months, even off-road, before giving it to my father

I built a Stooge up as a singlespeed for a commuter, back in late 2014. It then became my geared main bike, was upgraded to Ti, then went on some great bikepacking trips in that guise. Great bike for long distance trips, but also for playing around on.

All from a little commuter.

Ebike went into the shop for a new battery (again!) in January so I bought a second hand Whyte 901 with fox 34s. I wasn't expecting to even be able to ride it properly, but with the aim that if I could ride it then buy a full sus. All bar < 5 rides since January have been on that Whyte... It just feels right, and I'm not much slower (downhill) than on the (full sus) ebike.

May I just say that this topic is pointless without a proper photos of described bikes?

Here's mine in bikepacking mode

Genesis i0 with rigid Exotic carbon forks. Lovely lively and compliant ride even though the frame is relatively inexpensive.

Not so much building one up, but I bought a new Vagabond last year as a bikepacking workhorse. Heavy steel frame, cable discs, bar end shifters, not especially light wheels, 2x Deore. So a collection of not particularly great or light bits, but as a package it is such a good all rounder, whether bikepacking, or just going out for a ride. Put mudguards on it yesterday and did 24 gravel miles round local windfarm and took 9 PBs - it just quietly works !

I once bought a Pompino for a laugh.
Ended up riding nothing else for months.
Really wound some of my mates up doing the local wednesday MTB night ride on it.😄
It was still a shit bike but kind of fun learning how to ride a bike that inapropriate for the trails we were on.

I am still very pleased by my London Road (yes one of the 'Wizard's sleeve' batch), five years on from buying it. TBH I didn't expect to still be riding it, but it's probably my preferred bike a lot of the time, certainly during the winter months...

Yes, a Sunn Cycloss steel cyclo-cross frame & forks from back in the day, purchased third hand for £20 a £40 set of wheels and it rode great, real steel spring, put in my best ever 3 Peaks time on it. The first bike that ever actually fitted me properly.

My Cove stiffee fr.

I only got the frame as it was 22", and im usually stuck with slightly smaller and as somewhere to put all the hope gold ano.

WOW
OK, im not an offroader so have been stuck in geometry wasteland for years. When i first rode it I tried to fight it and had a habit of over steer developed till i discovered the tracking and rider position on modern frame is really a long developed subject.
Took me a while, but I get modern geometry now.

Now, how to knock off 20 years and find someone lend me a pair of legs 😆

I have 2 drop-bar commutah bikes, depending on my route to work

The partly off-roady one is a 1990s Zaskar with 27.5 wheels and 42mm xplors on it, rigid exotic fork.
It's a pleasure to ride - I'm genuinely struck by how nice it feels on a regular basis

(the other's an old-style Scandal with 700c wheels on it that lives in the back of the car for when I park&ride - that's great too but not quite in the same way)

Absolutely.... I saw the offer on the Trailstar (25yr anniversary) (£320 + £6 p&p)
then they sold off some ex-display at £300 incl. P&P... then I had a 5% off ebay... so it ended up £285

So far, Windhill, Rogate, Swinley, Surrey Hills ... I took my Aeris to Rogate 1st and 2nd times but left it in the car and thought I'd swap at lunchtime after a play. After the initial nervousness there were still a couple of things I hadn't done I'd not think about on the Aeris and just do.

After lunch I kept with the HT and sent a drop that had me nervous. (its not massive or anything just had me nervous not being used to a HT and not being the worlds best rider)

Went back with my lad a few days later and he towed me into more stuff... I even did one that's had me nervous even on a capable FS since I broke my wrist on it 6mo ago. (Whaletail on Mainline), triple R excluding last 2 jumps and I was feeling so good on it I might have tried the "big boy line" as he calls it if he towed me in.

It's totally exceeded every expectation ... I was at Windhill yesterday and got to a drop without enough speed (Akatee after bombhole) again not massive it's only 4-5' but I just thought sod it ... the bike TOTALLY took it and my terrible landing was nowhere near as harsh as I'd expected.

Yeah. My old zesty died and a friend took pity on me and gave me a 456C frame. I swapped most of the bits over and put some Mattoc forks on it, and it’s great.

Bought a cheap s/hand stooge mk2 for something to build up with all the parts I’d accumulated. Loved it that much ended up selling all other bikes including a nice SC f/s. Now upgraded to stooge ti bike full time and luvin it

Yep. Was given an Inbred frame a few years back, set it up SS with garage spares and cheap/donated second hand parts, probably cost me around £150-200. Loved the springy ride feel, was great for short local blasts. Moved it on to build up a 45650b SS, as I wanted bigger wheels and more modern & playful geometry; this is fun too, but not as light and lively as the Inbred.

Have just built up a SS Monster-cross around a Genesis Fortitude, not quite decided on this yet as it feels a bit heavy and perhaps a bit dead, although I've not given enough time on it. Wonder whether I should put gears on it and/or some swept (not quite) MTB bars on it instead.

My fatbike was just a total flutter, I was fat-curious and it was cheap and there was a thread about it on the forum and that was literally all the thinking that went into it, no expectations. It's still one of my favourite bikes ever.

Everything else, I've had a pretty good idea what it was going to do.

When all my bikes got nicked in about 2013 I bought a very cheap Saracen Ariel as a stopgap, the 140mm rear travel single pivot white ones with the black swingarm.

I put a Marz 55 RC3ti fork on it (160mm travel) and it was just so much fun and so confidence inspiring.

Sold it in favour of a carbon trail bike and a longer travel enduro bike, which were both great in their own way - but cost multiple times what that Saracen did and weren't quite so muich fun.

This was the frame...

Bought a Whyte 29C frame off another forum member a few years ago, mostly cos it was cheap and I felt like doing a few XC events and I had parts kicking around to build it up. I was expecting it to be light and rapid uphill, what I was expecting was to match or even beat most of my local Strava DH times on it, or for it to be so ridiculously confidence inspiring! It ended up with a dropper post, slightly beefed up wheels and tyres, 760 wide bars and a 50mm stem, basically a "Down Country" bike before that was even a thing...

I sold it in the end cos the rear tyre clearance pissed me off for winter use, a 2.2" was as big as you could get in there and even then there was very little mud room. The moment I sold it, I regretted it though, and if Whyte brought it back unchanged except for Boost Spacing and better tyre clearance, I'd buy one again in a heartbeat!

One of only 2 or 3 HT frames I've ever really gelled with. The irony that I bought it to do some XC and endurance events on, but never did any and used it solely as a trail bike, isn't lost on me!