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Anyone tell me where are the best places to buy an entire groupset? ive found Merlin and thought some of the german shops sold them but cant find my way through their websites well enough. Are there any others i should know about? cheers
Do you want it fitted & tuned? What if it breaks how do you want to warranty it?
What are your priorities then we can answer the question.
It maybe worth buying the groupset in parts as there are lots of offers on from different suppliers so you may pull together your groupset below the discounted Merlin price. I have just purchased an Ultegra groupset this way.
If you're only focused on price the germans seem to be the best. Actionsports.de i've had groups from before with no problems and used bike-discount.de as well.
Obviously not so good for returns so make sure you're ordering what you need. Websites aren't hard to navigate, both have GB language buttons.
If by some chance it's SRAM road groups I found that Fudges Cycles and Shiny Bikes were the cheapest (in the UK anyway). I bought from Fudges but there wasn't much in it. They may well be reasonable for other types of groupsets but I didn't look into those. Not affiliated to either shop!!
Merlin are good if the configuration is exactly what you want, but I often find that the tooth sizes or front mech type aren't what I want, negating any cost savings.
Otherwise, try these.
www.bike-components.de
www.bike-discount.de
www.actionsports.de
www.rosebikes.co.uk
What groupset are you after?
Id be fitting it myself and wouldnt really be too worried about the warranty as ive never had anything going wrong with shimano stuff before that wasnt my own fault anyway.
Never knew about actionsports and had a bad experience with bike-components so avoided them but cant find groupsets on the others
It would help if you said what you were after:
Here's the groupset link on bike-discount
http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k407/mtb.html
It maybe worth buying the groupset in parts
This is good advice. I've just fitted a new 2x10 xt group (without brakes) to my bike and all in I found it was about £45 cheaper to buy a front mech from Merlin, shifters and chainset from CRC, chain and rear derailleur from Germany etc. OK it took an evening of trawling the sites comparing prices but the money saved made it worth it to me.
The Germans still warranty stuff.
Just remember that brake sets are the wrong way round.
I was going to post just such a request last night as I'm in the market for two groupsets one road/CX the other MTB Ultegra/XT level.
After much clicking on links I've come to the conclusion it a bit of a jumble even if you click the groupset option so it might be better to build up piecemeal
am looking for an XTR groupset but looking on those sites they dont come with brakes 😕
Register with "quidco" free to join up .. Go to merlin via quidco and get 3% off 🙂
Does take a while to get money but every little helps ..
Just remember that brake sets are the [s]wrong[/s][b]correct[/b] way round.
FTFY 😉
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/index.html?action=search
Worth a mention too, I did ultegra bits bought separate plus rotor crankset
I bought the last two (SLX and XT) from Merlin. Yeah the discs are 160mm which isn't ideal but they are great to deal with, and the prices were close enough to the german sites to get my business. I just find Merlin brilliant to deal with. Stuff gets shipped quickly, comms are good, any issues sorted really well and they answer the phone.
Worth any extra for me. YMMV 😉
Cheers for that lads. Think i can get what i need from these places 😉
I just find Merlin brilliant to deal with.
I ordered a part from Merlin last Tuesday at 3pm, it was on my desk first thing the next day. Highly recommended.
Recently bought full SLX group from Merlin. Again great service, all parts bar the brakes individually packaged in proper Shimano boxes so no OEM stuff. Brakes were in bags, discs in proper boxes.