Josh And Jamie’s Weekly Picks.

This week we were given the task of looking at what builds we could do with some of our stock. Josh was given free reign with no budget whilst Jamie was given a tighter budget of £1,500 to see what he could do. The only parameters were that we had to use frame and wheels from our website and see what kind of build we could do within our budgets.

Jamie’s Budget Crit Powerhouse

For my budget I was looking at what kind of bike I could get for £1,500 that would serve me well during the Crit season. I needed something fast, agile, and responsive. I decided to pick this Specialized Venge Expert Frameset. At £595 it comes with a stem as well as saddle and will be perfect for smashing it round the Crit courses this season.

When it comes to wheels I was first tempted by these ex-team Vision Metron 40 Tubs at £595. They would have offered me deep section carbon rims but perhaps taken up too much of my remaining budget. So instead I went for these Mavic Cosmic Elite UST wheels at £245. A solid set of wheels that can take a beating bring the race season.

That left me with £660 to finish the build. Shimano’s latest groupsets can be found at immensely competitive prices online nowadays and Wiggle have the new Ultegra R8000 groupset available for only £580. Then I chose some FSA Energy alloy bars from our collection of stock, some stealthy black bar tape and that brings me to a total of £1,465. What a beast of a bike for the money.

The Build:

£595 - Specialized Venge Expert Frameset

£245 – Mavic Cosmic Elite UST Wheelset

£580 – Brand New Ultegra R8000 Groupset

£20 – Kinsesis Black Bar Tape

£25 – FSA Energy Alloy Handlebars. 

Total = £1,465

Josh’s Italian Heritage Machine

For my build I wanted the best of the best – and it had to look the part too. I decided to go for this Bianchi Specialissima Frameset we have in a special edition Matte Celeste paintjob then see what kind of high spec build I could start to put together with wheels and parts that we have.

I wanted to compliment this Italian heritage frameset with a proper Italian groupset so made the most of our stockpile of used parts and went for an ex-demo Campagnolo Super Record 11 Speed groupset we have for £1,395.

Finally, I finished it off with this set of Fulcrum Red Wing Clinchers, plus an FSA alloy stem, a 3T Ergonova Team set of Carbon bars and finally a Prologo Nago Carbon saddle. All again from our stock of used parts coming to a total of £260.

For a bike built up well below £5,000 I was impressed at the level of spec you could get for that kind of money.

The Build:

£2,295 – Bianchi Specialissima Frameset

£595 – Fulcrum Red Wing Clinchers

£1,395 – Ex-Demo Campagnolo Super Record Groupset

£20 – Kinsesis Black Bar Tape

£140 – 3T Ergonova Team Carbon Bars

£80 – Prologo Nago Evo Carbon Saddle

£40 – FSA Alloy Stem 

Total = £4,565