Cheap tricks

It starts with a simple premise, but then again, so does the road to Hades.

I can build my own mountain bike. I can make it better, stronger, faster, cheaper than some off-the-rack number bolted with bottom-rung parts.

That’s what they make EBay for -- to pick over the discards of gearheads trading bike messenger paychecks for rides priced like a 1995 Toyota Corolla. You know the type: technogeeks and weight weenies who debate a 50-gram difference between two tires for their latest double-suspension uberbike fashioned from a top-secret metal, unobtainium.

Not me. I’m a weekend warrior, with my heart in road racing. I already have a pavement princess -- a custom Steelman with Shimano Dura-Ace, priced like a 1995 Toyota Corolla. There’s no room in the castle for another one.

I’m looking for something more generic, simple, unadorned. A hardtail, no disc brakes. EBay is paved with old hardtail frames and V-brakes left behind by those leaping onto the latest springy steeds.

Many hundreds of dollars later, I had my bike. Or maybe my bike had me. And I had come face to face with my inner weight-weenie technogeek.

My sad tale begins with the frame.

See, originally I was just going to raid the Shimano LX parts and Manitou shock on my ancient Scott Cro-Mo bike, which is as heavy as depleted uranium.

An outfit called Leader Bike USA in San Diego was auctioning off a frame made of Easton Ultralite 6061 aluminum, in the appropriately everyman color of black. (They called it Ferrari Black, but Ferrari’s already got red. This is Johnny Cash black.) The frames are getting great buzz from mtbreview.com, which is just what the dealer in San Diego wants, because he’s trying to get them into local bike shops. Leader’s claimed MSRP: $399. Its “Buy it Now” price: $99. Cha-CHING! I saved $300 already.

Some words on tactics: Before bidding, I located a bunch of items on EBay, put them on my “watch” list, then let others buy them, to see what the market price was. I checked mtbreview.com for ratings and prices, as well as half a dozen Internet catalogs and stores (Supergo, Nashbar, Performance, JensonUSA, etc.).

For wheels, I stuck to new ones and quickly found a set of Sun/Ringle Zero-degree rims laced with DT Swiss black spokes with red nipples, set on black Shimano M510 Deore hubs. Black and a hint of red: a fitting homage to Johnny’s “Ring of Fire.” Winning bid: $77.01 Best catalog/Web prices for the rims, hubs and labor: $159. Savings: $82.

By now I’ve saved 1.5 times what I’ve spent. I should be able to build this puppy for $500.

Now for the fork. Mountain bikers, particularly the type who bump downhill at 30 mph, are shelling out up to $1,000 alone for these. The cheapest are about $80, but there is a cottage industry of detractors for most of the models that come on off-the-rack bikes (RockShox, Manitou, RST, etc.). My inner technogeek spoke: Splurge on a Marzocchi. I found a 3-year-old Z2 Atom Bomb, recently refurbished with new springs and oil, for $152. This retailed for close to $500 new. I’ll round down to a $300 savings.

They’re practically giving me this bike.

What else could there be? The drive train: a crank and bottom bracket, pedals, front and rear derailleurs, gear cassette and chain. Upfront: the headset, stem and handlebar, brake levers and shifters. The brakes, the seat post and saddle, tires and tubes. Priced out in catalogs, I learn that this will cost around $475.

By now I’m up to my brain stem in the latest in seat post technology, linear-pull V-brakes, tire treads and brake modulation. And I’m beginning to notice the steady $5 to $10 delivery charges for everything. My inner technogeek speaks: Catalogs charge that too. Go for it!

I cast about for grab bags of parts, or guys selling multiple items, and quickly find a guy selling Shimano LX parts because -- you guessed it -- he’s upgraded to Shimano XT. I get a bottom bracket, a crank with a couple of missing teeth on one chain ring, a nine-speed cassette, nine-speed shifters and rear derailleur, for $112.50. They price out in a catalog at $182. Savings: call it $55, considering I’ll need a new chain ring.

Almost done, right? For a front derailleur, I find a used Shimano XT and pay $15.50; savings: $4.50. Then come beat-up Shimano 858 pedals, which sell for $65 to $80, but I get them for $17.05. I save $48 to $73.

I spend nearly a week on brakes before landing on some out-of-production Avid Single-Digit Magnesium brakes with great reviews from the weight weenies, paired with super-light Cane Creek levers, for $51. The brakes sold for $100-plus in their day, and go for $50 to $90 now, while the levers go for $33 new. I’ll call the brakes even and the levers free. Savings: $33.

So far, I still can’t pedal this thing.

The rest shouldn’t be too pricey: I cop a new Bontrager comp handlebar for $7.99. (Darn. It’s not black.) Savings: $12. A seat post? Wow. I didn’t realize there were so many bad ones. I concentrate on RaceFace and Thompson and pick up the RaceFace XY, $75 retail, for $40 (you do the math) used. And it’s black.

For a saddle, I think about perineal pain and penile numbness. No sense sparing money here. I pop for a non- retail model stripped from another bike, with a comfortable channel. I pay $20.50. I’ll call it a tossup on the savings, but I’m telling you, there are comfy and light saddles like this that sell for $80.

At this point, I’m desperate to bring the cost down. My children and dog go unfed as I stare into the computer screen. I find a new Ritchey stem but lose the auction. The savvy seller e-mails and offers me another one at my last bid price: $12.50. Savings: $18.

That’s when I find Aerowill, who seems to have a lot of what I want. I start with the earliest-closing auction and get new Hutchinson Python Elite Gold tires for $38 a pair, an $18 savings over the best closeout catalog price. I lose out on Aerowill’s $24.99 Ritchey SC headset. But I e-mail him to see if he has another, and tell him my predicament. A couple of e-mails later, he offers the headset, a new Shimano XT chain ring for the one missing three teeth, and a Shimano XT chain, all new, for $54, no extra shipping. Savings: $46.

I’m done. I have my workingman’s unadorned, non-weight-weenie bike.

It has cost $697.05, not including the shipping. My alleged savings: $951.50.

What have I got? Something that looks suspiciously like a $1,500 princess.

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‘Mail-order nightmare’

EBay is about as popular with bike shops as McDonald’s is with PETA.

Jay Wolff, manager of Helen’s in Santa Monica, says one of his employees was charged recently with stealing about $10,000 worth of items from the shop and fencing them on EBay. “There’s been numerous bike stores that have busted employees -- including Helen’s -- who have been selling stuff they stole on EBay,” Wolff says.

Worse, he says, is that customers often browse local shops, then buy the items they liked on EBay. “It’s becoming the worst mail-order nightmare. We can’t compete.”

“The Internet,” says Michelle Leigsring, owner of Budget Bicycles in Eagle Rock, “has become [such] a big thorn in the side of mom-and-pop shops that they’re starting to go out of business.” Recently, Leigsring says, a customer bragged to her about buying a dozen European team jerseys at a price under her cost, while another confessed to “parting out” bikes on EBay as a hobby. “It’s still competition for us,” she fumed.

For its part, EBay runs ads in cycling magazines touting its electronic market as the ideal place to buy the dream bike, or part. At the recent Interbike show in Las Vegas, it had a booth aimed at sellers. Wolff says he gave it the cold shoulder, but Drew Marich, sports category manager for the online auction company, says he had little trouble filling “EBay University” seminars on how to sell bicycles and parts.

EBay pitches its ability to help shops reach millions of customers to move old stock or hard-to-sell items. That tactic fits well with such sports as cycling and golf, where new technology comes out every year.

EBay also works closely with law enforcement to rid its pages of stolen goods and prosecute illicit sales, says EBay spokesman Hani Durzy. “We have a vested interest in making sure that transactions are legal,” he says.

-- Geoffrey Mohan