Hi,

Due to recent events my road bike is due to be retired. Unfortunately I wasn't expecting it to go so soon and funds will be a bit limited for the replacement.

Basically I have a budget of £2000-2500 if it's a Scott/Trek/Felt or £1500 if it's anything else as I can get those 3 with a good discount. It it's a custom build, and the frame is a Trek/Scott/Felt the budget is £2000-2500 again, if the frame is not it will be lower but I can still get the components discounted.

I am quite keen to do a custom build but am very aware that I might struggle due to the lack of funds.

I'll be using the bike as my training and racing bike. I'm a big guy(6 feet 5 and 95kg's ish) so it needs to be stiff/strong. So far I have looked at the Scott CR1 Elite,as I like the Sram gearing and Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels it seems like a good value package. It's also pretty light at a claimed 7.3kg And the Felt F series, but they don't come with good wheels for the money I feel.

If I was to go for a custom build(think I will struggle to find a decent frame in budget) I would probably build it up with Sram Rival and a hand built set of wheels. Any recommendations on good rims? Would quite like semi-deep rims but I'm well aware that it's not too likely to get them at a reasonable weight and price!

Hopefully this all makes some sense and I'm not just rambling on as per!

Just looking for some opinions on whether you think it's worth custom building at this price or going off the shelf.

Thanks,

Campbell.