Anyone got a bargain at the Evans sale?

stephenballantyne
stephenballantyne Posts: 97
edited July 2008 in Road beginners
Hi,

I queued for a couple of hours on Saturday morning at the Evans sale in Gatwick. The choice of road bikes was limited by the time I got in, but I managed to get something that I'm pretty happy with. It's my first road bike and cost slightly more than I'd budgeted to spend (oops!). It's an '05 Bianchi 1885 Alu Hydro with a Centaur groupset. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this model - I absolutely love it so far.

Did anyone else go to the sale this weekend? Anyone grab any bargains?

Steve

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Comments

  • st68
    st68 Posts: 219
    i had that very same model with vento wheels done a few thousand miles on it was nice and rode well :)
    cheesy quaver
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    Quality - how much did you pick that up for?
    I like bikes...

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  • stephenballantyne
    stephenballantyne Posts: 97
    :oops:

    Well that's the thing. I paid £699. I haven't been able to decide if it was a good deal or not yet... The water bottle was free though :wink:
  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    I have a meeting down that way on Thursday, so I'm going to take a look in the afternoon. Hopefully thre'll be some decent stuff left.

    I don't need anything in particular but would like a new helmet and cycle comp.
  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    stephenballantyne wrote:
    :oops:

    Well that's the thing. I paid £699. I haven't been able to decide if it was a good deal or not yet... The water bottle was free though :wink:

    the 08 version is £1,300 so it's a good price, but not sure if the sale price is any lower than it would normally be for an 05 bike.

    Did they have many ladies road bikes? I may surprise the OH if there is anything suitable.
  • stephenballantyne
    stephenballantyne Posts: 97
    Did they have many ladies road bikes?

    They had a few (10 maybe). It was quite frustrating really as the stock was fairly low by mid-afternoon Saturday. People (including me) were hanging around waiting for new stock to be brought into the tent and then pouncing on it straight away.

    I'm told that they have tons of bikes in the warehouse and are replenishing the tent daily, so I'm sure there are still deals to be had.

    Steve
  • wilkom
    wilkom Posts: 1
    I travelled for hours across London to get there and then queued for 2 hrs to get in. There were none of the 'massive' reductions advertised on the flyer. They were drip-feeding bikes at little more than sales reductions, so (like a lot of other people) I ending up buying clothes and accessories - and these were mostly all at their website sale prices too.

    Don't be fooled - they are creating a captive market and forcing people to buy something not that cheap to justify the hassle of going there in the first place.
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    stephenballantyne wrote:
    Well that's the thing. I paid £699. I haven't been able to decide if it was a good deal or not yet... The water bottle was free though :wink:

    It's definitely worth well more than £699 as a "bike", but as an "05 bike" the reduction doesn't look that great. I'd definitely say the 05 bike is better than the 08 version of the bike (incidently I nearly had the 08 bike at Xmas).

    Full centaur gruppo, even without any of the carbon bits of the current Centaur, it could be said the 05 gruppo was better than the 08 gruppo.

    It's a fine bike.......have fun
    I like bikes...

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  • kafkathedog
    kafkathedog Posts: 242
    Went along saturday morning. Arrived at 8.40 and queue was already back to the roundabout.

    Waited till 9.45 still no sign of getting in so gave up as I only wanted some new road shoes anyway.

    Probably worth it for a full bike but otherwise a waste of a saturday morning that I could have spent cycling.
  • guinea
    guinea Posts: 1,177
    I was one of the first in.

    No really impressive road bike bargains. They had a Felt TT that was too big for me. otherwise I would have been very tempted I was after a road bike for the missus, but the only ones that would have fitted her were scratched to all hell.

    However, if you were after a mountain bike you could have filled you boots. Some amazing prices on ex-demo bikes. Full XTR etc for ~£1k.

    I picked up a campy cassette and a couple of cans of GT85. Not really worth the diesel, but if I was after another MTB I would have got a great deal.
  • jambosm6
    jambosm6 Posts: 14
    I popped down there tonight, as they are open until 8pm. Had quite a few bikes out, loads of clothes and some nice little bits here and there. I just ended up getting some cheap clipless pedals and some lights for the Allez (New addition to my bike family). Didn't buy anything for my MTB, as there wasn't much to offer in terms of a real shout out bargain.

    Well worth it if you are closer to it though...

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