Bike advice needed please.
Lee G
Posts: 7
Hi all,
first post here, I'm hoping to get as many 2nd opinions as possible before I spend any of my all too rare funds!!
After 2 years of commuting 10-20 miles a day on a range of 2nd hand bikes I am now in a position to take the plunge and buy a decent road bike. For xmas I just asked for donations to my "bike fund" and it now has £200 in it, and I will make up the difference to a desired spend of no more than £350 (well that was the plan initially). After many hours online yesterday I've come to the conclusion that rather than spend that in my local independant shop on a Viking, or in Halfords on a Carrera, I'd be better looking at a Giant, Specialised or a Trek. Trouble is, I'm not sure if my budget can stretch that far.
I have been browsing Ebay and found a 2nd hand Trek 1.2 for £200, it has an alloy frame and carbon forks, Shimano 2200 gears and shifters and Bontrager stem, handlebars, seatpost and saddle. It also has a rack on the back and front and rear mudguards, all of which I would need to fit anyway. It says 52cm frame size, will this be too small for me, I'm 5' 10" with an inside leg measurement of 32", or could I get round this with a different stem?
Would this be a good buy? Obviously it will depend on the condition, it's listed as excellent bar the odd mark which is to be expected, but I would check it out first anyway. On a positive, the seller is local and if I can get it for £200 I would then pay for a major service at a local bike shop, and it has everything I'm going to need for my commute and my charity ride (see link in signature), on a negative, I was really hoping to buy my first ever brand new bike.
Thanks in advance, and apologies for the long winded first post but I am feeling ever so out of my depth!!
first post here, I'm hoping to get as many 2nd opinions as possible before I spend any of my all too rare funds!!
After 2 years of commuting 10-20 miles a day on a range of 2nd hand bikes I am now in a position to take the plunge and buy a decent road bike. For xmas I just asked for donations to my "bike fund" and it now has £200 in it, and I will make up the difference to a desired spend of no more than £350 (well that was the plan initially). After many hours online yesterday I've come to the conclusion that rather than spend that in my local independant shop on a Viking, or in Halfords on a Carrera, I'd be better looking at a Giant, Specialised or a Trek. Trouble is, I'm not sure if my budget can stretch that far.
I have been browsing Ebay and found a 2nd hand Trek 1.2 for £200, it has an alloy frame and carbon forks, Shimano 2200 gears and shifters and Bontrager stem, handlebars, seatpost and saddle. It also has a rack on the back and front and rear mudguards, all of which I would need to fit anyway. It says 52cm frame size, will this be too small for me, I'm 5' 10" with an inside leg measurement of 32", or could I get round this with a different stem?
Would this be a good buy? Obviously it will depend on the condition, it's listed as excellent bar the odd mark which is to be expected, but I would check it out first anyway. On a positive, the seller is local and if I can get it for £200 I would then pay for a major service at a local bike shop, and it has everything I'm going to need for my commute and my charity ride (see link in signature), on a negative, I was really hoping to buy my first ever brand new bike.
Thanks in advance, and apologies for the long winded first post but I am feeling ever so out of my depth!!
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Comments
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Hi Lee, 52 sounds a little small to me. I am 5'10 with a 31 inside leg and a 56 fits perfectly. Might be worth starting your inevitable (!) relationship with your LBS and going in and trying the odd bike to get some ideas. I found the geo as important as the size.
You never know, you might even be tempted...0 -
thanks Bob, I popped into my LBS this afternoon and yeah, 52cm is going to be too small, had a good chat with one of the staff, really helpful, and if the "tempted" you referred to was about spending more than the £350 I had planned, then you are right on that score too!!
A Specialised Allez is looking favourite to be my new steed, hopefully for many years to come.0 -
There are some decent bikes on ebay for your spending limit:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/COPPI-racing-bike ... 4a9d3a8e87
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Raleigh-Airlite-2 ... 5ad57897a0
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Giant-SCR-2-0-199 ... 3a5643942b
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/coyote-racing-bik ... 35a5f9262c
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dave-Hinde-Ultra- ... 35a5de6926
etc, etc.
You can tell I'm having a quiet day at work0 -
Hooray for quiet days at work!!
I have done a few searches on ebay but always get page after page of results, and the majority are not road bikes, a lot aren't even bikes but spare parts. Maybe I need ebay search advice too :oops:
Having said that there are a couple I'm currently "watching", if you continue to be quiet fancy giving me an opinion on these?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120511468087 - may be a bit big for me though?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280443763519&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT - There seems to be a bidding war going on, I reckon the price will go a fair bit higher, plus I'm suspicious of this one, when I asked questions about how old, how many miles it had done and why wasn't there an actual photo, I wasn't 100% convinced by his answer. I've never bought off ebay before so may be am being overly cautious?0
