Advice on used Titanium bike for $475

Boondocksaints

Hello guys,

I am a new member to this forum - nice to meet y'all

I was offered a used custom titanium bike for $475 and it sounds like a great deal on paper, but looks pretty dinged up from the pics he sent. Below are the specs/description and pics. What do any of you guys think? Should I take this deal?



Touring bike handlebar set up. Custom built with high-end Shimano components on a Bianchi manufactured titanium frame. Recent new parts: front deraileur, brakes, cables, chain and rear sprocket set.

Shimano 105 components. Shimano Deore XT rear deraileur, Shimano Super SLR brakes, SRAM Rocket shifters, FSA stem, Ergon PC2 ergonomic pedals.

Frame: 57cm Standover height: 81cm Weight: 21.5 pounds Rims: Mavic CXP22 Crank: 18cm
Tires: Specialized Armadillo 700x25c, very good.

sloppyschleckonds

Boondocksaints wrote:

Hello guys,

I am a new member to this forum - nice to meet y'all

I was offered a used custom titanium bike for $475 and it sounds like a great deal on paper, but looks pretty dinged up from the pics he sent. Below are the specs/description and pics. What do any of you guys think? Should I take this deal?



Touring bike handlebar set up. Custom built with high-end Shimano components on a Bianchi manufactured titanium frame. Recent new parts: front deraileur, brakes, cables, chain and rear sprocket set.

Shimano 105 components. Shimano Deore XT rear deraileur, Shimano Super SLR brakes, SRAM Rocket shifters, FSA stem, Ergon PC2 ergonomic pedals.

Frame: 57cm Standover height: 81cm Weight: 21.5 pounds Rims: Mavic CXP22 Crank: 18cm
Tires: Specialized Armadillo 700x25c, very good.

You need to be concerned of the frame has any dings and check all the welds. It looks a well used bike and the components are definitely not top end.

navrig2

Good advice from SS. Also worth noting that this forum is largely a UK based forum so valuing things may well be different between here and the states (assuming that's where you are).

froze

Are they dings or scratches? dings I wouldn't bother, scratches are ok as long as they're not deep gouges since you can take a green and maroon scotchbrite pad and by rubbing in the direction of the grain of the metal you take off the scratches, but once you start doing that with the scratches you'll have to do over the entire frame to make it look uniform. First start with the maroon ScotchBrite pad, once you got everything looking decent follow up with the green scotchbrite pad, if you want a more polished look when done with the first two pads then use a white ScotchBrite pad. Lots of elbow grease but it's worth it.

Of course you do need to check the bike for cracks around welds, around bottle holder screw eyelets, around the head tube where the headset is, where the rear dropouts are welded to the stays, simply look if over very carefully. If the dings are very minor like the size of a pinhead, then those are non issues, but anything larger would be a reject. Also inspect the fork, take a coin and tap on both blades and see if the sound the same, if one has a duller sound than the other then there is a possibility the fork may be delaminating or cracked inside, as well check the outside of the fork for hairline cracks. With the front brake on real hard on pavement rock the bike forward and backwards to see if you hear any clicking, a clicking may mean that the fork steerer tube is damaged.

If possible take pictures of the dings so we can see how bad they are if in doubt.

The other issue is the brand marking, I've never seen that brand, it could be a generic Chinese brand? sure the components are low end but you can slowly upgrade those as time goes by. If the bike has nothing in the way of serious dings I would offer $425 and see what happens. If the dings are minor like pinhead size finding a TI frame without components for that price is pretty tough to do unless you buy direct from China, but then that would require buying components, wheels, and a fork...as you can tell you would be way over the price of what you're looking at now by the time you get done.

fenix

That is not a Bianchi head badge.

bbrap

Obviously the sellers idea of what constitutes "high end" components differs from what most on this forum would consider high end (Ultegra, Durace, Chorus, Record etc). The bike looks to be a bit of a mongrel, the sort of thing I would use as a pub bike as if it got nicked I would not be unduly worried. I'm sure you can do better for the money.

froze

I haven't seen that Bianchi headbadge before, all the ones I've seen had an image of bird, so I checked images and still couldn't find that one. If that's true then that's good because it would hold it's value better than some generic or a decal brand type of bike.

cougie

Like a flawed penny black you mean?

I'm pretty sure that's nothing to do with bianchi.