Two years ago I was able to get 33% off list on my road bike. But, it was a 2013 and the 2015s were coming soon. It's all supply and demand. If the dealer has what they feel to be too much inventory of old stock, they'll be more eager to discount to move it. You might also check Nytro as I believe they are a major Quintana dealer and seem to offer very good pricing in general and have good closeout pricing as well.

I bought a P2 year end when they switched from 10 spd to 11. I forget what the list was at the time ~ $2,600 and I paid $2,000

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Last year in November, I got a Felt B12 for $1999 (MSRP of $2899). Last week, I went to the same shop and got an Ultegra Mechanical Cervelo R3 for $2500 (MSRP $3500). I lucked into walking into the shop for the B12. Guy straight away told me he'd let it go for that price. I shopped pretty hard for the R3 as I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted. Ultimately the same guy gave me another great deal. I had stopped at another shop earlier in the day and they gave me a call back offering the same R3 for $2799. Not quite as good, but still a significant discount. You just have to hope they have the right bike for you that they are looking to clear out. Every shop I went into knew I was looking for a deal on last years models and they'd take a look in their computer to see what's the best price they can do. I just had to find the right bike for me and be ready to pull the trigger.

In the first round of discounts the most popular models and most common sizes sell out of stock pretty quickly. The stuff that doesn't shift gets discounted more heavily in the next round, and so on until you find the 2013 10-speed Ultegra XXL bikes in a sickly shade of purple that are 50% off and gathering dust.

My advice would be that if you want a Medium/Large of a particular bike and you see it on discount, then grab it quick, because you may find they sell out if you wait for more discounts. If you're unusually large or small and/or you're not overly fussed about the brand/model/colour you end up with, then could be worth hanging around for bigger discounts. And of course the golden rule is that having bought your bike you must never ever go back and look to see if it's been discounted more heavily, there's simply no happy outcome from doing that!

Yup. As a size 54, I had to get lucky to find what I wanted. I also had to be flexible and know that I was looking for several different bikes. I originally wanted an S series bike, but was willing to go for the R series if the size, color, and deal was right (and if neither was available, I was looking at Felts and Giants). They had great deals on the S series, but it was either too big, or was a higher end S5 model (still a hell of a discount, but way more than I wanted to spend). Ultimately, after a few days, found something I liked for the right price.

And, if you find one you want, and the price is pretty good, it never hurts to ask if they can do any better than what the tag says.

What size are you looking for?

Thank you everybody for the answers!


I'm size 54 for this QR.

I was just looking at the geometry chart for the 2016 Lucero and they have a Medium size with a 52cm seat tube. Is that the size you want?

Yes, you're correct, Medium for http://www.quintanarootri.com/...s?bikeid=2016-lucero

The top tube is fairly short on that size. How tall are you?

All3sports sent out an email yesterday on their summer sale. QRs for sale are PR6, PR5 and Cd0.1. I ordered a PR5 Ultegra package for about 30% off with free shipping. From what I could see most sizes were available. I didn't look but there might be deals on the Lucero also.
Try all3sports.com

I'm 5'11. Just had a fit where I got recommended stack 51.5 and reach 41.5

What stem length and aero bar system did your fit recommend?

Stem length 9 and aero bar type PF T3.

Profile Design T3 aero bar... interesting.

Do you have any pictures of you in that fit position?

Not sure why no one has said this yet, but why not buy from Classifieds? You can get a similar bike for half the price and use the money you saved on wheels/power/front end/mortgage/etc...

For example, here's a 54cm B12 with ultegra components for $1k: http://goo.gl/CSh3Fb. I'm guessing the frames are more or less a wash aerodynamically. 10sp vs. 11sp is negligible. This was found in <5 seconds. Increase that to 10 minutes and you'll probably have quite a few really good options. You're an extra regular size, so this shouldn't be too hard at all.

[This is coming from a guy who bought a bike at a shop on Sunday, though I have yet to see an IAxx 48cm come up on the resale market. Sucks being small sometimes.]

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tweets.

No, sorry. The fitter haven't shared those with me. I don't have much experience, to be honest and just have to trust him. They felt OK when I was there.

Where do you live?

Yes, I looked at Classifields/craiglist as an option. I'm a bit scared of non-new bikes though. Not sure how to detect problems with frame/components/etc. May be in the future, for my 2-3 tri bike I'd go this way.

Boston, MA

I would add to this that if you are really looking to save money, open your options to other brands. Don't just look at the Cervelo, Trek, & S-Works bikes that 80% of the field has. I ride a Blue Triad EX with Ultegra Di2 that I paid nearly $2k less than MSRP for because it's a brand that is not widely known or sold and does not have the marketing behind it that the big brands do. But when you look at IMMT, Chris Leiferman won the race riding a Blue Triad.

Cannondale Slice are a pretty good deal, they lowered the prices a while ago, I spoke the Cannondale store in Cambridge they will give you a free Guru fitting if you purchase a Slice, I was looking at the Slice Ultregra Di2 for $3200

There's something special about owning a bike from new, and if you buy from the LBS you also get the peace of mind of knowing they will sort out any issues, can help with fit if you need it, and should be able to swap out some components if you want things changing.

I've also had a lot of friends with bad stories about buying secondhand. Unless you're buying from a friend that you trust, you can't be sure that the bike hasn't been crashed and has damage that may not be visible or at least obvious to the untrained eye. Components can also be extremely worn - had a friend who thought he'd bagged himself a deal, but had to replace cassette, chain, chain rings, cables, headset, brake blocks, bottom bracket and get the wheels completely serviced with new bearings and some replacement spokes within the first few months. He's not particularly good with a spanner so ended up paying his LBS to do the work as well as the component cost, by the time he'd finished he wasn't far off spending what a new bike would have cost. Another friend turned out to have bought a stolen bike!

Definitely some bargains out there in the classifieds, but do think you need to tread a bit carefully. I wouldn't buy a bike or frame without the ability to see it in person first, and it helps massively if you're experienced in doing all your own maintenance (or can take along a friend who is) and know what to look out for that could cost you money. I got burnt the only time I bought without seeing it first - was a Litespeed frame that was advertised based on tob tube length, seller had completely omitted to mention that it was a custom frame built for a guy 4 inches taller than me with a very short torso/arms and long legs, so although the top tube was right the head and seat tubes were waaaay too long for me.

(On a side note I'm constantly amazed at how many people suck at bike maintenance. I was out on a group ride last weekend with 5 other friends, all keen cyclists with multiple bikes who log thousands of miles every year on Strava. One of them snapped a chain, nobody had any replacement pins but we did have a multitool with a chain breaker in so I figured we could at least get the broken link out and re-use an existing pin to join it up which should be enough to get him the ~10 miles home if he kept in a low gear. Turned out I was the only person there who had ever used a chain breaker, and when I got his chain working again in 5 minutes they were in awe)