I know this doesn’t leave a lot of options but had a friend ask me what the best $500 road/tri bike out there is. He’s just starting to get into triathlon and isn’t able to budget much more for his first bike.
Thanks
The one that you can find that fits.
Look at craigs list / ebay / st classifeds etc.
In my experience finding a tri bike for 500 that has any of the modern aerodynamics is very unlikely. You can find a used road bike in that range that you can add aerobars to for under 40.
The ones on craigslist and ebay.
There are zero brand new tri bikes out there that starts anywhere near $500.
For brand new road bikes, check out Performance bikes. They are unloading a lot of inventory at heavily discounted prices. There are a few on their websites that are $500 or less.
Personally, if I only had $500, I’d go the used route with craigslist. Not sure if you find any good used bikes on ebay for $500 when shipping is taken into considerations.
What size his he? I’m thinking about selling my 57 Scattante for around that price if he’s interested
The one that you can find that fits.
Look at craigs list / ebay / st classifeds etc.
In my experience finding a tri bike for 500 that has any of the modern aerodynamics is very unlikely. You can find a used road bike in that range that you can add aerobars to for under 40.
That.
Have your friend look on craigslist and get a bike that fits. Fit is everything. He should get his measurements and try some frames that may fit, before he buys the bike. (Proper fit at a bike shop won’t work for him because that alone is over $200.)
He’ll likely spend more money next few months on aerobars and saddle and pedals and a different stem and a bunch of stuff… if he decides to stick with the sport.
http://bikeisland.com/cgi-bin/BKTK_STOR20.cgi?Action=Details&ProdID=2393
http://bikeisland.com/cgi-bin/BKTK_STOR20.cgi?Action=Details&ProdID=2313
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Two choices, get on bikesdirect.com and pick something that fits your needs and accept that you don’t have a local bike shop to help you along the way, or goto your local bike shop and look as some older or entry-level models and pay a little premium for the invaluable help and advice you will get for the life of the bike.
BD has some nicely equipped stuff. I’d still lean towards the entry level Giant and Trek lines through my local bike shop, though.
I bought a good cycle in classifeds web site. I hope that you could something.
Bianchi brand