So I’m a runner starting to get into biking. I got a cheap Walmart road bike for 100 bucks but now I’ve put over 1k miles on it and I’m looking to upgrade to something a bit better that I’ll be able to use for quite a while before I ride this one in the ground. What are the important things to look for? Trying to find something used for 500 or so tops so wifey doesn’t get upset about me dropping a bunch of money on something. Any recommendations?
Anything with Shimano tiagra, 195, Ultegra components (or similar competitors sram). Surprised your Walmart bike lasted so long. I broke 5 spokes after 50 miles, and 1 ever 20 mi after that. After paying the same value to repair the bike as what I purchased for, I sold it. Only purchased cause someone stole my bike and have no car. Will never do so again.
Facebook marketplace and Craigslist. Keep your eye on them. When you find a bike that looks decent check the value on bicyclebluebook.com to see if it’s a highly valued bike.
Depends on what you are looking for. If you are patient you can find a decent road bike for that price. Add clip-on aero bars and you have a fast setup for a low price.
So I’m a runner starting to get into biking. I got a cheap Walmart road bike for 100 bucks but now I’ve put over 1k miles on it and I’m looking to upgrade to something a bit better that I’ll be able to use for quite a while before I ride this one in the ground. What are the important things to look for? Trying to find something used for 500 or so tops so wifey doesn’t get upset about me dropping a bunch of money on something. Any recommendations?
Two ways to go here:
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If you’re going to be a regular in the sport, and especially if you’re going to try and be competitive (whatever that means), you should try and get a ‘great’ bike first and skip all the other BS. Which means getting a bike fit beforehand, then taking the advice for what will fit you best. You will save yourself a lot of upgrades as you improve if you go this route right away.
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If you still want to start small and go up, entry level bikes are fine - like Giant Propel 3 which retails for $900 usually. The only caveat here is the shifting groupset, which is Claris - Shimano intentionally uses a different standard of parts for their pricier ‘racing’ bikes which use 105-ultegra-Dura-ace, and the Claris or similar is not compatible. Still, the Claris will NOT hold you back and in fact replacement parts are a lot cheaper on Amazon. (They also break more easily though, so you will have to replace them more often.)
If you go route #2, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade sooner rather than later ,but at that point you may decide to go all-in on a decked out TT bike. (more thousands!)
Ever heard of the Ship of Theseus? You need to learn that with your bikes. It makes your hobby/relationship drama stay at a lower level than buying $10000 bikes can instigate.
Find yourself a used tri frameset for that price range and put the absolute cheapest mechanical groupset on it you can. Then, over time, cruise Ebay and Craigslist for groupset upgrades and other little upgrades and “edge up” the upgrades over time while reselling the old parts.
It’s not quite the “trading up from a hairpin to a house” story, but you CAN over time buy/sell things you learn have value for your or others you find and in the process upgrade your bike.
Ever heard of the Ship of Theseus? You need to learn that with your bikes. It makes your hobby/relationship drama stay at a lower level than buying $10000 bikes can instigate.
Find yourself a used tri frameset for that price range and put the absolute cheapest mechanical groupset on it you can. Then, over time, cruise Ebay and Craigslist for groupset upgrades and other little upgrades and “edge up” the upgrades over time while reselling the old parts.
It’s not quite the “trading up from a hairpin to a house” story, but you CAN over time buy/sell things you learn have value for your or others you find and in the process upgrade your bike.
The mere idea of wasting my time scrounging for used parts, hoping they’ll work , dealing with it if they don’t, and then reselling them online, is enough to make me want to quit triathlon!
So I’m a runner starting to get into biking. I got a cheap Walmart road bike for 100 bucks but now I’ve put over 1k miles on it and I’m looking to upgrade to something a bit better that I’ll be able to use for quite a while before I ride this one in the ground. What are the important things to look for? Trying to find something used for 500 or so tops so wifey doesn’t get upset about me dropping a bunch of money on something. Any recommendations?
Two ways to go here:
-
If you’re going to be a regular in the sport, and especially if you’re going to try and be competitive (whatever that means), you should try and get a ‘great’ bike first and skip all the other BS. Which means getting a bike fit beforehand, then taking the advice for what will fit you best. You will save yourself a lot of upgrades as you improve if you go this route right away.
-
If you still want to start small and go up, entry level bikes are fine - like Giant Propel 3 which retails for $900 usually. The only caveat here is the shifting groupset, which is Claris - Shimano intentionally uses a different standard of parts for their pricier ‘racing’ bikes which use 105-ultegra-Dura-ace, and the Claris or similar is not compatible. Still, the Claris will NOT hold you back and in fact replacement parts are a lot cheaper on Amazon. (They also break more easily though, so you will have to replace them more often.)
If you go route #2, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade sooner rather than later ,but at that point you may decide to go all-in on a decked out TT bike. (more thousands!)
I’m planning on being a regular. I’ve been a runner. I’m thinking I’m gonna start training more heavily on the bike than I will running. Maybe 3 days running, 4 days biking and look into doing duathlons. I suck at swimming but I also suck at biking so taking 1 step at a time here lol
What I want to do is get the best setup I possibly can used off marketplace that I can try to compete on without spending so much that my wife is gonna get mad lol. I was mostly looking for recomendations on bike models, groupsets, etc… to look for and/or avoid
If you’re into social media with your running friends, start there. Put out the word. Chances are pretty good, that someone else you already know, has gone down that road, and might have a decent ride for cheap. They get into it, love it, buy a new ride, and their starter bike is just hanging in the garage. I recently gave away a sweet old Cervelo, that would otherwise just hang unused in my garage forever.
So I’m a runner starting to get into biking. I got a cheap Walmart road bike for 100 bucks but now I’ve put over 1k miles on it and I’m looking to upgrade to something a bit better that I’ll be able to use for quite a while before I ride this one in the ground. What are the important things to look for? Trying to find something used for 500 or so tops so wifey doesn’t get upset about me dropping a bunch of money on something. Any recommendations?
Two ways to go here:
-
If you’re going to be a regular in the sport, and especially if you’re going to try and be competitive (whatever that means), you should try and get a ‘great’ bike first and skip all the other BS. Which means getting a bike fit beforehand, then taking the advice for what will fit you best. You will save yourself a lot of upgrades as you improve if you go this route right away.
-
If you still want to start small and go up, entry level bikes are fine - like Giant Propel 3 which retails for $900 usually. The only caveat here is the shifting groupset, which is Claris - Shimano intentionally uses a different standard of parts for their pricier ‘racing’ bikes which use 105-ultegra-Dura-ace, and the Claris or similar is not compatible. Still, the Claris will NOT hold you back and in fact replacement parts are a lot cheaper on Amazon. (They also break more easily though, so you will have to replace them more often.)
If you go route #2, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade sooner rather than later ,but at that point you may decide to go all-in on a decked out TT bike. (more thousands!)
I’m planning on being a regular. I’ve been a runner. I’m thinking I’m gonna start training more heavily on the bike than I will running. Maybe 3 days running, 4 days biking and look into doing duathlons. I suck at swimming but I also suck at biking so taking 1 step at a time here lol
What I want to do is get the best setup I possibly can used off marketplace that I can try to compete on without spending so much that my wife is gonna get mad lol. I was mostly looking for recomendations on bike models, groupsets, etc… to look for and/or avoid
You should probably get a ‘last bike first’ then.
Seriously consider a TT bike unless you really plan on doing road bike criteriums or a lot of road bike group rides. The aerobars help a lot for speed.
Bike FIT is the most important. I’d recommend you actually find a local bike fitter and get measured for the best size bike that will fit you. Once you get the wrong size frame, it’s really hard to fix.
Once you know the right size TT bike to buy, almost anything used in good condition will work. TT bikes almost invariably come with the ‘racing’ groupsets (105-ultegra-DA) that are compatible with future upgrades, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Unless you’re into tinkering and spending a lot of time planning and installing your own components, just go all in for the bike - you rarely have to change any parts once you get the bike.
Seriously consider a TT bike unless you really plan on doing road bike criteriums or a lot of road bike group rides. The aerobars help a lot for speed.
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no, no, and no. you can use a road bike in more events, group rides, etc. if you want faster clip on aero bars are good enough. The roadbike will be cheaper than a TT too. The road bike is much safer to ride. My TT bike sits on my wall all but 5 times a year. Cause tucking your head at 25mph+ next to cars with your hands away from the brakes is just not safe.
Seriously consider a TT bike unless you really plan on doing road bike criteriums or a lot of road bike group rides. The aerobars help a lot for speed.
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no, no, and no. you can use a road bike in more events, group rides, etc. if you want faster clip on aero bars are good enough. The roadbike will be cheaper than a TT too. The road bike is much safer to ride. My TT bike sits on my wall all but 5 times a year. Cause tucking your head at 25mph+ next to cars with your hands away from the brakes is just not safe.
Nope. Me and thousands of others only have/had a TT bike, and learned to ride on it. Guess what - you can still do the vast majority of group rides with them. Outside of tightly controlled supercompetitive paceline teams, you don’t NEED a road bike, I’ve ridden with numerous bike clubs on their weekend group ride, and there are always TT bikes in the mix, just use decent judgment. And even if you think the group isn’t comfortable with aerobars in the mix, you can draft off the back as the last guy in the line.
If you ride your TT bike all the time, it will feel safe to ride than the roadie, as you will be more used to it. (This is the case for me.)
And if you’re racing tri, you want a TT bike. Or you WILL want one at some point, sooner rather than later if you are taking tri seriously.
I’d say get the road bike if you knew you had a competitive roadie paceline than you know you want to ride in, or really want to criteriums. If the answer is no to both of these (as the case with the vast majority of triathletes), the TT bike is the way to go.
This. If you are on a super budget there is likely more options in road geometry bikes than TT setup. Road bike gives more versatility than a TT bike. Better “handling” bike (road bike and tri bike really aren’t a fair comparison however, TT setup bike is meant to “go fast” while a road bike is likely much more different feel), better in groups (there aren’t many group rides that allow you to ride in aero in group rides, you either must ride off the back or on the horns, but a tri bike isn’t designed for group ride setting), etc. But if you are 100% “all in” on tri/duo then think about it. But if you are still on the fence, road bike will be a better option.
Seriously consider a TT bike unless you really plan on doing road bike criteriums or a lot of road bike group rides. The aerobars help a lot for speed.
.
no, no, and no. you can use a road bike in more events, group rides, etc. if you want faster clip on aero bars are good enough. The roadbike will be cheaper than a TT too. The road bike is much safer to ride. My TT bike sits on my wall all but 5 times a year. Cause tucking your head at 25mph+ next to cars with your hands away from the brakes is just not safe.
Nope. Me and thousands of others only have/had a TT bike, and learned to ride on it. Guess what - you can still do the vast majority of group rides with them. Outside of tightly controlled supercompetitive paceline teams, you don’t NEED a road bike, I’ve ridden with numerous bike clubs on their weekend group ride, and there are always TT bikes in the mix, just use decent judgment. And even if you think the group isn’t comfortable with aerobars in the mix, you can draft off the back as the last guy in the line.
If you ride your TT bike all the time, it will feel safe to ride than the roadie, as you will be more used to it. (This is the case for me.)
And if you’re racing tri, you want a TT bike. Or you WILL want one at some point, sooner rather than later if you are taking tri seriously.
I’d say get the road bike if you knew you had a competitive roadie paceline than you know you want to ride in, or really want to criteriums. If the answer is no to both of these (as the case with the vast majority of triathletes), the TT bike is the way to go.
I’ll see your nope and raise you a double nope. If money is tight and you are starting out and testing the water a roadie is by far the best option. Safer, more comfortable, cheaper and easier to sell if/when you decide to take the next step to investung in a TT bike.
I just reread the OP’s post - I missed that he wanted to spend only $500. I totally jumped over that critical piece of info.!
That clarifies things - you can’t even buy a USED tt bike for $500!
So road bike in that price range. Used.
If he had an ample budget, I’d still say go TT bike. I did, and I don’t regret even for a second. I bought a road bike later on, but I spend almost all my time on the TT bike.
I suggest people go TT bike if they know they are ready to go “all in” on triathlon. If they are still in the figuring it out and don’t actually know, I tell them to go road (more versatility / option to add aero bars to road setup…but I’m a big component of not changing the road fit to adjust for the aero bars so it’s an “un ideal” fit imo; and I’ve probaly done over 400 fits on people in my life as a FIST fitter for over 12 years now). And that’s with basically any budget for said athlete/customer. The smaller the budget however, the more road options there likely is.
I a similar vein to one or two other posts.
Do you know or have any local tri or road cycling clubs? If so, try put the words out there, and/or get on their faceache pages or whatever. It’s surprising how often people may have a good well maintained bike they haven’t got around to selling yet or are doing because of buying a higher spec/ newer model.
(I actually have 3 bikes in the garage in that category- though mountain bikes that I need to shift to make space).
How about……single speed tri/TT setup?
Really cheap. Aero. Simple. Plenty of front and rear brake track/pursuit geometry single speed city bikes littering Craigslist. Put pursuit bars and extensions on it. Done.
Obree rode a lot of tt’s like that and he held the hour record twice.
Well I read a bunch of reviews and got a used specialized allez elite. It has the Shimano 105 groupset that everyone seems to speak highly of. I’m still more focused on running than biking but wanted something I can log tons of miles on and compete in a couple duathlons later in the year. Ive been doing 40ish miles running and 80ish cycling per week but wanting to cycle more. I’m probably at least a couple thousand miles from being reasonably solid on a bike since I just picked it up in november. This should hopefully work pretty well for me though 🙃
Happy wife, happy life after post bike purchase…aka- get the bike in your budget?
Happy wife, happy life after post bike purchase…aka- get the bike in your budget?
Its not that we couldn’t afford for me to go get a new bike. Wifey is a super saver so it would take alot more effort to convince her that it’s worth it. Maybe if I win a local race or something I could talk her into it lol 🙃