I think you should throw big money down on first bike

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ve got 2 new buddies wanting to do triathlons and road bike racing. They ride Schwinn and Raleigh road bikes. Both of them are wanting to buy new bikes, and have set their limit at the oh so popular 1500 level, just like I did.

What is it about this 1200-1500 level, everybody thinks they can find something on ebay, in that range, and whalla, its over, as far as satisfaction for 3 years? I think, for people who don’t know much about bikes or building them up, that a 1500 level is just wrong. I think, if you’ve got the money, you have to throw it down, big time, on a first bike, or its just throwing money down the drain.

No Mission is accomplished after that, I believe, after you buy a 1100 used bike on Ebay. It ends up being a piece of crap you can’t sell like a used car. The problem is, once you get something like that, sure its a better bike, like a used Cannodale or used Felt, used, but its going to be only worth 400-700 bucks the next year. After buying something like that, after the first 2 months have worn off of you riding a nicer bike, than your beater, you wish you would have spent another grand to get a Litespeed or carbon, or better gearing…dura ace. Or wheelset…

I think you throw 3 grand or more on it, to get a Merlin, or Litespeed, or Carbon bike, you can get 60-70 percent back, in 2-3 years.

So, why waste 1100 bucks on a first bike?

2

want to come work for me? i use that logic with uninformed consumers all the time. most get it, some think i’m just trying to make a buck, not realizing i really am just trying to help them enjoy the sport more and for longer. what really gets me though are the ones who think a bike should cost as much as a pair of Nike Shox or a pair of rollerblades. sigh.

3

want to come work for me?
I do.

4

I bought a $1300 Giant as my first real road bike, and I’ve upgraded it to DuraAce and gotten new wheels over the last several years for less than I would have spent on a upper level bike. Most people aren’t willing to throw $4000 on a bike when they’re not sure they’re going to get into the sport like a lot of us do. Upgrading isn’t that expensive, and how many people actually try to sell their old bikes for top dollar anyway? If you’ve got disposable income, it’s always nice to get the best quality available, but if you’re trying out a sport that kind of fits into your schedule, and that you’re never going to do at a pro level, why spend more money than you have to until you’re sure you’re going to continue?

5

If you don’t know much about bikes and have decided to go the used e-bay route here’s what you do if you’re smart.

Hire a “bike wrangler/consultant”. Pay some disinterested third party who knows bikes $150 to help you find a “steal” on e-bay or elsewhere.

There are bikes that are worth $2,500+ going for $1,200 - 1,500 on e-bay, it’s just a matter of being savvy enough to know what to buy.

Thanks to the Lance driven bike boom a lot of people have bought road bikes more or less on a whim. Then they find out that cycling is not for them.

They just want to unload their bike asap.

6

At the risk of being a Slowtwitch Cevelo Cheerleader, wouldn’t a Cervelo Dual be the answer at that price level?

7

I disagree, but for me it’s more for psychological and sociological reasons. I am one of those people who believe I don’t ‘deserve’ something nice until I have ‘earned’ it and know I am really going to use it. In this case, I have decided I don’t ‘deserve’ a nice tri bike until I have put 10K on my current road bike and until I have completed a dozen tris and a couple half IMs. It’s also delayed gratification.

My $1,200 road bike with clip on bars doesn’t hold me back very much (maybe a minute or two in a 25 mile course, and the sub 1-hr guys still beat me by 8-9 minutes on the bike). It’s sort of fun to also know everyone ahead of me at a race has a nicer bike … Lastly I plan on keeping my road bike for many years and don’t hope to sell it for $400 when I buy a nicer bike in '06 or so.

I started with a $300 used steel road bike a few years ago (it was OK, 1990ish, shimano 7 speed), put a couple thousand miles on it and have been riding a $1,200 road bike with 105 for two years. I upgraded the wheels to Rolf Vectors and am happy with my clip on bars. I couldn’t have justified spending big money when I wasn’t totally dedicated yet, but in a couple years, we’ll see. -TB

9

I like starting with simple stuff and moving up, though. My friend has a garage full of his mountain bikes: He has 5 or so, from a 12-year-old Bridgestone up to a $2,500 new dual suspension. It’s sort of cool to say, “Here was my first mtn bike, now it’s a commuter” and “Here is the hardtail I take out for short rides,” etc. I sort of envision my garage full of bikes in 10-15 years or so. OK, it’s finally warm enough here: 50 degrees. Time to ride on this windless blue bird day. -TB

10

Oh yeah. Throw it down. Life is too short to ride a cheap bike.

11

hey joe,

if you live anywhere near me, send me a resume. we’re always looking. besides, i’ll need a replacement for myself on the floor as i’m moving towards more personal training/coaching/consulting and less sales.

btw, any more thoughts on the cron’alu?

12

Hire a “bike wrangler/consultant”.

how does one become one of these? are there many in your neck of the woods. i’ve often thought of offering this as customers use me as a source of knowledge for their e-bay purchases anyway. i’d like to be able to charge them for it as it’s not making our store any money…

13

Booth:

I hear you, but there are too many variables for too many people to be making “rules”.

When I first started biking seriously I went out and bought an $800 Cinelli. I showed up at the races with a fast bike and fast wheels and a fast kit and NO ENGINE. But, I had a heck of a lot of fun being a poseur. Along the way I went from a one duck engine to a three duck engine at my peak. I’m now back down to a one duck engine.

Anyway, this is about having fun. If you can have fun on a $250 beater bike then great. If you are one of those people who is a gear nut then that’s great too.

And, if you can’t break an hour for 40K because you have a 30 lb 1965 Schwinn, so what? If you own and USE a bike you are so far ahead of the rest of America we ought to be standing outside your house applauding. I ride by people’s homes every day and they all have bikes in the garage. Almost none of them RIDE them. LOL, talk about poseurs…

-Robert

14

i don’t buy a bike with the intent of selling it in the future. I get it with the intent of racing it into the ground plus some, and then recycling what i can over to another used frame.

Of course, i also would never contemplate buying durace, or campy record. In my book, nothing beats campy veloce 9 speed paired up to a strong and stiff canondale cad4. Of course, i view aluminum road frames as “throwaways” that aren’t meant to last more than a few seasons of hard road racing.

15

At the risk of being a Slowtwitch Cevelo Cheerleader, wouldn’t a Cervelo Dual be the answer at that price level?
And tell me, my simian friend, what would be wrong with being a CC?

16

Why set a low limit like 1500 bucks? Ummmm, cuz its a friggin bike? =) … one that comes without an engine no less.

Of course, you said, “I think, if you’ve got the money, you have to throw it down, big time, on a first bike, or its just throwing money down the drain.” Personally, I doubt many that “have the money” set a low limit … not unless they realize that it’s just a bike, and are not focused on the resale value.

If I had the money I’d have a bike custom made for me. As long as we’re dishing out a bundle, might as wel get it exactly like we want.

Actually, I am surprised (shocked more like it) that people set a low-limit abd then stick to it … that’s not the way us Americans shop. We go in with a limit, and then forget everything once we see the bike (product) that’s “three times as good, but only twice the price”.

I don’t understand why folks buy an SUV that’s not an Escalade. If you’re gonna buy an SUV … :wink:

Speaking as someone that was presented with a brand new Chevy S-10 on his 16th birthday ( '89) … if you start off with the best, you don’t appreciate it. If you have to “earn” a better bike, you’ll treat it with respect.

18

“I think you throw 3 grand or more on it, to get a Merlin, or Litespeed, or Carbon bike, you can get 60-70 percent back, in 2-3 years.”

why would you ever sell a bike? this is foreign to me. am I misunderstanding something? … then again, I need to keep one car in the driveway cause my garage is full of my ‘babies’ I’ll never part with.

19

I have to disagree, but with a caveat: I agree with Slowguy: most of us when we first bought our bike, we were not overly sure if Triathlon was going to be as addicting as we have found it. But here is the caveat: BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN BUYING A USED BIKE (yeah yeah it’s obvious, but many people aren’t)

When I decided that I was going to take Triathlon seriously, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on a bike, as well as didn’t know much at all about buying a bike. It was in the fall, so I knew that I had lots of time to get educated, and be patient for the right bike. I went to many LBS, scoured ebay and classified ads, but here was my other caveat: I refuesd to buy a bike without seeing it first.

So after about 6 or 7 weeks, I found a Cannondale R500 that was a few years old. Great bike, haven’t had to do too much to it, but at least I knew exactly what I was getting.

For my next bike, yes I will buy new, but I think for some one starting out in the sport, used is a great way to go.

Mark

20

“who remembers what a Seat Shifter was”

I do. I had one. I also had this integrated drinking system (don’t remember the name though) with the liquid in a caoutchouc (or whatever material that looks like that) container behind the seat, and with a tube going all the way to the front in between the clip-on to drink. Was a nightmare to clean if you put anything other than water in it, but sure was cool.

22

I mostly disagree. If you’ve got money to burn, then spend $4k on a bike. But, many of us are balancing an expensive sport with the cost of raising a family, etc.

Lance Armstrong said after passing Ivan Basso on the L’ Alpe d’Huez Time Trial in this year’s TdF, that its an unbelievable motivator to see, conquer, and pass your competitor in a time trial. I get that same feeling when I pass someone on my Shimano 105 equipped $975 Kilo. Especially, when I look over and see that their equipment investment is 5 to 10 times the value of mine. My bike is in its 3rd year of flawless performance and I’m not changing anything. You can easily get adequate equipment for $1500 bucks.

I’m actually glad you can’t BUY a victory in this sport. The only way to pay for the victory is through the blood, sweat, and tears of day to day training. I wouldn’t want it any other way. At the end of the day, when you are standing on the podium, you are respected for your achievement, hard work, and diligence of training, not for the amount of money you chose to spend on your bike.

23

As others have said, for a lot of people $1500 is the upped limit on what they can realistically spend on a bike. When I went bike-shopping after my first season of tris (done on a borrowed hybrid), it was actually stretching it to up my budget from $1000 to $1500.

For my $1500, or actually something like $1423, I got myself a clearance priced 2002 Cervelo One, pedals, and shoes. Bike and pedals were bought with the expectation of getting at least five years of use out of them. (Shoes will be replaced when they smell too bad to leave in the laundry room anymore)