After 7 years on my F80 its time to lay it to rest. I´m getting tired of swapping out parts and it is looking pretty beat up after the years.
I´m flying over to St.Paul this summer from Norway for a few weeks visiting some friends. I was planning to take my tri bike over, but figured what the h*** I´ll look for a new roadie. I´m not looking at spending a fortune as the bike will be used in all weather (apart from snow), and it does rain alot where I live above the arctic circle. I´ve been trawling through sites like trifuel, racycles, nytro, gearwestbike etc. Hoping to keep in under $3000 so I can pick up a set of decent wheels as well. Although I can stretch it to…more. Ebay has also been visited.
Are there any dedicated second hand sites, apart from ebay?
Any tips regarding closeouts on previous years models that offer most bang for the buck?
If anyone has a recommendation from experience on choice, I don´t if it says Cervelo or Trek on the side.
Maybe someone is selling a bike?
Any thoughts on just picking up a closeout frame and building it myself? So far my number are higher than a complete bike.
Me: 189cm, innerleg 88cm, raceweight 84/85kg. So looking for 58-60cm. Preferably compact crank as my rides are usually like mountain stage on the tour.
Dude you can get a bomber ti bike complete on ebay for well under 2K right now. There is a 57 Litespeed Classic with full Chorus I’m looking at picking up just because…$1,500! You want an all weather steed look no further and Campy is…Campy.
If you want a frame you don’t have to worry about then a pre-American Bicycle Litespeed is a very safe bet, courtesy of Mr. Lynskey. I have owned several and loved each one. You said 3K, but if your goal is function and not bling you can’t go wrong with ti and it’s a buyers market.
The Douglas house brand at Colorado Cyclist can be a good value (for Ti) as can some of the Performance sale items. If you really are riding in terrible weather much of the time, I’d suggest getting a cyclocross bike for the extra clearance, cable routed on top out of the crud and longer wheelbase for better handling in the muck.
I am using a generic ebay cyclocross carbon frame for my rain bike this year. The clearance for fenders is so much nicer than a regular roadbike and the tight clearance around the brakes. Even with reach-arounds, it wasn’t great.
All my bikes are Campy but if I had the option, I’d stick with Shimano/SRAM for ease of finding cassettes and chains. I get around 6 months from a chain at best on the rain bike.