Having taken this summer off from triathlon (planned) and running consistently (not planned thanks to IT band problems), I’m starting to think about next summer. I’ve recently started to think about getting a new bike. My current bike is a 6 year old Trek with clip ons. I have no problem riding an older road bike, but there were times last summer where I just didn’t trust my bike. So I’ve decided that if I want to get back into tris next summer I’m going to need a new bike. Which leads to my two questions.
Is there a time of the year that is best to buy a new bike? I’m thinking of a time where the new models will soon be coming out and retailers are looking to move the current model. Does that time exist in the bike market? Secondly, I don’t have a whole lot of money. I’m having a hard time justifying the money, but if I do spend I can’t go over two grand. What are the bikes I should be looking at? So far I see the Cervelo Dual, QR Kilo, Felt S22 and S32. Am I missing some others? Does anyone feel strongly about any of these bikes?
Motobecane Nemesis. I bought one two months ago from bikesdirect.com. With the spare $1k buy some aero gear for it (helmet and/or wheels). You will not get anything better for the price.
they are all over Ebay but you can order directly from them… for the cost they are great… I have a Road frame (ultegra), MTB hardtail (xt), and a TT frame(ultegra). they arent the lightest frames(TT bike weighs in at about 18lbs), but if cost is an issue I would highly recomend them. Just remember, you can only buy so much speed! The most expensive/lightest bike out there with the best equiptment is nothing if the engine isn’t tuned.
shop around for deals and don’t be afraid to go second hand. Bigger aero chainrings and a bottle launcher have rounded out my 2K but this is pretty much waht I ended up with on your budget:
Luck, tell us more about that deal last year, a p2k for $600? Making my $999 Dual seem like an overpriced sewing machine and it hasn’t even arrived yet, unless my wife just hasn’t called me at work to tell me, which would be like her, I digress, wow, what a deal, what was the deal?
If you search the forum for “inside out sports”, “deal” “cervelo” or a combination of them you’ll find the whole saga in great detail.
To cut a story fairly long, Inside Out seemed to get a job-lot of old model Cervelos late last year and licence to sell them very cheap. If I recall correctly there were 2004 P2Ks and various editions of Duals, Ones and aluminium P3s in various sizes. Someone posted the link on ST where I found it as I was waking up bleary eyed one morning in the UK from which I was about to emigrate. I’d been toying with the idea of getting in to Tri so made the snap decision to buy the bike in a size smaller than my road bike and just put down my girlfriend’s NY apartment as the address. Over the next few days it became obvious that IO were completely overwhelmed by orders including a lot of people who understandably had ordered multiple bikes with a view to flipping them on ebay. An agonizing wait ensued when they worked out which orders they were going to fill and which they weren’t - I got lucky.
You still often see “brand new” 2004 P2Ks on ebay for $1200 or so - not a bad deal but know the vendor probably paid $600.
Bottom line is you might not get this lucky if you waited forever and the difference between the dual and the P2K is marginal at best. Plus you probably get a 1 1/8" fork and 700 wheels which while a matter of preference are far more standard than the 1" and 650s mine came with so much less hassle going forward.
Sounds like a similar deal, just different this year, same kind of experience, somehow got linked to their site to see the discount P3 SLs and found the Dual deal and jumped on it.
I had been looking for the last couple of months and had pretty much decided on the S32 with the thought that I would change out the wheels and maybe the cockpit, then I saw this, and even with the cockpit change I will still come out way ahead.