Road Cycling - Need advice! What do you think of this?

Hey, its me again, back asking more questions:rolleyes: And you guys won't mind answering me cause you've got nothin better to do right? :p Right!

Ok then, here goes.

I've been looking for a (big) road bike for a while and am looking at used ones to avoid the $2000+ they want for customs. I found a bianachi on a classifieds site and emailed the guy, here is the email I recieved back-


Hey paul, the bike is a 1983 bianchi road bike, black with yellow decals. It is indeed a 27 inch seat tube and is very comfortable to ride. I myself am 6 foot 4 ,so the bike is ideal for you. The componentry is as follows, ultegra crankset, front derailer,and rear cassette. Tiagra shifters, hubs on 32 spoke 700 c rims, tiagra brakes,and 105 bottom bracket, and rear derailer, sram chain, and vittorio rubino kevlar bead tires. The bike was built in 2002 and all the components listed above are 2002. The total number of miles are about 750 total. The reason Im selling it is because I am into single speed track bikes now and dont need this bike or my 61 centimeter lemond which is also for sale, but is probably too small for you. The price for the bianchi is 700.00 ,buyer pays shipping, and I will have It professionally packed by my bike shop.

He says it is a 27"seat tube so 27 X 2.54 = 68.58cm right?. Did they used to make older bikes this big or did he measure differently?

Do you think this is a good deal? The original add said $400 but now he is saying 700. I went back to look at the add again but it was gone, I guess it expired or something. The guy happens to live approximately 87miles away so I am thinking I could probably go pay him a visit to check it out/test ride ect.. (plus save $50 on shipping).

Is there anything else I could ask about, maybe get some pics and such.

Thanks much for your help (and patience)

Originally posted by Hawkster
Hey, its me again, back asking more questions:rolleyes: And you guys won't mind answering me cause you've got nothin better to do right? :p Right!

Ok then, here goes.

I've been looking for a (big) road bike for a while and am looking at used ones to avoid the $2000+ they want for customs. I found a bianachi on a classifieds site and emailed the guy, here is the email I recieved back-


Hey paul, the bike is a 1983 bianchi road bike, black with yellow decals. It is indeed a 27 inch seat tube and is very comfortable to ride. I myself am 6 foot 4 ,so the bike is ideal for you. The componentry is as follows, ultegra crankset, front derailer,and rear cassette. Tiagra shifters, hubs on 32 spoke 700 c rims, tiagra brakes,and 105 bottom bracket, and rear derailer, sram chain, and vittorio rubino kevlar bead tires. The bike was built in 2002 and all the components listed above are 2002. The total number of miles are about 750 total. The reason Im selling it is because I am into single speed track bikes now and dont need this bike or my 61 centimeter lemond which is also for sale, but is probably too small for you. The price for the bianchi is 700.00 ,buyer pays shipping, and I will have It professionally packed by my bike shop.

He says it is a 27"seat tube so 27 X 2.54 = 68.58cm right?. Did they used to make older bikes this big or did he measure differently?

Do you think this is a good deal? The original add said $400 but now he is saying 700. I went back to look at the add again but it was gone, I guess it expired or something. The guy happens to live approximately 87miles away so I am thinking I could probably go pay him a visit to check it out/test ride ect.. (plus save $50 on shipping).

Is there anything else I could ask about, maybe get some pics and such.

Thanks much for your help (and patience) Some bikes were built that big,not sure Bianchi did though.ASK exactly how he measured it. Worth? well 'its an old frame and could be trash or abused or rusted fron the inside.Is he implying it was never built till 2002??The rear dropous would have had to be spread to get the wider hub in.Maybe he just crammed the hub in?A 61 lemond and he's also riding a 68.5 Bianchi.How does that work?He has listed 2 different rear derailers.If the parts all are compatible,it could work, or could be a nightmare.Really big frames are hard to find,so if it fits,it may be a decent deal.I think $400 is more reasonable unless the frame really is unused till now.If you don't know what you ae doing,something like this could be a real cheap whiskey headache.I would go look and ride.

There are people with a lot more knowledge than me, but I'll just get the ball rolling here.

You need to know what Bianchi model it is in order to evaluate the quality of the frame. How many speeds does it have? As far as I know, which is limited, all 2002 Ultegra cassettes were for 9 speeds. A 1983 frame would not be set up for such a cassette, right?

Why does it have such a melange of components? Some are good: the Ultegra. Some are chintzy even on a new $700 bike, e.g. the Tiagra shifters.

If you're serious about this bike, you ought to drive the 87 miles to see if it fits and to take a test ride. (And actually being there counts a lot for getting a more realistic price from the seller). Do you know what you should be looking for as to fit? If no one else is going to measure you for the right fit, go to http://www.wrenchscience.com/WS1/default.asp
and follow the directions for bicycle fit. Get the numbers you need.

Good luck.
Rich

Looks like Pokey and I were writing at the same time and were concerned about similar things. That's a good sign.

Rich

I'm not sure how he's measuring the seat tube-if he's going centr-centre, it's probably a bit big for you. C-T, though, might be allright. As far as the components go, I wouldn't pay $700 for anything with all those cheap Tiagra bits. And I'm not sure Bianchi even made a frame in this size!
OK, what you have here is a 20-year old frame, with a bunch of mis-matched parts. I'd wonder about the quality of the assembly. Also, this bike would've originally been a 6-cog rear-what does it have now, and was the frame professionally spread to accept wider hubs? Finally, if this is a Bianchi frame (not just some old frame painted celest green...), expect it to be quite noodly in this extremely large size.