Some purchasing advice

[EvBB]

I am pretty new to this, but decided (possibly foolishly) to jump right in and buy a bare frame and fork off of Craig's list. I am on a very tight budget, and I think I got a pretty good deal on a Cannondale RS700. I'm 6'4", so finding something affordable that fit was turning out to be pretty tough. This is a 62c frame, so that's how that worked out. So now I need to trick it out. Figure the cheapest way to do that is to find another bike, and have the LBS swap parts for me (though both REI and my LBS will charge $140 for this, which is making me wonder if I'm on a fools errand). And then I'll sell that stripped frame.

Anyway, I found this posting on Craig's List for a LeMond Nevada City:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/bik/339030501.html

I realize if this is a good deal, one of you might decide to swoop in on this bike, but that's OK. Worth it to get some validation or correction on my over-all strategy here.

Thanks for any guidance.

-EBB

[Dunwood]

Good deal for the parts bike, but with your height, those are very lightweight wheels. You must be on the + side of 175lbs at 6' 4". Get the training wheels too, maybe the spoke count is higher.

In general you might be much better off waiting for the right size bike and not cobbling something together.

[EvBB]

Good advice! This is exactly why I asked - I am 215lbs, and had no idea I had to worry about wheels too light to carry my heft!

[old and new]

Seems like a very god plan,the price on the Lemond is LOW ! The parts are good. I don't understand why the owner of the Lemond is selling it so low.Sell the frame on e-bay. You'll benefit of course and make a 5'8" man very happy. The price is fair to have the work done. The members here have a point about the wheels, perhaps I'm the wrong man to ask, I've generally weighed over 20lbs., wheels have never been an issue,I'm light on my bike I suppose. Tubular tires were a problem even when I weighed 195, never wheels

[urbanknight]

The ad mentions an extra set of wheels (for training) so they might be heftier and you could sell the lighter wheels to make back some of your money. If that frame was my size (56-57) I would offer to swap all the components for you in exchange for the frame since my current frame doesn't fit me properly.

[EvBB]

Ah well, looks like that thing's sold anyway. But thanks for the advice.

[rooftest]

62 is a big frame - you may want to get measured to make sure it's right for you. I'm 6'1" and ride a 55.

[urbanknight]

62 is a big frame - you may want to get measured to make sure it's right for you. I'm 6'1" and ride a 55.
Wow, you must have short legs. I'm 5'11" and my shorter-than-average legs like a 55 (my torso wants a 57).

But yeah, take some measurements to be sure.

[EvBB]

Well just to follow up, the LeMond guy's other buyers fell through, and I went out and took a look today. I had to pass. Since it wasn't going to fit me and I was just going to use it as a parts bike, the fact that the gears were shot made it a tough buy. And the brake levers were very loose. And turns out my C'dale frame is a crazy tri-bike which needs 650c wheels, so the wheels aren't going to work. I'll just keep looking and enjoy my old Fuji hybrid in the meantime. Thrill of the hunt and all that. Or if I can't find the parts cheap enough, I'll just save up and eventually buy a brand new bargain Windsor Kennet or some such.
-EvBB

[Vireo]

62 is a big frame - you may want to get measured to make sure it's right for you. I'm 6'1" and ride a 55.


If I were you I'd get measured 6'1" on a 55? Well I guess you know what you are doing. Humor me...take your torso measurement for me. Measuring your inseam is old school (now I know I will get everyone in a tizzy) but you should measure your torso for me.

Now for the noob...if you are doing a swap of components off a 55cm bike and you are 6'4" the crankarms are probably 172.5mm and you would need at least 180mm cranks. The H-bars would be too narrow and the stem might not work either. The seatpost may be too short if the 55cm rider cut off the excess. At 6'4" you should have a rather long inseam and your saddle would be jacked up quite a bit. At 6'4" your inseam should be in the neighborhood of 91cm now tell me your torso. Measure and report back.

[cradduck]

I agree with Vireo. There might be differences in size of some of the components (cranks/handlebars) if there is a big differences between frame sizes.

My two suggestions for a tight budget:
Try hitting up this guy --> rat_zombie85@yahoo.com. He sells a lot of used road bikes on the Orange County craigslist (he's based out of Seal Beach...I think). Tell him what you are looking for and he may have something or be willing to shoot you an email once he comes across the kind of bike/price you are looking for.

Post on Craigslist. "Wanted: 62cm road bike" I have received some great deals by posting on craigslist. There are plenty of people with good quality bikes that are just sitting in their garage gathering dust but don't want to deal with the countless emails, no shows, low ballers, and Nigerian scammers so they don't post it on CL. Worst case senerio is that you don't recieve any replies to the ad so no real loss.

[EvBB]

Now for the noob... At 6'4" your inseam should be in the neighborhood of 91cm now tell me your torso. Measure and report back.

OK, as a noob, you realize I'm going to need a little help on this measuring business, right? I found this site with nice directions on taking body measurements for bike fitting, so I'm almost there:
http://cherry.dcwi.com/cherry/info/fitting.html

Only question is this: do I use a flexible tape, like a tailor would use, following the contour of my body? Or do I use a standard stiff tape measure, and figure out the distance of a flat plain from "the crotch to the base of the sternal notch"? Their image seems to show flexible tape, but I'm thinking stiff tape would be better. Because if you have a pot belly elongating a flex tape measurement, that shouldn't mean you need a longer frame, right?

When I was growing up, we had a few goats we kept as pets and showed in...goat shows, I guess. There, they would compete against other breeds of goats, and the strangest looking by far were the nubians. So whenever I hear the word noob, the image that jumps into my head is of a crazy looking goat with big floppy ears, like so:

http://www.hurleysgoatproducts.com/fancy_face.jpg

-EvBB

[EvBB]

My two suggestions for a tight budget:
Try hitting up this guy --> rat_zombie85@yahoo.com
Thanks Cradduck, I just emailed him.

[urbanknight]

Someone once posted an online bicycle fit calculator. It was nice, as it told you how to measure everything, you typed the measurement into the field on the web page, and at the end it told you the dimensions you'd want in a bike. I can't find it, but this explains some of the measurements needed. http://www.cyclemetrics.com/Pages/Docs/6-BikeFitting/LemondSystem/fit_formulas.htm
Hopefully, someone will know the site I'm talking about and post a link here.

[rooftest]

If I were you I'd get measured 6'1" on a 55? Well I guess you know what you are doing. Humor me...take your torso measurement for me. Measuring your inseam is old school (now I know I will get everyone in a tizzy) but you should measure your torso for me.

I got fitted, and that's the right size for me. I don't recall my exact cycling inseam, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 - 31.

[big john]

Like Vireo said, the size of the frame,(seat tube length), is not the most important demension. You can go up or down with your seatpost but if the top tube is too long or too short, you can't compensate as well.
I'm about 6'2" and I have 3 road bikes, a 62cm, a 63cm, and a 64cm. I think the 64 fits best because of the top tube and the 63 is a little long. Each maker of frames will have different geometry for a given size.
It would be good if you could get on a bunch of different bikes and see how they feel.