I stopped by my LBS yesterday and they have an 07' Raleigh Rush Hour Pro that they want to get rid of at 20% off. I think this is the going discount for most 07' leftovers. My questions is, at roughly $1200 after the discount is this a pretty good deal on this bike. I am riding a rush hour now (steel) and want to upgrade to an aluminum frame for next years race season. I don't think i'll find this kinda deal when its time to race, so should i jump on this or try and talk him down some more.

Thanks, JDB

$1200 is not that great of a deal. You can probably talk them down some more if you work on it though or wait.

Bargaining may be difficult, because as I understand it, Raleigh has ended the Rush Hour Pro line, so with no 2008 release looming, the shop may not have incentive to get rid of the 2007 at fire-sale prices.

Depending on the size of the shop, your best bet may be to offer them maybe $900 or $1000 in cash (presuming you have or can get $1000 in cash). Most business prefer cash-in-hand deals to any kind of financing, even credit cards (unless you're talking about Performance or something).

the shop owner told me the rush hour pro is only being sold in 08' as a frameset. The color and specs are indentical to the 07. The shop is a smaller one, but has sold like 3 track bikes that i know of in the past week. That same bike however has been sitting there for the better part of a year. I was just thinking i might get a better deal now then waiting for track season to start up. I think i'll just go talk to the owner and see how bad he wants to sell it, and what kind of cash deal he can make.

thanks, Justin

That's about $400* off the MSRP if I'm not mistaken which isn't bad. It's not a steal but you could probably talk them down a bit, especially if you can pay for it upfront in cash.

In any case the RHP is a pretty decent mid-range track bike. It's pretty similar to the the Fuji track pro and the Bianchi pista concept. I think it has better wheels than the FTP and better components than the pista concept. The stays are also reinforced which arguably makes the rear triangle stiffer.

I have one and have been pretty satisfied with it. A bunch of other racers at my local velodrome have them too. The only negative I've heard about them is that the fork ends are too thick which has resulted in several people snapping the axles of their rear wheel (I traded in the stock wheels for tubulars and haven't experienced this personally).

EDIT: It looks like, if it's 20% off, that it's $300 off.

I'm interested in ride details, too. I want to get this on my EP, and it'd make a great Pursuit bike, while my Erba would be a Kilo/Mass-Start bike.

Thats a good deal if the wheels are Mavic Ellipse. I would go $1100 easy.