Road Cycling - Ever want/buy a bike that was out of your budget??

So my 30th bday is coming up. I've been commuting everyday on a mtn bike for the last 4 months and lost about 15 lbs during that time. My wife now wants in on the deal and so dream road bike (orbea orca frame) here I come!!!

My budget was a bit more modest when I started out ($2000) and now I'm looking at something closer to $3600.

I see other people of probably lesser means owning more than 2+ bikes of this price range or better. I'm trying to say to myself it's an investment. That (aside from upgrades) I'll be riding it it for a few years and it does pay for itself (as opposed to car monthly payments/insurance or even public transport). I can pay for it but I'm definitely not rolling in the dough either (newly wed, renting an apartment still etc) , the big question now is should I?

Reality check (if needed) please.

G'day,

Lol...welcome to my world!....the simple answer to your question is.......get it. If you want it & financially you can swing it...do it. Who knows, this maybe your only opportunity to own something as good as this?. Don't think to hard about it, or try & rationalise it.....buy it, reward yourself, life's to short not to do something for yourself. Just make sure you're not overcommitted financially & provided 'she who must be obeyed' is happy........I'd already be in the LBS being fitted!...make sure you post some piccys!. FWIW, I did the same with a look KG486, DA10, Cosmic carbons etc...I have no regrets,

cheers,

Hitchy

G'day,

Lol...welcome to my world!....the simple answer to your question is.......get it. If you want it & financially you can swing it...do it. Who knows, this maybe your only opportunity to own something as good as this?. Don't think to hard about it, or try & rationalise it.....buy it, reward yourself, life's to short not to do something for yourself. Just make sure you're not overcommitted financially & provided 'she who must be obeyed' is happy........I'd already be in the LBS being fitted!...make sure you post some piccys!. FWIW, I did the same with a look KG486, DA10, Cosmic carbons etc...I have no regrets,

cheers,

Hitchy

I agree. If you think about, it's only a bike, it's "only" a few grand, so it's not like you're blowing 100 grand on a Ferrari :)

Hi,
you will likely have many expenses coming in the near future, a house, maybe kids. I expect interest rates to rise slowly and steadily
over the next few years. This makes home buying much more expensive (but on the plus side moderates housing prices).

Which might sound like I am saying don't. What I am saying is you actually have a couple decisions to make. The first is to decide where cycling fits in your life, and then decide on how much you can spend within that framework. You may have already done that.

Then consider the likelihood that once kids or a mortgage shows up your fun money will mostly evaporate for years. Maybe longer.
With that in mind I'd look for a bike that will last for the next 20 years. I'd look at good steel or titanium bikes. Keeping an eye on durability I'd skip carbon rear triangles and super lite frames. You'll have a bike that concedes very little to
featherweight racers. And it will be there for you while the kids grow up.

Everyday I find a new Bianchi that is out of my budget that I want to buy :(
some day I will get me a sweet Reparto Corse, some day ..............

this is true. once the mortgage payments, kids, wife.... any passion can be a moneypit. my bike has >18,000 miles on it and i won't think about getting a new one till 40K or so. thats why i bought steel.
get it now. it will be pennies a mile in the long run....

They are all more than I want to spend. I struggle on however, and spend anyway. :D

2 mortgages, cars, 2 kids, stay-at-home wife, disfunctional in-laws, piano lessons, little league, club memberships, insurances(many), counseling, therapists, doctors and medications not on the plan, home improvements, donations, school, trainer, subscriptions, utilities, pets, gas, car repairs, and a LOT more...like the not-to-be-forgotten CREDIT CARDS....

All of this on a single income - mine.

When it came time to get a bike - there really wasn't any real money laying around for what I truly wanted. But at the same time, it had been so long since I'd done anything for myself, it was quite easy to put this purchase into the "need" category as opposed to the "want". Ol' Dad's peace-of-mind became a top priority for once and everybody supported it.

But I still felt guilty spending all that money. I wanted a Trek 5200 or comparable and 3 grand just seemed like too much. So I went another route and bought used. My first was a 3 month old, mint condition Trek 5500 w/Ultegra for $1000. From there, it became an all consuming hobby to learn to ride better, build and repair bikes, and find great deals.

My wife will sometimes say I've gone overboard but given my OCD type personality, it's all or nothing and she can't fight that. Besides, she too enjoys the results of my work. Now I have 4 bikes, all expensive at a glance but all puchased used and parted together from my own 2 hands. The total cost of what I spent on the 5500, Lemond Maillot Jaune and the Poprad is still less than what I would've spent on a new 5200 alone. And the total cost of the current project - the Tete de Course - when finished, will be less that 1/3 what these babies MSRP is when new.

It was worth it to me to spend the money.

55/Rad

In four years my wife and I will celebrating our 10th anniversary. We were talking about this and the kids and how the time has flown by and how four years doesn't seem so far away. Then we starting talking about finances and where we will be in four years cause we have a lot of plans going on and in the works. So I told her I wanted to get her something special for being my wife and mother and all that mushy jazz and hinted at a peice of expensive jewelery which I know without a doubt she would love. So she then says to me in a way, "What am I supposed to get you then?" A big smile came across my face and I basically told her my dream road bike. So in four years I'll have something to brag about other then 10 years of marriage.

So if you can afford it now then get it. Don't wait or you may regret it and have to wait 10 years for the next opprotunity. Good luck to you.

Keeping up with the jones can get $$$$.

Wow glad to see I'm not alone.

I believe I'm quite blessed actually. We are by no means rich but we live comfortably because we haven't really bought stuff we don't need for the moment. No car because I can bike and if my lessons go well the wife will too. Everything we need is walking distance from the house. Don't really "go out" in the party sense of the word anymore. We live in a nice neighborhood near the beach. Well you get the picture.

Basically I just need a "me" thing that keeps me from being a couch potato -which I was when I was in school 2 years back and gained 30 lbs (be happy to report that in 4 months of biking I've lost that).

So ANYWAY. glad to know I'm not crazy. I am now just trying to find the best LBS (prices should be pretty much the same so I'm really looking for service) and a nice group of people to learn from and ride with.

Thanks for the advice and hope to see some of you on the road soon.

The answer to the question is: "Every single day." I've got a bad case of gearlust and the more I learn about bikes the worse it gets.

So my advice is to buy the best bike you can reasonably afford. If you can, buy a bike that's better than you deserve, then ride the hell out of it until you do. That's what I did and I couldn't be happier.

(Except that now I'm thinking of upgrading to Dura-Ace 10 and I have to figure out how to explain to the family CFO that it'll cost more than most people spend on an entire bike.... But that's another thread.)

I have a 7 year old Trek 2100 that I am OK with... no reasons to upgrade or to change... then 1 day I got a wild hair up my... face, and decided that I want to get a dream bike! I tried to justify it by calling it my "mid-life crisis" bike.

So I bought a De Rosa Merak frame that is just BEAUTIFUL! So I have to start building it, right?

Did I mention that I've been unemployeed for almost a year now?

So now I am taking a painfully LONG time to buy the components. Got some.... but man, those Mavic SSC SL's are expensive, as are the 04 Records... so I probably won't get the bike finished for a year or two.... but I figure the joy is in the journey.

Bottome line is... get it. 5-10 years from now, looking back in restrospect, you'll say... man it was no big thang!

Godd luck.

But I still felt guilty spending all that money. I wanted a Trek 5200 or comparable and 3 grand just seemed like too much. So I went another route and bought used. My first was a 3 month old, mint condition Trek 5500 w/Ultegra for $1000. From there, it became an all consuming hobby to learn to ride better, build and repair bikes, and find great deals.

55/Rad

Hey 55/Rad,

Interesting post.

I got back into riding seriously last year, and bought a Merlin which I love. But now I have several new itches:

1) To have some more higher end bikes.
2) To be able to build up a bike from scratch
3) Build some wheels

This sounds like a great bad weather project.

So...where did you go to get such a good deal for the 5500???? $1000 for a 3 month high end bike sounds too good to be true.

And how did you come up to speed on building the bike? Did you get help from LBS? How much did you have to spend for tools to help assembly?

Thanks

Fa(s)t Eddie

I have an older Cannondale (Caad4 frame with Dura) which does the job, but I ride so freaking much that I feel like i should have something nicer sitting under me. Every week I look up prices on the internet and covet bikes, knowing full well that it will be next year before I can really justify buying one. There are two bikes that I covet in particular, the DeRosa King (which I will never be able to afford) and the Cannondale Six-13 which is only moderately more conceivable. I also ride Mtn. Bikes and am riding a Santa Cruz Chameleon which I got out of a sponsorship deal a few years back. I don't really like it all that much, but I can't justify buying a new one yet because I ride my road bike so much more. I really want a nice full suspension that is geared towards cross country riding, like the fuel. AAAAARRRRGGGHHH!!! Want, Want, Want. It will never end.

HAHAHAHAHA! Yes, actually I just did exactly that. It should be here Friday. A 2001 C'dale R3000si. Full DA, Kyserium SSC...... Ahhhh.
Funny how money is so much harder to get into your pocket than out of it, isn't it?

Cole

55/RAD - Your story sounds all too familiar. There always seems to be some "other" necessity to spend the $$$ on with a single income family. I try to tell my wife that the only way I end up getting anything is if I go out and just do it, otherwise my needs fall to the bottom of the priority stack.

I wanted a $3k bike...but was only able to justify spending $1500 on a new ride...still the $3k bike is off in the future...someday...I can smell it! ;)

Do what I did...go out and get hit by a car while riding your $20 1984 Campagnolo equipped Bianchi.

Then, when the drivers insurance finally pays up you can go out and buy a better bike. In my case a 2004 LeMond Zurich- BUT, I did resist the urge to spend a bit more on a demo Maillot Juane...just didn't feel right to spend $600 more as I have bills to pay. I didn't like the red of the MJ anyway.

Then, Karma kicked in (as I was fiscally responsible for not spending the extra money) and I got the Race XXX Lite forks for free. The original forks were mushed in shipping so the shop upgraded 2x for free.

Buy the best you can afford...as long as it's comfortable (ride feeling AND psychologically)

Good luck,
PJBAZ

Well, I had to sell two of my computers to enable myself to get my Trek 5000. So, yeah, it was out of my budget, but I got around it.

i am doing it friday on a new look 261 frame, i dont have the "reall" cash to do it but i am geting it anyawy, kinda a reward for finishing up chemo i guess

I'm an 18-year-old kid, of course I want a bike out of my pricerange. No matter how much I work my butt off, I'm not going to be able to pocket enough cash to get a Trek 5900 SL. Not with college tuition, food, car, etc. I am selling my car. It wasn't expensive to begin with, but that extra $1000 or so, is going to go into what I am calling my bike fund. I have a Trek 1000 right now. Nice bike for the price, but I ride every day ranging from 25-40 miles. I have a feeling that kind of stress on low-end components could get me in trouble in a year or two. So, I am going to start with the money I get from the car, and work as much as possible during this year in college. Probably not smart as an incoming freshman at a highly selective school, but a risk I am going to take. Since I have a meal plan, and I only have to fly home for Christmas and Spring Break, I am hoping to make a fair amount of money. I'm willing to sacrafice having a lot of fun in the present (Broadway, parties, etc.) if I can get my hands on a bike of that caliber next summer.

consider the likelihood that once kids or a mortgage shows up your fun money will mostly evaporate for years. Maybe longer.
With that in mind I'd look for a bike that will last for the next 20 years. I'd look at good steel or titanium bikes. Keeping an eye on durability I'd skip carbon rear triangles and super lite frames. You'll have a bike that concedes very little to
featherweight racers. And it will be there for you while the kids grow up.


does this mean I can admit to having ordered an Axiom steel last week? Or is that still an object of ridicule? :D


(we're having our 1st baby, due October 1) ;)

Ridicule? I have not ridden a Seven, but they have a great rep.
I like traditional geometry, so I'd be more likely to get an Axiom or something like a Rivendell than anything else. Congrats on both!

(we're having our 1st baby, due October 1) ;)

We just had our first baby a week and a day ago and my 04 LeMond is in the basement. I bought it in mid-June knowing full well that I'd be broke for the next, oh say, 20 years!

Congrats on the baby.

PJ

I now want to meet all you guys and buy you a drink (just one mind you as I will broke soon with the new bike).

Thanks for all the stories.

I now want to meet all you guys and buy you a drink (just one mind you as I will broke soon with the new bike).

Thanks for all the stories.

Whatever you do, don't take out the credit cards for that bike unless you can pay off the plastic IN FULL once that bill arrives. A bike that costs 3K could easily become 4K by making minimal payments. One person told me that as soon as you reach 1K in credit card debt, you're in it for life! I didn't believe him until it nearly happened to me. I spent 15 years of my life paying off credit card balances. The bicycle enabled me to become debt free by becoming car free.

Stay clear of credit card hell.

Sigh ...

We just had our first baby a week and a day ago and my 04 LeMond is in the basement. I bought it in mid-June knowing full well that I'd be broke for the next, oh say, 20 years!

Congrats on the baby.

PJ

heh heh...thanks!

Whatever you do, don't take out the credit cards for that bike unless you can pay off the plastic IN FULL once that bill arrives. A bike that costs 3K could easily become 4K by making minimal payments. One person told me that as soon as you reach 1K in credit card debt, you're in it for life! I didn't believe him until it nearly happened to me. I spent 15 years of my life paying off credit card balances. The bicycle enabled me to become debt free by becoming car free.

Stay clear of credit card hell.


I work for a credit card company, it's amazing how peoples attitdues vary (I have worked in customer service for 2 years...I'm switching departments in the next couple weeks hopefully *I'll know tomorrow*) and I can't talk about it much but just in general some people think of credit cards as a large deposit in there bank account..."Oh thanks for the 5000$"...It's amazing when people call me and ask me if they have to pay this bacK (no I'm not joking) or demand an increase because they maxed the card out within 2 weeks of getting it (9 months ago) and have been making "ALL" there payments since then (min. pymt only heh)

I'm not innoncent of having debt, I'm 21 I've been in school (well forever technically) but college since I was 18 and I've done 3 semesters a year...I'm worked part time between my company + my other part time jobs (this one for the last 2 years) and other odd jobs between. I've been known to live above my means, but mostly it was a stress relief excuse.

All that school was killing me. If your passionate about something and you really want it and cost has no meaning then getting a loan to pay for it may be worth it to you...but if thats your excuse for everything then you will get approximately 75% as far in life as you would have had you saved for things (the other 25% goes to the lender whether it be the bank or individual credit card issuers)

Meh. I was happy when I had an Acura in highschool and I am happy now with my Colnago. My days of part time are all but over and I'll get myself back in the + with a savings to boot.

Anyway good luck on the new bike purchase,
don't forget to post pictures!

Chad

Whatever you do, don't take out the credit cards for that bike unless you can pay off the plastic IN FULL once that bill arrives. A bike that costs 3K could easily become 4K by making minimal payments. One person told me that as soon as you reach 1K in credit card debt, you're in it for life! I didn't believe him until it nearly happened to me. I spent 15 years of my life paying off credit card balances. The bicycle enabled me to become debt free by becoming car free.

A person could just get a regular loan from the bank.....

the big question now is should I?

My take...

If you're already setting aside at least 10% of your income for savings/401k/investments, have your debt paid down to a manageable level, have some disposable income burning a hole in your pocket and cycling is now a central part of your life (fitness & social) it's a no brainer... Blow the wad and spoil yourself 'cause nobody else is going to do it unless you're lucky enough to have partner who is rolling in dough and spoils you rotten.

However, if you don't have the cash, then it's still a dream bike. Keep dreaming until you have the cash to fulfill that dream and it will be all that much more rewarding. Moreover, it will give you a goal to work for that can even be used as a carrot for improving your fitness on a parallel schedule with your bicycle savings plan. Not sure if I understand the connection with your wife's interest in cycling moving up the schedule unless you're looking to put her on your existing ride or her enthusiasm for cycling has helped to give you the red light for the hot ride. Regardless, I still would encourage you to buy within your budget, regardless of what that might be.

At 45, I now have every rideable dream bike I could want or need. It took 30 years to get there and most of the "ability" to get there came about during the last 10 years. Moreover, the dream gained some unanticipated sequels in 1997 when my road and off-road cycling interests became community property with the introduction of my wife to cycling via our first tandem. Three road tandem and three off-road tandem acquisitions later -- three of which remain in the stable and which qualify as "dream bikes" -- the fleet was rounded out last year when I finally put Debbie on her own personal "dream bike". Gotta watch out for how your passion can become a family passion with financial consequences.

No boats, no RVs, no time-shares, and the boys are out of the house and through college. It takes time, so enjoy the dream until you can pay for it in cash. Nothing is worse than having a great ride moment on that dream bike ruined when you get hit with buyer's remorse or guilt for spoiling yourself when you REALLY couldn't comfortably afford it.

Well, I have realized a few things in my 6 months of biking on my mtn bike :
1) It's awesome for my health (lost about 20 lbs from biking everyday to work)
2) I do want to bike more but definitely not mtn biking
3) I could buy a road bike regardless but it is a waste if I already had a fully serviceable bike lying around

Luckily I have the best wife in the world who kind of solved my moral dilemna by ofering to take my bike and get on the whole lose weigh train.

We really don't have much overhead (no kids, no car, everything is walking/biking distance) so I guess now is really the best time to go for it.

Go for it bro! I wholeheartedly agree that your life will likely be changing fairly soon, so spend the dough now while you can. I've got a wife, 2 kids, a mortgage, and a car payment, and for what I paid for 2 yrs of my son's karate I COULD be riding any bike I want. Part of being a good husband & father is sacrificing the things you want for your family, so my advice is to get all the things you want before you have a family of your own. When money gets tighter( and it will), things like bikes will be out of the question for quite a while. Good luck, let us know what you got.