spectastic

https://ames.craigslist.org/bik/3231479645.html

after a little search, 600 used to be ultegra a while back. But this much have been in the late 90s early 00s, and I wouldn't know how the ultegra from that time period would compare to the 105 or even tiagra of today. In addition, I don't like carbon frames. And it looks pretty banged up. I'm not going to buy it, but I'm just curious how 600 compares to modern shimano components.

FastJake

600 became 600 Ultegra (tri-color group on that Trek) then it just became Ultegra. There is a good thread about it somewhere.

Tri-color is my favorite "vintage" group. Comparing it to a modern group is a little tricky when you start gram counting but I would say that the 600 Ultegra on that bike is every bit as good as modern Ultegra, with the exception of missing some of the "features" that have become common since that time. Specifically: 10 speed rears, STI shifters, and Hollowtech external bottom brackets. Although not identical I would say the brakes, hubs, and derailers are every bit as good as today's equipment.

Agreed on the bike. $400 is too much in that condition. Rough, dirty, mismatched wheels. Wild card carbon tubed frame. I would go maybe $200 on it.

wrk101

+1 Dirty and overpriced. IMHO, the nicer 600 series components were the 8 speed tricolor STI with dual pivot brakes (that bike does have the dual pivots).

Seller is dreaming, and an hour spent cleaning that bike first, then taking pictures, would put him way ahead.

My creed is the 3 "P"s: Preparation, Presentation, Price. This bike has none of these three. Either he lucks out and hooks a fish, or he is going to be stuck with it.

+1 To below, that's some doggy stuff there. I checked the C/L as well, WOW! I guess its a typical college town.

thirdgenbird

I would probably pass as well but $200 won't buy much in central Iowa. Most of our 70s and 80s gas pipe bikes with steel components get listed fr $150-250. I'm not saying there isn't good stuff out there but it is slim.

Here are a few other local sales...
https://ames.craigslist.org/bik/3190473514.html

https://ames.craigslist.org/bik/3231688506.html

https://ames.craigslist.org/bik/3226403635.html

I didn't hand pick these, they were the first three drop bar bikes I found in Ames.

I am local(ish), if you find a bike in the des Moines area i may be able to check it out and service it.

thinktubes 

I wouldn't pay over $200 for this. Looks closer to a 54cm than a 56cm.

spectastic

I keep saying the market is crap right now, and everything is overpriced, but nobody would believe me!

I've had 3 vintage road bikes in my life, and they were all bought for under $100 bucks. I don't know what happened since then.

thanks for the offer, but I think I'm done with CL bikes. My next one will be from bikesdirect on holiday clearance. If I get lucky, I'll be able to get Apex for less than $700 bucks.

thirdgenbird

I think the market here is always crap. There are a few good buys every now and then but not often. What size do you need? I can keep my eye open.

If you don't have the tools, the service offer goes for the BD bike as well. I've put a few together and they basically needed completely disassembled, greased, and properly torqued.

spectastic

i thought BD bike are 90% assembled when they arrive. I would imagine that goes for the derailleurs, BB, cassette, or anything that requires more than hex wrenches and screw drivers. you saying the stock product need to be taken apart completely?

thirdgenbird

It depends on your definition of need. You can throw them together with a hex wrench, but the ones I have put together for people were not properly greased and I questioned the torque on a lot of the hardware. My best recommendation (as well as many others) is to take things apart and make sure it is done properly.

FastJake

+1

The whole "90% assembled" thing is deceptive IMO. Walk into x-mart and check out the bikes. Technically those are 100% assembled but they're assembled really badly. Sure, they can be ridden that way. But should they? Not necessarily.

I would tear down and re-assemble a BD bike before riding. Then you know it's done right.

spectastic

huh. by tearing down and greasing, do you mean specifically the BB, wheel hubs, and the fork stem? Because I have been thinking about buying the park tool chain whip, a big wrench, and some BB/sprocket fittings so that I can be completely self sufficient in my bike maintenance.

also, is it really necessary to rebuild the fork?

thirdgenbird

The hubs should be fine.

If I were going to build a BD bike, I would go as far as taking the bb out and starting over using proper procedures, greasing the headset, greasing all mating surfaces, and removing and reinstalling the cassette to ensure proper torque.

As I said, if you are doing this sometime in the winter I may be able to help. I would be more that happy to teach you the tricks of the trade if we can find a time and place.

spectastic

well gee. nothing like midwest hospitality. I'll send you a message if I need your help.

cale

I disagree with the comments about the bike's condition. It doesn't look dirty to me, The component group looks slightly corroded which would be expected from the Ultegra 600 group. Other than that, I think the frame has seen some hard use. The tubes are carbon fiber bonded to aluminum. I don't know what Trek's experience was with that process, ie the durability, but that would be my big concern. The hard use actually gives me the sense that the frame may be one of the durable ones. Going on the theory that if it hasn't failed by now it may never fail.

The posts saying that they wouldn't pay more than $200 must live in the land of cheap bikes. Unless that bike is clearly defective, it would fetch about $350-400 in the PNW.

wrk101

Actually, its more the opposite. Most of the USA is the land of regular pricing (what you might call cheap bikes). The other 15% are what I would call hot markets: San Fran, PNW, NYC, Boston, a few others.

Myself, I would pay more than $200 but not a lot more. Indexed DT shifter bikes top out around here at about $275 for a pristine, ready to ride bike, unless it is something really special.

As far as dirty, please take a look at the close ups of the DT levers (they are nasty dirty), the RD (dirty, but not nasty dirty), and the brake caliper (dirty). Tires and rims do not appear to match (I could be wrong). Rear tire looks beat.

thirdgenbird

You forgot a 3rd market: no selection

The op lives in an area where there may only be one or two available road bikes on Craigslist below $500 that didn't come from a department store. Months can go by before you find something that fits and is in nice shape.

For reference, the entire month of August fits on one Craigslist page.

wrk101

You definitely have me there. Good point. I overcome no market with a willingness to waste money on gas. Of the last four bikes I picked up, one was 220 miles away and one was 100 miles away (one way distances). The other two were closer, one was 50 miles, one was less than 2 miles (how did that happen??) I don't know whether that means I am really flexible, or stupid, probably a bit of both. But when you are looking for a nice bike, in a smaller market (I live in a smaller market myself), then traveling outside the area is often one solution, just not a cheap one.

You want really crazy, I drove almost 90 miles (again, one way), to pick up a used bike rack. Now that, is truly crazy. But it was the one model rack I wanted, at a price I thought was attractive.

Somewhat interesting, the two bikes that were the farthest away were in markets with about a page worth of bikes total in the last six weeks. So even though in those markets, bikes for sale are quite infrequent, so to were customers for those bikes. (just double checked the town that was 220 miles away, middle of nowhere, small town. Total number of bikes for sale on C/L in the last month? Zero).

pcb 

I guess it depends how you define your market, how much work you want to put into the hunt and how comfy you are buying used vintage stuff based on pix and descriptions. I suppose the days of quality used road bikes for $100 are certainly gone for all but the very lucky, though.

I can understand living in a less-populated area leading to a crappy local CL market. Not a lot of product with more demand than supply might mean that pos gaspipe dept store rejects sell for $200. There are alternatives to local CL, though. There's national CL, there's ebay, there's bike shops, there's classifieds on forums like this. If you'll push your budget to $700 for a new BD bike, I gotta think the same $700 would get you a better used frame with very decent parts for the same or less money through non-CL venues. Finding sweet bikes for $200 is work and luck, finding sweet bikes for $700 doesn't have to be that hard.

There are search engines that will search national CL listings. Find somebody in Chicago or Portland or Austin or wherever who'll ship, or who'll take it to a bike shop to ship. Or go to the facilitators section here and offer cash, beer and chips to a forum member who'll get it done for you.

Try doing a completed auction search on ebay in the road bike category, using your frame size in the description. Set the $$ filter to a range of, say, $200-$600 (so you'll have room for shipping charges). That will filter out the mostly crappy and very pricey stuff. If you fit a mid-size frame you'll probably have 100+ completed auctions for sold bikes to peruse. You'll find a lot of nice bikes there. Then uncheck the "Completed Auctions" box and see what's current.

I bought a couple of cool used bikes from Sellwood Cycle in Portland, OR, though their website. One was a Merz, which turned out to be Jim's personal bike, the first bike he brazed himself, now back in his hands; the other was a Marinoni Special, now converted to 650b. Last time I checked Sellwood still had used listings, but I haven't looked for a bunch of months. They're not cheap, but they'll have photos, the bikes will have been checked over, and you can call/email and ask questions. Anybody know of any other shops that have regularly-updated used listings?

And I can almost guarantee you that if you go to the marketplace here and in similar forums and mailing lists with a generic WTB ad you'll get some hits. How many of us are sitting on way too many bikes we're maybe not aching to sell, but an ad that says: "WTB quality road bike sized xxcm-yycm with Ultegra-level components, willing to pay up to $700 shipped" would motivate us to sell one? You can get as specific or be as general as you want, "lugged steel English frame from'78-'88," "Japanese steel from the '80s," "Italian blah blah blah," whatever. [Hattori Hanzo to The Bride: "Why do you need Japanese steel?"]

Note that I have nothing against Bikes Direct. I know the owner of the company, he's got lots of bike biz experience, most definitely know what he's doing, and his product looks to be safe, functional and a strong value. If I needed a campus bike, had little bike knowledge and no wrenching skills, I'd rather buy a steel frame coaster-brake 1spd from BD than play Russian roulette on CL. Especially if the campus were mostly flat, and/or I were young, thin and fit. But if I had time, $700 and reasonable bike/wrench ninja powers, I'd be looking elsewhere.

thirdgenbird

I can't argue with ny of that. If I was the OP, I would be watching the twin cites market.

cale

Yeah, I don't see the source of your revulsion. It looks to me like a patina of light corrosion. It isn't "dental floss" clean but I wouldn't fault the seller for that. Check out the chain. It's clean.

As far as the price goes, not everyone wants a set of low range brifters which are typically found on $350 used bikes in my neck of the woods. Us older riders grew up with down tube shifters and are actively looking for the quality bikes that are light and well designed.

When it's all said and done, the right price is what is paid.