Philasteve

My local bike shop doesn't sell any bikes for $500 or less. I think the Kilo TT is perfect for him, and he can fit himself with the fit calculator. Nice suggestion though with a bike way out of his price range. If I was him and I followed you advice, I would go to my LBS (they don't sell any fixed gear bikes) and be screwed. Then I would go downtown and find out that everything is double my budget. Let people suggest what works for peoples budgets.

Bat56

Can you get a KiloTT at the LBS?

LBS, it's the new KiloTT

europa

Any shop that doesn't sell low end fg bikes but then gets snarky because you bought one on-line and asked them to set it up for you, doesn't deserve any business from you. It's different if they DO carry entry level fg bikes though even then, by setting up your bike they're putting money through their workshop with the probability they'll sell bits and accessories to you as well if not later.

Provided you're polite and given your lbs a chance to find a bike a for you, I see nothing wrong with buying on-line then paying them to make sure it's right. You might also start to understand why things on-line are cheaper than in a bike shop.

Never be scared to pay for service or advice.
Never pay for snotty attitudes and prejudice ... sadly, that's often the reality, especially in roadie shops.

GENESTARWIND

a budget friendly bike isnt necessarely a beginner friendly bike. bottom bracket tools, lock ring and chain whip tools. cone wrenches if the regular kilo still comes with unsealed hubs and crank puller.


but like europa said, find a cool shop and if youre willing to pay them to check it over and adjust things accordingly by all means, still good.

plus they might even walk you through a few things and you get to learn as well!

KlingOn

I am so baffled why the advice is always "Kilo TT."

At literally 10-20% above that price point in France, you can do so much better. Surely in the U.S., where you can literally eat all you can for $9 at Golden Corral, you could also do better at a physical bike shop. Or am I terribly wrong with my intuition?

Either way, the spec for crank type is "alloy forged track," with literally 90% of the major parts being non-branded. Surely these are all "designed" and made in China.

In fairness, I've never seen one of these in my life. But my local shop, XXCycle, sells the Stevens Velocita for 599€ new and used ones on leboncoin (French Craig's List) are almost half that. And that bike has FSA, Shimano, Miche components, depending on build-up. This is probably why I've never once seen the fabled Kilo TT in France.

What's the cred derived from? Price alone?

Angelis

That's over twice the price of a Kilo TT.


The Kilo TT seems like a good bargain, and they're even starting to trickle into Canada where they don't actually ship to.

rms13

From personal experience I would say you are terribly wrong. The most affordable ssfg bikes I've seen at an LBS are KHS Flight and Raleigh Rush hour. Both run around $550-600 usd. Compared to a kilo tt for $400, the LBS option is going to run at least 40% more. Also where I live in CA, sales tax is 9%. My LBS sells Raleigh and KHS, if I can get one for $550, I then add $50 for sales tax and it's $600. Kilo TT is basically the exact same bike for $400 no tax and no shipping.

I understand the argument for buying from the LBS but if you are somewhat capable with a wrench it may not make sense to everyone

europa

I think that's where your confusion originates.
I'm in Australia so the Bikes Direct bikes aren't available here. There are lots of bikes at prices the yanks would turn purple at. Different worlds. Having read a lot of threads over the years, the KiloTT advice is fair enough in the US. Elsewhere, the advice just doesn't apply. Truth be known, I think you probably have a freer, more open market than the US one, the US just enjoys local volume, but that's a big advantage for buyers in the US.

KlingOn

I also did not take into consideration that our minimum wage here is 1300€/month, and with a 35 hour work week that's around 13 USD/hour.

Our petrol is appropriately taxed by federal and regional governments and is 2 USD/liter, where I believe in the USA it is 0.75 USD/liter.

We also have a tiny fraction of the giant food subsidies that the USA has, and so a Big Mac meal costs 10-11 USD where you only pay 5 USD. So we only eat at McDo as a treat.

Eat cheap food. Have minimal expenses to drive a car. Sedentary lifestyle. Demand for food and fuel is high. Demand for bikes is low. Cheap bikes become expensive. #KiloTT is end result.

It's absolute opposite here. Good cars cost cash, good food is expensive, everyone has bikes. Even great bikes are low price. The equivalent of a Kilo TT here is 150€, but is from China. This is what I don't understand. Surely it costs the same to ship from China/Taiwan to US or France, and there is no scale differential, because no one wants these cheap no-name bikes with unbranded parts here. The economic logic says that they should be even higher here, since we are buying less of them, wasting space with inventory, etc. But for some reason, your cheap bikes are double the price of our cheap bikes, even though you have higher scale and identical shipping rates from Far East Asia. It's just predatory pricing, obviously. All French ride bikes and we know the values. No one here would pay 300€ for a Kilo TT, the parts on the bike don't even have names. Crazy.

The average 18 year old kid who works at Carrefour (French Wal-Mart) here can buy a Stevens fixie, pay rent and bills with one paycheck.

The average 18 year old kid who works at Wal-Mart in the U.S. would have to save for a month, live at home with parents, and maybe after a month could afford a Kilo TT and a 100 USD cell phone bill.

American cycle culture, yikes!!!! Cheap Big Macs and expensive Kilo TTs.

KILO TT!!!

KlingOn

Totally unrelated, apart from Durian Rider being alive, Adelaide is one of the most wonderful places in the world to ride a bike. I had wonderful times there on a winter vacation several years ago. Very few places in the world where you could find a nicer place to ride a bike from November-January.

Stay cool, terrible heat you guys are having. At this time of the year, the Languedoc is 10 C and a little rainy, but sounds much better than 45 C and blazing sun!!!!

@work

^ this guy, so much lols

RedJewel

I'm fairly new and went down to the LBS (Performance Bikes), and I settled on an SE Lager, it was $400. They said the SE Lager is a good value for the the money. I looked at the specs online to compare and figure out what I missed if I bought the Dawes SST for $250.

https://www.sebikes.com/bikes/lifesty...n-series/lager
https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/dawes/sst.htm

Even the Dawes SST has a 100% CroMo frame, but at $400 SE still isn't able to match that? I don't know a lot about the other components but it would seem that the Dawes SST might even be a better bike at $150 less and I could have just measured the Standover height and then had someone assemble it for $70- and I would have still came out on top.

Nagrom_

Might actually pick up one of those Dawes for the sqrl. That's a great buy at 200 bucks.

But yeah, you pretty much figured out why we recommend BD so much.

RedJewel

I noticed the Dawes SST is also on a special sale right now for $200 which adds insult to injury. I'm currently trying to cancel my order with Performance Bikes, I ordered it on Feb 13th and their estimated completion date is Feb 26th- I'm going to just buy the Kilo TT when I get the refund.

seau grateau

Lots of companies are cashing in on the fixie trend by sacrificing quality for aesthetics. SE is a prime example. BD, on the other hand, is able to offer their low prices by eliminating quality control and shop support from the business model. In my opinion, it's never been a better time to convert old road bikes.

seau grateau

Also note that the Dawes you linked is only available in 43.

RaleighSport

#KiloTT duh

GromCake

It's because the Kilo TT is the best bike for the money. Hands down. It's the cheapest ss/fg complete you can get that isn't absolute garbage. And it's true, building up a good connection with your favorite local shop is a really great thing to do, I buy 90% of my bike stuff from my favorite shop in town and they give me discounts on pretty much everything in the store and free labor installing headsets I didn't buy there into frames I didn't buy there. I got into riding fixed entirely on my own learning through forums and videos and when I started I didn't know the first thing about bikes. If OP does the research and is patient it'll be well worth the money to get the Kilo and finish the ~*minor*~ leftover assembly out of the box. There's nothing overwhelming about pulling out an allen key and greasing up a seatpost, and even if it is a total mess straight out of the box you could still take it to the LBS and give them twenty bucks to put it together. The cost of the Kilo + labor at the shop is still likely to be cheaper than the completes that the shop could get themselves.

GromCake

did you just call a big mac "good food"?

TheBoiler

I just received the Kilo WT, will have to wait until Monday to ride it, snow and 5F outside where I am now.

They are not difficult to put together using very limited tools. You are going to need to know something for any bike, or do you take it to the LBS every time you get a flat etc.

I would recommend brakes whatever you do.

Certainly the frame is not made in China.

Richk

So what is everyone talking about lack of quality on the SE Lager bikes ?

bmontgomery87

I'd say just because they're low-end bikes that sell because of their price point/ paint colors instead of their quality?

That said, I really liked the SE saddle I had on my old bike, it was comfortable and had a bottle opener.

Richk

Still pretty vague on the quality issues? What exactly sucks about them ?

jimothy89

Hey guys so bit of an update. I still haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet.

I went to a LBS and asked about their Raleigh selection. They told me it was basically a garbage brand and that they only carry Raleigh children's bikes. They were amazed to hear they even made a road bike. Seemed like 99% of what they sold was a brand called Specialized. The guy said i should spend the extra few hundred dollars on one of those... even though I told him it'd be my first bike and was looking for something very entry level.

He said he could order the Rush Hour, but at that point I felt kind of like an idiot and left. Since then I've been checking for a Kilo TT online in the color/size I want. No luck there yet but Ive been patient.

Recently I found this on craigslist.
Mercier Kilo TT
I don't know if this is actually a good deal or not... It sounds like a good price but since I know nothing about bikes or bike parts I figured I'd ask you guys. Is it worth checking this out or should i just keep checking BikesDirect?

rms13

That guy is an idiot. Raleigh makes some very nice bikes