I just recently got back into cycling. I never had a road bike - always mountain bikes. I owned a GT back in the late 80s and still have my Balance XR-450 from the early 90s. I wasn't sure if I wanted to just plunge into paying big bucks for fancy looking bikes at my LBS (truthfully, I see a lot of bling but so so parts on them when you look at what you get). I wanted to see if road cycling is for me so I decided to go the used route.

I saw and checked out a ton of very cool bikes in all kinds of shape - Fuji, Univega, Bianchi - but I ended up buying a mid 80s Cannondale SR600 with 105 components. I negotiated the price to $300. I took it to my LBS and was told the bike showed no signs of any abuse and the frame was in really good shape. It was easy to see as the refin was never completed. The bike is stripped down to the aluminium. Even the fork was stripped and cleaned. I kinda like the brushed aluminum look but I have to, at the very minimum, seal the forks to prevent rust. I am actually thinking of spraying the forks in a textured black finish. Not sure. Anyway, just curious if the $300 was a bad deal oh and I had to replace the rear cassette because 3 cogs were work\n so my LBS put one on a friend gave me (8 cog).

Bad deal? I hope not. It came with brand new tires and really nice looking Shimano rims. The tech said the front cost $200, approximately. Just worried if $300 was a bit much for such an old bike. As far as liking riding a road bike...I LOVE it. I will post pics to this thread over the weekend when I get time. I definitely need to do something with the forks but if I did paint the body I'd do it in a light blue and redo the wraps in yellow, I think.

Thanks for entertaining a newbie to the forums rambling...