Originally Posted by mcpowley
Wow, thanks for all of the advice! It's kind of silly that i'm looking at all these bikes when I can't afford them yet, I have to pay two months rent in riverside this week (900 dollars even though i'm not living there for the summer...bummer nio?) But the weeks after i have to pay off a few debts, and i'll have about 600 dollars left over to put towards my first bike...and whatever I save I can put it towards a road bike. I looked at bikesdirect but i'm kind of nervous about putting a bike together myself. I'm still keeping an eye on craigslist even though I can't purchase the bike right now. It's kind of odd how obsessed i've become on learning everything about bikes, it's come to the point that the forum here is my home page.
Anyway, The bikes that have caught my interest are the Specialized Sirrus, which I did find in an auction...but it's 59 and needs some help in terms of the mechanical department, would it be worth purchasing? If it is just 145 I can purchase right now and repair later when I have the money.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ayphotohosting
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Here's a felt that I found, it looks like it would be a bit pricey but I just want an opinion on it. It is also a 59.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ayphotohosting
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One last thing, is there anything I should look for in a bike, that I otherwise would not notice in a bike? Anything I shouldn't settle for, I know i'm kind of limited due to my price range, but should I look for anything speciifc? Thanks guys!
For buying used, you might want to plan on getting a tune-up at an LBS. Usually those are roughly $50, but they'll clean/lube most everything, adjust the brakes, etc., which are all very good to have done on a used bike in questionable condition. They'll also point out anything that's hazardous (not likely, but nice to get it checked).
Spending $145 on a bike that has issues seems like a poor bet to me, since so many people sell bikes for so much cheaper. You can get a bike that needs mechanical work for $10 at a garage sale...
I would NOT buy a bike off ebay that will be shipped to you. There are soooo many ways you can get screwed on that kind of deal, if you're buying a bike for transportation and you're tight on money you should buy one you can see and ride before purchasing. Your metro area craigslist is a better bet than ebay since most of the bikes there will be local to you.
The newspaper is another place to look, the good old classifieds.
Oh and if you buy from somewhere that doesn't give you an assembled bike (I guess that's what bikesdirect is?) I'm sure your LBS will assemble it for a reasonable fee. It's worth asking anyway to find out how much they'd charge.