Originally Posted by deadly downtube
buying lightly used bikes seems the best way to go in my opinion.. just paid $615 US dollars for a yr 2000 cannondale team saeco pro frame equipped with flashy mavic ksyrium wheelset and full ultegra with approx 2500 mi on everything... 2500mi in my opinion isn't much.. better than paying over 2,0000 to get it new. i'll pretend it's new and hopefully won't tell the difference, lol.
buying new frames is just silly in my opinion.. 400-500 bucks for a surly pacer?? you could get a beautiful vintage steel frame in great condition, that has 100 times the class, for a fraction of that.
The problem with used frames is you don't know how far or hard its been ridden. Last year I bought two vintage steel lugged frames that looked like they were in very good condition and ridden very little, and both of them developed cracks around the bottom bracket area in a matter of months. The second one went less than 700 miles. I could have applied the same money to a new frame that would still have thousands of miles left in it.