Teon

Lol....so I have now been looking for a decent road bike for several weeks now. I don't want to spend the kind of money that my lbs is asking for....(sorry, but I need to find out just how serious I want to be about all this before dropping over a grand on one of the lbs' "good" bikes)

And this is all stated in good humor with some frustration mixed in. What I looked at tonight after work seems to be a good example of the overlying theme with used bikes around here.

This young guy had a vintage Panasonic 10 speed.....I told him I really thought it was older than I wanted, especially since he was asking $200....but, I was in town, and he asked me to please at least look at it....so I did. It wasn't a bad bike, but it was at least 30 years old, in ok cosmetic condition with lots of nicks and scratches on the frame, but no visible rust, ("look, it has new tires!!!!", oh yea, well that's all of 30-50 bucks, maybe...)....lower end with stem shifters, cheapo stamped steel crank plate.....it did have a fender.....oh yea, and a gel seat cover.....not an actual gel seat, but a gel seat cover....sheesh. $200 bucks???? Are you nuts**********

And then a guy on Ebay approaches me with this 2008 Raleigh Sport that I had asked a simple question about....started at $275 with a buy it now of $350.(He was thinking of dropping the buy it now down to $300 but wanted to give me the 'first shot' at the bike.....ok) Decent bike, in good condition,(needed new tires) but you can buy one just like it, brand new, with better components from bikesdirect.com for about 80 bucks more than his starting bid price, and with free shipping.(and the Raleigh was made in Singapore, too.....one of his pics has a shot of the label on the frame saying so......so no diff from the bikesdirect stuff)

What is it with sellers??? Why do they think they can ask just absurd prices for used gear....some of it really old used gear???? (I know, I know....because some people will actually pay what they're asking......)

I'm about ready to just go to BD or RBO and get something new and very decent for around $400-500 rather than messing around with most of the seriously overpriced gear that I see on craigslist and ebay. It'll at least give me an idea about how serious I want to get about biking again without having to apply serious suction to my wallet.

One last example, and I kid you not.......

Saw a couple adds on craigslist the other night.....one in a town south of me.....a "brand new" road bike for $275.....guy had just bought it, but painted it white(huge red flag).....it was obviously a GMC Denali from Kmart....you could tell by the frame.....I even asked the guy and he admitted it.....the bike is like $150 brand new from Wally World......

Another seller, one from a large city north of me.......doesn't even try to hide the fact that it's a GMC Denali road bike.....asking $875.......yea, $875.....I'm like wtf**********

I thought Ebay was bad......lol.

Like I said, I'm about ready to just buy something from BD or RBO.....I have a couple good biker friends that can help me assemble and tune the bike, so no probs......

Any suggestions and/or comments/flames would be truly appreciated.....I want to start riding before summer ends....lol....and it can be damned brief here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.....our first 80 degree plus day was today.......and that won't last, as it's supposed to be cool and rainy once the work week starts.......lol. Our really good weather will start in July, so I still have some time.......lol.......

Anyways, just another long rant from me....lol....although it was written with a large, wry smile and a lot of intended humor and sarcasm.

(And just to be fair, there has been some decently priced used bikes in my area on craigslist......but they sell in like 3 minutes after the listing.......)

I'm just waiting for when I post a rant like this, and one of the owners actually belongs to this forum and proceeds to flame me all to hell......lol......lol.

CNY James

buy from BD and be happy. Have your more experienced friends help you get fit to the best of their ability and tweak to your own comfort as you go. or save your money and get fit at your LBS. Either way, 1 vote here for BD and done. Dealing with private sellers can be a real hassle and you'll probably end up needing to spend money to get the bike in optimal "running" condition (cables, chain, etc)