New to Road Biking
 

Ive been doing a lot of research, trying to find good deals on some bikes, and I found the LeMond Reno '05 for $699 at a local shop. I was wondering if someone could maybe explain to be how the Tiagra Derailer system works, and if its worth this much. Im just starting out and I dont know much about bikes, but it seems like a good ride, im going to test ride it soon and I had a few questions. Generally with road bikes, how tough is it on your rims if you go over say, like, hardly packed gravel. Because a lot of the terrain id be riding over here, since im kind of in the suburbs would be not as smooth as I'd like, but I was wondering how it would handle terrain like that. Maybe if you could help me out with some tips on tires that would better suit me, or some possible modifications I could make to improve my riding.

Here's the specs on the 2006 model, which closely mirror the '05, of course:
http://www.lemondbikes.com/2006_bikes/reno.shtml#specs

Thanks for your help

I'll take a stab at this since I'm sitting here bored. :) The Tiagra derailleur is going to work like any other Shimano derailleur. It's going to be heavier/bulkier and probably not perform quite as well as a Ultegra or DA but will still work fine. Sounds like a reasonable price for that bike. I wonder what the '06 is going for? If the bike shop takes the time to fit the bike to you and lets you test ride it then that's a big plus. Generally speaking, riding over hard packed gravel probably won't damage your rims. However, continous bumpy riding and rocks flying up hitting the wheels will eventually do some damage. Also, those skinny road tires don't do well on gravel in terms of control. They prefer smoother, harder roads. There are wider tires out there but I've never used them and not sure if they'd work on that bike.