If I wanted to buy a bike- Price Range- 1400-1600- The catch- I don't want a Trek, Specialized, Giant, Litespeed. Recommend Something- I ride a 54-

LeMond Sarthe:




or LeMond Versailles:

Lemonds... please convince me.. i'm not against them too much, but Lemond himself just says to many wacky things to make me want to buy his products all that quickly-

They aren't his products - they are Treks by another name.

When you say "new to me" - do you mean a previously owned bike?

A gorgeous 2 year old Vanilla just sold on Ebay for $1300+. Pretty close to your size too. Somebody got a very good deal.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

55/Rad

55/Rad is a rat bastard isn't he?

He says "look a this bargain Vanilla" and then he says "oh, but you can't have it because someone else already bought it at a great price." What a rat bastard.

(Wow, that is a lot of bike for $1300.)

I know nothing about that company- I guess since lemonds are Treks- then they are out- Teach me a little about vanilla's- I'm not against buying used- I'm open to suggestions...

This link should give you a good overview.

Vanillas are custom hand made and very much in demand. The wait from order to delivery is now around 18 months.

The point really was - you can get a lot of bike for less buying used - but only if you know what you want and where to look. If this is your first, I'd recommend working with a local shop that you trust.

55/Rad