Originally Posted by
Plainsman
Good luck to you! It's kind of a seller's market right now, but still some deals to be had if you keep your eyes peeled. Check out your other local shops too, and no matter what, take test rides. Treat it like you would buying a car or a motorcycle. FWIW, the MSRP on an aluminum 2020 Trek Domane (their Endurance bike) is only $860 right now with Claris, and that's without any special 4th of July or Tour sales. All depends on what is in stock. I would expect entry level for Specialized, Giant, Scott, etc to be similarly priced. Now that's a rim brake bike, but my order of preference (just personal) would be hydraulic disc, rim brake, then mechanical disc. Others may disagree completely, I just didn't have the best experience with a mech disc bike. But at $1k, you have options. I'm not a Trek rep (I no longer even have a Trek), but just jumped on their site to compare. Looks like a Checkpoint AL3 Gravel bike with Disc Brakes (mech) and Sora 9 speed is just under $1200 there, so again options. Happy shopping!
I have never rode on a disc brake bike but see a lot of them have it now. I've always used rim brakes. I will have to do more research on this. I will look up the Trek bike. Do you buy these bikes online or go to a dealer? I saw some Giant entry bikes in the $400-800 range, but they all direct you to a dealer. Then I go to that dealer's website and they show everything is sold out LOL. Maybe they don't update their webpages. Anyways, I plan to check out REI today or tomorrow. Thanks!
Originally Posted by
Germanrazor
Without reading through all the post I would say a new bike is going to be almost impossible to find and highly dependent of location and maybe luck as well. The advantages of both new and used are as follows:
New- Well, its new of course, full warranty, you know it hasn’t been misrepresented, and it is like Christmas any time of the year when you get it.
Used- Money saved, usually more bang for the buck, bikers usually keep their bikes in primo condition < well, road cyclist that is, money saved on a low end you can afford to upgrade components where they count and still have less than a new lower end bike.
But if you do not know what to look for used, you could get hosed or pay more than you should. Would I be afraid of a used bike? Nope! I have had many new and a few used over the many years. None have disappointed me yet. But I also have built many bikes from the ground up so I know prices of components and my way around the wrenching of bikes too.
Good luck and keep us up to date on what you get......as to a $10K bike you mentioned, if the owner needed it and they do in fact race and are into cycling that much, it is not a waste of money. Remember, value of an object can only be determined by the user.
No the owner never races. He was an older guy who drank beer regularly. I will post what I get on this thread. Maybe I can inspire people to get into riding haha!