Duragrouch

Sanford.

I did not know that!

base2 

Hey VegasJen , don't feel bad. I once bought a carbon handlebar. The seller was showing it by holding it with his hand in the stem clamping area and making good eye contact. When I got home I realized it was because it looked like he had tried to crush the 31.8 bar in a 25.4 stem. When I flexed the drops around in relation to each other the bar made crinkling noises. In the trash it went.

I also got a too-good-to-be-true deal on a White Industries disc eccentric ENO single speed wheel set with an Mi5 front hub laced to Hed Belgium G rims. Sweet deal since the bearings in the rear had just been replaced!

As soon as I installed it in the bike, I could not get the wheel to line up straight. It turns out the original owner tried to overhaul the hub by twisting the eccentrics off like they threaded in, or something instead of undoing the one bolt each that held the eccentrics in the axle. Lord knows how hard he must've tried. The axle is 15mm in diameter and solid aluminum bar stock. $80 later a new from the factory not twisted axle assembly had it all repaired.

Don't worry about it. Just like the sage advice of don't ever lend money you expect to get back, don't ever buy an item from Craigslist you expect to work.

CroMo Mike 

I've done it too. Looked right at the blem, rubbed it, thought it would be ok, paid and took it home. Win some, lose some.

Arrowana

Brand new Clarks CMD-11 disc brake. Wanted to see if it was reliable enough to be worth stocking over other cheap calipers. The internals wore out before the first set of brake pads was used up. Had to be overhauled halfway through it's short life. It did have outboard pad adjustment like a BB7 though, so at least it was quite easy to set up.

tomato coupe

I wouldn't call it a rip-off. It's just one of many British shows that were adapted for American television.

VegasJen

Misery loves company, I guess. Sad to hear others had similar experiences, but at least I'm not alone.

Ironfish653

It happens. I bought a well used ‘89 Cannondale R500 with the intention off making an inexpensive training bike.
By the time it was all said and done, I’d have replaced everything but the serial number, and I probably could have gotten onto any of a number of newer (but lower spec) bikes that would have been ready to ride for the same money.

rsbob 

And you acted so excited when I sold it to you at a “buddy price”.

Troul 

when you brought that umbrella, I should have known something was sus.

Trakhak

Wow. It's been quite a while since the heyday of Bikes Direct-bashing posts. I kinda miss them . . .

Smaug1

I did buy one bike a lot of folks consider junk: my 1972 Schwinn Varsity.
I was working on it yesterday. Started off thinking: "I'll clean and lube the chain."
Shifting to the big chainring on the front was never satisfactory. Looking at it, the front derailleur was rubbing on the inside of the guard. I moved it up, but found that it just doesn't have enough throw, even with the limit stop screws adjusted all the way.
I can look past it being really heavy, but only being able to use 5 speeds is kind of bogus.
They are very heavy, but I like the feel and look of them. I'm sure they were designed properly and would shift to the big chain ring, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. Might have to take it to the local tech, but I hate to drop any more money into it, as the frame is a smidge too small for me anyway. Might be time to pass it on at a loss, having gotten my nostalgic thrill out of it. Or just hang it on the wall and admire it over a beer from time to time.

howsteepisit

Well, I have bought about 8 saddles and still have sit-bone pain on one side. At 255 I feel too fat to go to a proper fitter though, I am weakening. Does that make all of these expensive saddle junk?

tkamd73 

As an occasional Amazon user, of course I have! Fortunately they take it back.
Tim

Duragrouch

Geared torque-multiplier for lug nuts and such, broke first time I tried it, looked like die-cast pot metal, brought back to Harbor Freight. Same for 1/2" female to 3/8" male square drive socket wrench adaptor, broke immediately as I tried to torque lug nut to spec, brought back to Harbor Freight. Same for screwdriver security bit set, bits broke instantly, brittle as glass, brought back to Harbor Freight.

PeteHski

A very experienced fitter said that serial saddle buyers usually have some other underlying issue unrelated to the saddle. Either that or they are just really bad at choosing a saddle!

But it makes sense to me. If you have tried 8 different saddles and still have the same issue, then maybe it isn’t the saddle?

bboy314

As they say, “fool me once…”

genejockey 

I've been lucky so far, but I could easily imagine me ignoring some fatal defect, or just doing a cursory inspection of something because I don't want to be a jerk to a stranger in person*. I have yet to turn down something that I went to look at, but they all turned out okay.

*online with all of you clowns, being a jerk just comes natural to me.....

howsteepisit

I am pretty sure it's not the saddles, it would appear that I have some kind of leg length discrepancy or a twist to my pelvis. My Dumb Purchase was buying evermore saddles and not paying attention to how I feel on the bike. A fitting hereabouts is $475 so next month I will do that and see if we can figure out the cause of my discomfort and fix it. I am getting tired of being limited to 40 miles due to pain, not fitness.

PeteHski

That makes sense. Just make sure the fitter you choose has a proven reputation. Some of them can also be regarded as junk!

George

Been there done that!

rsbob 

Sure I have bought junk. Bought a stem computer mount which had a flat mounting surface where the bolts on the stem are in concave inserts. Into the bin.

Duragrouch

I bought tons of stuff in between those purchases which were cheap, but all fine. Favorite was a heavy cotton canvas riggers bag for $10, that I gave the waxed cotton treatment, still use a dozen years on:

Those red handled stainless steel heavy shears were also nice, and the plastic parts boxes were cheap.

Clyde1820

Only once have I needed something fairly quickly, where I didn't do the research and evaluate alternatives much: the purchase of a simple single-speed Kent LaJolla step-thru bike, for a "beater" around-town bike.

Worked well enough. Single-speed, coaster brake, nothing much to go wrong with it. Needed to replace the seatpost, but that was it. Comfortable. And almost certain to avoid the light-finger-Louie types every town finds now and then. Dead simple to maintain. A simple u-lock kept it safe.

I suppose one could call it junk. I did. But it never failed me.