Beginner! Please help!
#1
Newbie
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 3
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Beginner! Please help!
Hello, I want to get into road biking. I was looking to buy a good used road bike on craigslist but I keep hearing all this technical jargon. Can someone please help me understand what does all this mean? For example -
Cannondale R1000 Slice Ultra 56cm with Shimano Ultegra components - 600$
This is a 56cm R1000 Slice Ultra with Shimano Ultegra components and Mavic Ksyrium wheels.
This is a super nice road bike.
The Ultegra components and Ksyrium wheels are huge upgrades to it’s performance.
Also, is 600$ fair for this bike? The picture looks good
Is buying a used bike a good idea or should I just pay a bit extra and get a new one?
Any other tips?
Appreciate all the help and Thank you in advance!!
Cannondale R1000 Slice Ultra 56cm with Shimano Ultegra components - 600$
This is a 56cm R1000 Slice Ultra with Shimano Ultegra components and Mavic Ksyrium wheels.
This is a super nice road bike.
The Ultegra components and Ksyrium wheels are huge upgrades to it’s performance.
Also, is 600$ fair for this bike? The picture looks good
Is buying a used bike a good idea or should I just pay a bit extra and get a new one?
Any other tips?
Appreciate all the help and Thank you in advance!!
#2
Senior Member
Cannondale R1000 Slice Ultra 56cm with Shimano Ultegra components - 600$
"Slice Ultra" is a fork that Cannondale used to make. The seller probably saw the "R1000" on the frame and the "Slice Ultra" on the fork and wasn't sure what to call the bike, so they just duct-taped all of the words together into "R1000 Slice Ultra." Pretty normal craigslist behavior.
56cm is a size number for the frame. Here's a photo of a bicycle where I've labeled the top tube and seat tube:
Historically, size number referred to the length of the seat tube. So a 56cm bicycle had a seat tube that was 56cm long. There are a few different ways to measure the length of a seat tube, so the number wasn't always consistent between manufacturers, but it gave a rough sense for how large a frame was.
In the bicycle above, the top tube is level with the ground. Vintage steel road bikes all used to have level top tubes. A lot of modern bikes have top tubes that slope up from the seat tube to the front of the bike:
You'll notice in this photo, I've drawn a purple line to represent roughly where the top tube would go if it were level with the ground. On modern bikes with sloping top tubes, the "size number" is roughly equivalent to what the length of the seat tube would be if the top tubewere level. (I say "roughly" because size number on modern bikes is more a matter of intention than exact measurement.) (Also, there are some exceptions. I know of at least one brand - Black Mountain Cycles - that uses physical seat tube measurement even on their frames with sloping top tubes.)
The Cannondale R1000 had a level top tube, so the seat tube is probably actually ~56cm long.
Very roughly speaking, with how most bikes get sized, a 56cm is around the ballpark of what a 5'10" man might be sold.
This is a 56cm R1000 Slice Ultra with Shimano Ultegra components
"Ultegra" is a brand name that Shimano uses for one level in their road bicycle component heirarchy. Currently, Shimano's top-level road components are sold under the "Dura Ace" name, and "Ultegra" is the next level down, then "105", then "Tiagra", "Sora", "Claris", and finally "Tourney" for the lowest-end stuff that they put a name on.
Comparing groupset hierarchy over time is a bit weird. Tech features (such as the number of cogs that a drivetrain has on the rear cassette) trickle down relatively quickly, while build quality trickles down fairly slowly. Dura-Ace components from the 1970s are very primitive compared with even modern Claris, but they're fairly well-constructed even by current standards.
and Mavic Ksyrium wheels.
This is a super nice road bike.
The Ultegra components and Ksyrium wheels are huge upgrades to it’s performance.
The Ultegra components and Ksyrium wheels are huge upgrades to it’s performance.
Upgrades to IT IS performance? Incredible!
Also, is 600$ fair for this bike? The picture looks good
But, to my January 2020 brain, $600 seems pretty steep for a bicycle of that age and not-quite-top-end-ness. My May 2020 brain has no clue what's going on with craigslist right now.
Is buying a used bike a good idea or should I just pay a bit extra and get a new one?
Likes For HTupolev:
Likes For Greiselman:
#4
serious cyclist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Austin
Posts: 21,147
Bikes: S1, R2, P2
Mentioned: 115 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 9334 Post(s)
Liked 3,679 Times
in
2,026 Posts
Yep. OP, even today,$600 feels steep for a bike that old with an array of possible issues you won't know how to check for, or fix. If there's a good bike shop around, and if you can afford it, a new entry-level bike is probably a better idea.
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: 757
Posts: 11,250
Bikes: Madone, Emonda, 5500, Ritchey Breakaway
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10236 Post(s)
Liked 5,184 Times
in
2,225 Posts
Hello, I want to get into road biking. I was looking to buy a good used road bike on craigslist but I keep hearing all this technical jargon. Can someone please help me understand what does all this mean? For example -
Cannondale R1000 Slice Ultra 56cm with Shimano Ultegra components - 600$
This is a 56cm R1000 Slice Ultra with Shimano Ultegra components and Mavic Ksyrium wheels.
This is a super nice road bike.
The Ultegra components and Ksyrium wheels are huge upgrades to it’s performance.
Also, is 600$ fair for this bike? The picture looks good
Is buying a used bike a good idea or should I just pay a bit extra and get a new one?
Any other tips?
Appreciate all the help and Thank you in advance!!
Cannondale R1000 Slice Ultra 56cm with Shimano Ultegra components - 600$
This is a 56cm R1000 Slice Ultra with Shimano Ultegra components and Mavic Ksyrium wheels.
This is a super nice road bike.
The Ultegra components and Ksyrium wheels are huge upgrades to it’s performance.
Also, is 600$ fair for this bike? The picture looks good
Is buying a used bike a good idea or should I just pay a bit extra and get a new one?
Any other tips?
Appreciate all the help and Thank you in advance!!
I had this exact same bike. I paid 300 for it, and hind sight I think I paid too much. I sold it for 180.00.
#6
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: 757
Posts: 11,250
Bikes: Madone, Emonda, 5500, Ritchey Breakaway
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10236 Post(s)
Liked 5,184 Times
in
2,225 Posts
This was the one that I bought, and sold.
#7
Newbie
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 3
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
If you don't know what you're doing, new is certainly the safe-ish bet.[/QUOTE]
Wow! Thank you for all the detailed answers.
Really appreciate it.
Wow! Thank you for all the detailed answers.
Really appreciate it.
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: 757
Posts: 11,250
Bikes: Madone, Emonda, 5500, Ritchey Breakaway
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10236 Post(s)
Liked 5,184 Times
in
2,225 Posts
#10
Junior Member
All the jargon aside, there is the emotion of owning a nice bike. Balancing ownership enthusiasm with riding expectation is essential to have a positive experience. Even when you make a purchase, you should continue to try other bikes to experience the pros and cons of a particular specification.
#11
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 23,208
Mentioned: 89 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 18883 Post(s)
Liked 10,646 Times
in
6,054 Posts