Gramercy

From my limited experience, it seems that almost everyone has a very new bike: manufactured in the past two or three years with high end equipment. I'm wondering if racers in general purchase bikes every few years or if they tend to just upgrade components/wheels.

Do people usually get rid of their older bikes or do they keep them? Would you buy a used bike and race on it? I feel that people that race and train seriously put a lot of miles on their bikes/wheels but it still seems difficult to find reliable places to purchase used equipment. Maybe because they are more prone to crashes and damage?

I'm also surprised that there aren't more bikes on the road that are 5+ years old - do they turn into trainer/beater bikes? Do racers get the upgrade bug and have to buy the latest bike? I know with 11 speed being relatively new maybe there was an influx of new purchases recently, and it's going to level off in the next few years.

gsteinb

it depends

Hida Yanra

last time I was in the city I noticed mostly newer cars, lots of folk leasing BMWs, freshly purchased Maseratis, etc...
that's what most americans drive, yes?

x2

sijray21

i have a crashed frame sitting on my wall. i'll usually keep mine unless i can sell it for a good amount for newer/better stuff.

+3 on the 'Depends'

himespau 

I rather like old race bikes. But by old, I mean 80's and 90's steel. That's just me though. Everyone is different.

needmoreair

I have a 12 year old nine speed hanging up in shambles and an 8 year al bike that I ride quite a bit. And then the race bike.

I'd like to have two functioning road bikes. If I got a new one I'd try to find one of the other two a new home.

carpediemracing 

I threw out one frame that was so bent it turned right without any steering input (Cannondale 2.8, after maybe 8 or 10 crashes).

I gave my steel frame (bent top/down tubes, fork) to an aspiring frame builder. He's since rebuilt it into a fixie frame. My first ever race bike, the Basso.

I sold a few frames that I disliked from the get go. Tange Prestige, Specialized bonded carbon, Cannondale 3.0 road (vs crit).

Traded my TT bike for a mountain bike I still have.

I've kept almost every other frame I've had. I even have a couple cracked (chainstay) frames. None of them fit me now so I really don't have a reason to keep them.

grolby

Well, I'm only on my third race bike. Crashed the first and killed the frame, so I donated it to an acquaintance who was doing frame building, in case he had a use for any of the tubes. Replaced the second one with my third, kept it around as my number two bike for a few months before selling it to partially finance a 'cross bike. I'm in my third season with the current bike and hoping to stick with it for at least two or three more, possibly even longer than that. When I do eventually replace it, I have no idea what I'll do with it, but the dent in the top tube would make it difficult to sell for much.

So yeah. It depends.

Andy STi

I have my first race bike from 1986 - only the frame and fork though. I also have my Junior team bike from 1988. That bike was built up for my GF/wife for a while. Others I had to give back when the year was over or when we got new bikes.

caloso

I have my first race bike frameset hanging from a hook in the garage. It's a 2000 Trek 5200. The paint is a mess and I have an idea to just give it a quick and dirty rattle can paint job and build it back up with aerobars and a forward seat post as a poor man's TT bike.
My two subsequent race bikes -- a Bianchi 928 T-cube and a Cervelo Soloist -- were both broken in crashes.

EventServices

So shoot me. I'm racing this year on a 2006 Trek Madone 5.9 and I love it.

I bought their new 5.9 last year and HATED it. Loved the electronic shifting, but I could NOT get that bike to go fast, and I had to fight it in every corner. I had a long list of complaints about that bike and Bontrager junk in general.

The 2006 is much faster. And it handles so well.

I also have a 2008 Cannonwhale SuperSix that I also love, but it just isn't as fast as my 8-year-old Madone.


But generally, to answer your question, there are a couple different modes:
- a rider gets a super sweet deal on their bike because of a team sponsorship, and they'll probably unload it at the end of the season and actually make a profit over the purchase price. So they'll keep getting new bikes each Spring.
- a rider gets a new bike every two or three years and bumps their current bike down a peg.
Peg #1 : new race bike. Don't touch it, please. They just cleaned it.
Peg #2 : training bike that they don't care if they scratch it.
Peg #3 : training bike for rainy days
Peg #4 : converted into a fixed gear
Peg #5 : hanging in pieces in garage. They intend to fix it up someday because they love how it rides, but they never get around to it.
Peg #6 : should have sold it when they had the chance. Now it's somewhere between rideable and museum-able.

MDcatV

^have you been in my garage, and basement, and shed?

EventServices

Yep

Nope. One race and in the trash.

My current frame is 6 years old. Everything else has been replaced/upgraded. It's a reasonably aero frame and it's light. My sense is that you're thinking in terms of all or nothing. Modern road bikes are pretty elementary to wrench on.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have a training bike and a race bike, but at least having just one keeps me on top of maintenance (cassettes, cables, chain, etc.) and has forced me to be more of my own mechanic. If I had a spare and something went wrong before a race or ride I would be more apt to roll on the other bike, and leave the broken one languishing. In my situation if I can't fix it I have to wait days to have a shop do it.

One last bit, the bike-at-cost-or-less deal is awesome. Plenty of guys I ride with are a Giant sponsored team and they can basically get a new bike each year and then at the very least break even the next year, whilst always on something new and shiny each year.

furiousferret

In the past I've sold my old bikes to fund the purchase of my new bike.

gsteinb

I've done things as far ranging as pitching a bike into the river (artificial reef), to seeing what we could do it to crack the frame to, keeping it as another bike to ride/race to selling 'em.

It still depends.

Homebrew01

Same here

botto 

you don't get out much, do you?

globecanvas

I eat my old race bikes with fava beans and a nice chianti.

Alaska Mike

I build old frames (still serviceable and safe) up with whatever parts I can scrounge and sell them to friends and newer riders who can't afford a nicer/newer bike for pretty much what I have into them (or less)- the frame usually ends up being free. One more rider on the road and hopefully racer in the pack.

If I truly like a particular frame but don't race it anymore, it goes in the rotation one step down the pecking order. Last year's race frame becomes this year's training frame, with a lower level of components than before. Last year's training frame becomes this year's rain/commuter frame. If last year's rain bike is still in decent condition, it gets built up and and goes on Craigslist or gets passed on to a friend.

I like building bikes, and have several groupsets I've pieced together for new frames. I buy almost exclusively clearance and NOS frames, so costs are kept down even as I am constantly refreshing the herd and trying new things.

kindablue

I love your roadie book!

I try to sell as much of my stuff as I can when I don't need it anymore. Bikes, wheels, components... yada.
I'm kinda at an impasse right now, my current bike (SL4 with 10 spd red) handles like a dream. I might ride this one into the ground unless I can get a good deal on a model with 11spd, in which case the SL4 will find a good home elsewhere.

This sport is too expensive for me not to try and recycle the cost.

mike868y

i still have my first road frame, although i totally disassembled it in the interest of going through it and rebuilding it, then I got lazy, so it's in pieces in my basement. my second road frame died in a car accident. i'm riding my third now. honestly i've got no desire to upgrade the frame unless it cracks/gets destroyed or i get fast and end up on a team where we get team bikes. i'll probably jump to 11 speed at some point in the future on the same frame. it fits well, handles great, and is plenty stiff for me.

Homebrew01

My "good" bike is a 2008 Six-13, my old frames are Cannondales from the 1980s with 0 resale value

bobbyl1966

Hello how are you. Maybe you can help me. I work on my bikes my self. I have two road bike one is aluminum around 25 pounds the other is steel 27 pounds. What crank size and cassete size i need for fast rides and fast centuries. I have wheels with 9 speeds cassete. And my wheels can take 10 speeds cassete as local bike shop had told me

Homebrew01

Why did you post in this old thread ? Since your question is unrelated to the thread, if you want useful answers, I suggest starting a new thread in the "Road Cycling" forum, and supplying more information.

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/

If you have specific technical or "how to" questions, try here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/

Anyway, you need a large enough cog in back (low gear) combined with whatever your smallest chainring is, to get up the steepest hills you plan on riding.

Gearing is a personal decision based on terrain and fitness.