Buying a budget bike?!

[mezzerreal]

Hi guys,

New to the site, seems like you've got a decent community on the go.

I was looking to get some advice on a bike, I've just got to Sydney and want to get more into my cycling but I'm a bit strapped for cash at the moment so can't afford to throw money around.

From what I've been reading and my past experience I think I'm looking for a flat bar road bike (FBR?!) as I prefer the more relaxed position compared to low bars but I've only got about $400 to spend. I've had a look on BikeExchange and Gumtree and there seems to be a few makes that seem to keep popping up (Reid, Giant, Trek, Sturmey..) and don't know which are best and which are to be avoided. I saw in one forum post that everyone seems to think all the positive reviews surrounding the Reid bicycles are spam or am I mistaken?

Anyway, recommendations would be greatly appreciated, I'll be taking advice of the veterans here as people have pointed out '1 post members' cannot be trusted when giving advice.

Thanks!

mezzerreal

[sb944]

Reid and Cell (both have Sydney shop fronts) seem to offer a little more bang for the buck in terms of components at the very low end of road bikes. I started off with a Reid flat bar single speed. Quality wise, no problems with it, it gets used on rainy day commutes and family rides now, still performs fine. Though after a couple of months, I started wanting the drop bars and gears, and bought a bike with that now.

My only negative with Reid is they were flat out, and didn't bother asking about seat adjustments etc, something I had to do myself later. Not a huge deal, but I'd advise to go at a quieter time, like a weekday morning to get more service.

[Ross]

For a recreational rider any of the brands metioned will be suitable (didn't know Sturmey made bicycles though?). I'm a bit wary of second hand bikes, especially after that epic thread here a while back where a guy bought a bike from eBay and then picked it up at night and then found out in the light of day that some of the components were different to what was advertised. You are pretty much guaranteed that a second hand bike is going to need some parts replacing such as chain, cassette, chainrings or tyres and if you are paying LBS prices and LBS labour to replace these the cost savings on a used vs new bike soon dissapear. With a new bike you get warranty, everything is new and often a first service is free (or rather it is built into the cost of the bike).

[human909]

I'm a bit wary of second hand bikes...

Second hand bikes are an absolute bargain if you know what you are looking at and can perform any minor adjustments yourself. You can easily pick up road bikes for around $150 that are of the same level of quality as a $1500 bike. (though you often miss out on things like modern gear adjustors.) I used to enjoy trawling ebay for good second hand bikes. But now I have less free time so I don't do that.

However unless you love bargain hunting, fixing bikes yourself or don't have $400 then it is better to buy new.