Buying a bike off craigslist, advice? - Page 3

Trek guy said 270 minimum. Based off your previous posts, I'm guessing you'd say it's worth it? And again, since you know much more than I probably ever will, I feel that if I am buying an older bike like this I should be able to get a solid 5 to 10 years out of it and not have to worry about not being able to find replacement components, tires/wheels, etc. Would you say I'll probably be good in that area?

And you've been really nice and helpful, so I'm probably going to give your opinion more weight than anyones, especially mine.

I guess $250 was optimistic ... for only $20 more, I do think you should take it ... he's apparently not discounting the shipping (which is what I was hoping since he won't have to pay any eBay fees; or, maybe he is discounting the shipping!?!) ... and, $220 [before shipping costs are added in] is still a good deal ...

Unless the bike gets run over by a truck OR you leave it outside in the rain OR store it in some other unfriendly conditions, the frame should last long enough to leave it to your grandchildren.

Tires, brake & derailleur cables, brake pads, handlebar tape, etc. will need to be changed from time-to-time ... but, that is true on a new bike.

SOME normal maintenance is required for the hubs & BB from time-to-time, too, as you would need to do on a new bike.

You will never have problems getting replacement parts (OR, parts to upgrade the bike if that is ever your desire) unless we have a nuclear war or some other global catastrophe AND THEN parts for any bike/car/everything becomes scarce.

So, I dropped out of here for a few days. Just took the MCAT today (Med school entrance exam), so I've been cramming these past few days.

Anyways, the Trek owner said he was going to send me an invoice via PayPal, but has yet to do so. I'm also going home to visit my parents this weekend in Houston, so I'm going to run by some local bike stores there and see if I can get a better idea of what size roadbike I need. Once I take a look at the local bike stores and see if a 58cm is really what I need, I'll try and get in contact with the Trek owner again.

But in the past few days that I've been offline studying, some more bikes have popped up on ebay. So in the mean time while I go home and to the LBS, would you have any opinion on any of the following:

Ross Gran Tour 58 cm - Steel Training Bike - eBay (item 220469008648 end time Aug-26-09 19:07:32 PDT)

Schwinn Traveler road bike - eBay (item 170373627194 end time Aug-25-09 19:21:45 PDT)

58 cm Motobecane - Jubilee Sport - eBay (item 330353702333 end time Aug-25-09 07:56:01 PDT)

RALEIGH SUPERCOURSE USA - eBay (item 170373349533 end time Aug-25-09 00:45:41 PDT)

Nishiki Altron 7000 - eBay (item 270443758644 end time Aug-23-09 18:07:55 PDT)

Motobecane Grand Touring Vitus 888 Sachs Huret year '85 - eBay (item 220467731933 end time Aug-23-09 15:50:44 PDT)

EUC TREK ALPHA 1000 TRIATHLON BIKE - eBay (item 270443689421 end time Aug-23-09 13:59:30 PDT)

Giant RS950 Bicycle 23 inches - eBay (item 270444027601 end time Aug-22-09 11:03:03 PDT)

Sorry for the long list of bikes.

Thanks again

Tough to say ... I love "French" bikes, but there is the problem that they may have FRENCH THREADED bottom brackets ... that becomes a problem if you want to upgrade the components at some point in the future ...

The Helicomatic hub was an interesting idea ... it has some value to some collectors. I would plan on relacing the rims onto some "regular" hubs at some point in time if I were to get the oen bike.

The Raleigh SuperCourse should be a nice bike ... probably almost as nice as the Trek in some ways, better in others ... the seller probably has a higher reserve.