Anyone brought a road bike from the net???

warnsey1

G'day guys.

Well i'm just getting into this road riding buisness and am in the hunt for a new bike. It seems that the best deal I can find is here from Cell Bikes. To get anything comparable from the LBS i'd be easily paying $300 - $400 more with the same comparable 105 groupset.

I guess my concern is the lack of after-sale support ie. servicing.

Any thoughts/ advice?

Sikhandar

My current bicycle is a Giant with a Chorus 2007... I never bought anything off on the internet! I bought the single pieces on ebay biddings. Though I saved much money (Chorus 8 pc: 694 €, Frame Giant TCR Hybrid: 500 € ex-esposition, wheels Corima Aero 48 mm: 492 € semi-new...) I used a lot of time to find the best offers. And I had to study many many things, to know the real value of the things I was buying and I was bidding on.

The other problem is that in doing this you won't have any assistance, nor you will see your bike complete until you mount everything. Well, I think that these are affordable risks; if you put together ritchey WCS alu things and a giant frameset with a chorus group, do you think that it will be an awful bike? ;-) It will not...

Sikhandar

Anyway, the price is quite good, though:

the weldings are awful (my god..........we're in 2007.................... these weldings are very approximative and not very cured)

the frame geometry is pretty strange: be sure of your body-measurements!!!

warnsey1

Thanks for that. The price is defiantly quite attractive and the only assembly that needs to be done is saddle, front wheel and handlebars, which I should be able to manage. The frame has a 5 year warranty incase those dodgy welds come unstuck...

Sikhandar

5 year warranty is *truly* good...it can work!

Olden Crow

Last year. Performance. Scattante. All Ultegra: the brakes (not just the levers), chain, sproket, both gear changers, etc. $1200. Easton Ultralite frame with very nice welds, etc. etc. And the local Performance shop put it together free of charge.

And since its only a Performance bike, nobody is likely to want to steal it...

Bigbananabike

I've bought 6 or 7 frames (and hundreds of parts/tyres etc) off the net. Most were secondlhand.
Almost all through Ebay USA. Almost all arrived safely and as described.

I still have three of the frames(built into bikes) and some of the gear. Most of the gear I have onsold through a national auction here in New Zealand.

Travis44

'88 Schwinn Tempo with down-tube shifters and a mammoth 25lb steel frame, out of some guy's garage in Conneticut, $127 on eBay!

__________________
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take it's place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. -Lance Armstrong

Wayno

The Ghost Bikes (German?) on Torpedo7 better quality

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wayno

Skoorb

Last month I bought the Motobecane Nemesis from one of a few ebay sellers that sell the product--same product (and almost exact same price) as on bikesdirect.com I paid $1k for something that was at least $1500 in a local bike store. I'm glad I pocketed the difference--the bike is great. The only thing a LBS would have gotten me was testing bike size first (although most local bike stores have a crap selection of tri bikes anyway), them putting it together (but now I know how to do it!) and...warranty on something that almost never breaks anyway. I mean how many people really bring their bikes in for work besides tuning cable stretch anyway (something they should be doing themselves)? It's not like it's a replacement heart.