Bang for buck

I digress.... sorry, I did not see the other thread that already addresses this issue.

http://www.cyclingforums.com/t43152-15-1.html

No, it's not crazy thinking; there's some truth to those observations. In a few brief words (gotta get home), however, I'd like to point out that you lucked out in some respects... the best advice, in my opinion, is perhaps a bit more moderate.

There's more to buying a first road bike than simply ensuring satisfaction with the best quality one can afford.

You do make a great point: many riders do themselves a disservice by pulling the opposite action, buying a rig strictly categorizable as a bargain bike. That's likely to be discourgaing and altogether a pain in the a**, as you point out.

Of course, though, there's always the very considerable chance that a prospective cyclist will regret the road-bike investment. It's a demanding sport that wreaks havoc with many a shoulder, lower back, rear end, and set of genitals.

While you make a good point, my advice is simple... if you can manage it, for your first purchase, go with a reputable frame maker, and a 105 drivetrain. 105 stuff sits at the cusp of high quality... it's not as light or fancy as Ultegra, but it's considerably cheaper and far less clumsy and less primative than Tiagra.

105, in my opinion, is the lowest available groupset with (albeit humble) status as a serious component set -- it's got some life behind it, it's popular, serviceable, and reliable, and it's not unheard of in the race scene... because it performs well.

Ultegra, in my opinion, is a solid choice for any racer; while it's perfectly suited for the first time roadie with cycling in their blood, it's not necessarily worth the gamble.

I too think this is a very worthy question. A lot of people come to me for advice regarding purchasing a new bike. For myself, I like to beat my expectations in a purchase. Often if I'm interested enough to start something, I end up being interested enough to stick with something. In turn this means that it's worth my while to buy better then I think is necessary and then, as my interest grows, I don't feel compelled to replace in two years. So normally as general practice, even aside from bikes, I prefer to buy higher then I start to look.

But here's the catch.... Everybody is different. A Trek 5200 (which happens to be the same road ride I have) costs some pretty good coin and some people really find that a hybrid is much more the bike for them. So for those people, it would have been bad advice telling them to buy a great speedster.

Some people think "a bike" translates to $120 at Walmart. You then get them to buy a bike at a bike shop and they later find, "cycling is ok, but I only feel like doing it four times a summer". For those people, the very fact they spent $500 on a bike was already purchasing a hotrod. Since they already had a "hotrod", do you think a $3000 bike would make them want to ride more? Probably not. It's just a more expensive hotrod. For some people, they may have to save up an entire year to afford the $500 bike. Do you think they'd be willing to save 6 years to get the $3000 one? Would it be worth it?

It's great to ask someone a ton of questions prior to a purchase (which isn't always a luxury on a news group) to see if you can evaluate where they're at. But maybe some times it's good advice just to get that person into something. Then, if things progress, hopefully they'll have more of an idea what fits their style two years from now. If things don't progress, at least they're not eating Mac and Cheese 4 times a week. 😉

However, at the end of all of this I still think that if you have solid interest in something, buy higher then you think you'd ever go. Two years from now you may just find that's exactly where you want to be and in the mean time, you can "gush" every time you ride. ...and that definitely saves money and maximizes fun.