In article
<95dc192f-4996-451d-ab16-ee80b6f525e4@u69g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
landotter <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Apr 4, 6:18 pm, [email protected] wrote:
> > Guys I'm unemployed and between jobs.... so went back
> > to school full time
> >
> > Therefore money IS tight
> >
> > BUT... I went out and bought a Novara Randonee for this
> > summer
> >
> > I'm having second thoughts and may return it... not
> > only for the reason that money is tight.... but that
> > I'm wondering if I can build bike cheaper or if not
> > cheaper that is better somehow.
> > advice? how to get a good bike but do it in fashion
> > that makes sense given my financial constraints
> >
> > I don't mind spending some money as gasoline is so high
> > right now I'm pretty set on bike riding EVEYWHERE this
> > summer.... besides just touring and for fun
>
> What did you end up paying for the Randonee? $700? There's no way
> you'll build something better for cheaper. I'll whup out my
> spreadsheet with rough figures of the cheapest ballpark prices, and
> you'll see. Alternately, if you're in a good market, used can be an
> option.
>
> So lets say you shopped the bare bones sales:
[...]
> So, going on $850 and you've not built the bike yet,
Landotter is right, but both "me" and he skirt the most fundamental
choice:
cheap used bikes.
Do you know what important technology has changed on touring bicycles in
the last 20 years? None at all.
The very best sources for old, cheap, touring-capable bikes are 1)
garage sales/friends, 2) Craigslist, 3) used-bike shops etc.
Note that eBay doesn't enter into this, because we're looking for a bike
so cheap that the shipping costs would exceed the price.
Also, availability depends entirely on chance and where you are. Finding
early-80s touring/road bikes is easy in metropolitan areas or places
with a strong bike culture or a lot of population. It's harder if you're
in Montana.
If you can hit a lot of garage sales and have a few weeks to acquire a
bike, you've got a fighting chance.
Downsides to buying used bikes: you have to know what you're looking for
and at. You have to be a bit lucky. You are investing time instead of
money into your search. You will not find one. You will find too many,
and buy more than one. It will break. It will need TLC. It will have
been better that you had just bought new.
Not dissuaded? Good! Here's the key pointers to buying a touring bike as
nice as the Miyata 210 I acquired for $20:
-The only real, fundamental key to buying a used road (includes touring)
bike is to get one with aluminum rims. If it has steel rims, the chances
of being a decent bike in other ways is nearly zero.
-the sweet-era is around the early-80s. These bikes include the tail end
of the touring bike boom (look for cantis or standard-reach brakes) and
the middle of the peak of Suntour.
-Yes, Suntour. In the 5-6 speed era, Suntour drivetrains are the way to
go. Shimano didn't technologically surpass them until indexed shifting
(which depended on Suntour's patented slant-parallelogram design, and
which wasn't released until the Suntour patent expired).
-that's it. I don't know all the good brand names of the era, but Miyata
is a company that produced excellent touring bikes, but whose cachet is
not ridiculously high (unlike, say, finding an early Trek 520, or a few
of the other names to conjure with). In general, I think the Japanese
frame-makers offered the best value-for-dollar in this era, by mostly
building first-rate bikes at cut-rate prices.
-don't fear 27" bikes unless you have a wealth of 700c choices. These
things are shunned for their odd wheel size, but that odd tire is still
available at every bike shop on this continent, plus Wal-Mart. Also, the
rims are readily available, and dirt-cheap. I needed a new rear 27"
wheel after a bike crash, and the cost (with a sturdy rim) was $40,
available next day.
-at garage sales, start with the premise that no bike is worth more than
$20. If the vendor is offering the bike for $100, offer $10 and see what
happens. In the case of my Miyata, it was offered for $40 or so, until I
pointed out that the freewheel was spilling its tiny bearings
everywhere. This spectacular (but easily corrected) failure destroyed
the vendor's bargaining position.
-I have scavenged good bikes out of Spring Cleaning Week, paid $10 for a
Japanese Bianchi, paid $3 for a 1970s Motobecane tourer (I'd sell the
frame to you, but shipping...), and with the permission of a bike shop,
picked a pristine Nishiki up that was leaning against their dumpster
after the former owner failed to interest them in its purchase. Nishiki
later sold to a very happy new owner for about $100. These stories are
told for your inspiration, but keep in mind I'm pretty obsessed with
bikes and garage sales, and these represent the peaks of about five
years of scavenging. I'm happy if I pick up one really nice bike a year.
Now that you've got the bike:
-check and probably replace brakes and tires, because the rubber was bad
from the start or is deteriorating. The chain will be fine, because the
original owner rode the bike only three times.
-the arguable weakness of these bikes is freewheel rear axles.
Lightweights and light tourers never have problems, heavyweights and
heavy tourers can. Chalo has some insight on how to fix the design, and
swears by freewheel hubs and axles, but he does his own machining. For
the rest of us, my proposal is that you ride it until it breaks (which
may well be never) and then buy the cheapest freehub rear wheel you can.
The cheapest ones are heavy and have lots of spokes, which is what you
want anyways. In order to avoid upgrading your shifters to indexed, buy
a 7-speed cassette ($16 at REI) and a 4.5 mm spacer for your 8-9-10
freehub rear wheel. Don't forget a new chain.
-As it happens, the single slickest shifting upgrade for an old
friction-shifting bike is a Hyperglide freewheel or cassette. Indexing
is not necessary to take advantage of the smooth shifting of a 6- or
7-speed Hyperglide stack-o-cogs. Some of the Hyperglide clones are
pretty good, too. Also, the Mega-7 freewheels offer so much range with
their big MegaRange low gears that even a bike with only a double ring
can become a half-competent tourer. Your hills and fitness may vary.
I would budget $100-200 for this project, plus every weekend for a month.
--
Ryan Cousineau
[email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."