Second hand road bike for uni on a tiny budget

[Tazz56]

Hey everyone; hope you're all doing well

I'm a uni student looking for a road bike (to start on) on an extremely small budget (up to maybe £60ish), and found a Carlton Circuit vintage road bike for £45- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/carlton-circuit-vintage-road-bike/322523279426

I was wondering whether I could ask yourselves on whether you would go for this bike if in my position?
My budget limits me to mostly unfavourable options, but I would much rather save myself the money and walk rather than buy something that would most likely turn out to be a BSO.

 

[dabac]

"Vintage" is one of the most over used words in 2nd hand sales today.
Usually used to squeeze more profit out of things that are old, but otherwise nothing special.
For utility minded riding, get a utility minded bike. That means fenders and a rack. Will that one have room enough for fenders? Can it take a rack?
Arriving with a "racing stripe" of road-castoff will get old real fast.
Satchels and shoulder bags are well known to cause/contribute to accidents by swinging around and interfering with riding. Hanging something off the bar is even worse. Backpacks make you sweaty in short order.
I'm not a fan of cottered cranks. Too easy to damage the cotters on removal.
Are the spokes Stainless or Galvanized?
The setup looks funky. Saddle shouldnt be that far forward. Gel saddles only help by masking problems. Might be OK for shorter rides.
Check the tooth count. Many road bikes are geared too high to work well for casual use.
Price as such doesn't look too bad.

 

[Tazz56]

Thank you so much for your time, tips and thoughtful reply. I must admit, the price and the apparent lack of rust from the pictures gave me tunnel vision, especially with finding that the majority of bikes available at this price point require quite a lot of restoring. If I'm really careful with spending over the next few months, I can probably stretch the budget up to £100 and hopefully this will widen my options that little bit more.

 

[Froze]

I think you should look around some more as well, that bike looked pretty beat up, it's not worth the asking price not to mention the additional cost to send it someplace! I think the idea of saving till you get 100 pounds is a good idea. I would also stay away from Ebay at that price point because shipping alone can add about 75 pounds to the cost of a bike that will already be at close to it's worth price, unless the Ebay seller is within travel distance for you. Also the problem with Ebay is sometimes a bidding frenzy can ensue, you want to avoid that, put your max bid in about a minute before the auction expires and see what happens, if by chance you notice someone out bidded you before the final bell oh well, forget it and move on, don't quickly up your bid because you're all caught up in the frenzy. I would be more checking on Craigslist than on E-bay; sometimes you could get lucky on an E-Bay find and no one bids on it so you have a low bid on a halfway decent bike, but that is quite a bit of luck involved. Also try garage sales, usually your best buys are found that way. I tried looking on Craigslist and there was very little that came up at 100 pounds, unless I was doing it wrong, if i wasn't doing it wrong then garage sales is where I would be heading.

Besides it's a good idea to see it in person to find any defects that was hidden in the pics, test ride it to see if all the mechanicals work, but more importantly to make sure it fits you right. In addition have some additional money set aside for repairs.