[Closed] Road bike, second hand for £200 max?

bit of a bump....

You should be able to pick a solid Giant OCR or the like for under that, the odd one does appear on the Bay..

Best bet is the works notice baord, a couple of weeks after the Tour finishes and people realise riding a bike is quite hard work 🙂

My first road bike was a Langster, cost £200 and was awesome. Really should've kept it. It's the only bike related thing I regret selling!

You will get a bike for under £200, but realistically you shouldn't expect much.

Mind you, as a first foray into road riding it's a good start.

Having been a mtn biker for years, my first road bike cost £60. Yes, it was a POS! But, it gave me an idea of what road riding was all about, and I found that not only was it significantly different to mountain biking, but that I really enjoyed it, and it complemented mtn biking brilliantly.

Suffice to say - as was the case with my MTB's - I bought every better road bikes and gear, culminating in my current ride which is a beautiful carbon Colnago with full Campagnolo Record carbon! YUMBA! 😀

Cheers for the responses so far

The work notice board would be a good idea, but in a company of less than 30 people I might be waiting for a little while!

Ok, I'll keep an eye on eBay for now and see what comes up

Anything in particular I should avoid / look for? I really don't know much about road bikes at all...

Just check for the normal bike stuff before you buy. I think viewing is essential.

Check for worn drivetrain (cassette, chainrings and chain) as this often cannot be seen from the photo's, worn bearings e.t.c.

I think you will have a better buy if you get something old and steel and not worry about the weight. Also buy simple, nothing wrong with a an early 80's steel framed road bike using a 6 speed freewheel at the back. I recently build for a customer a complete road bike for £250 using a mix of good S/H and new parts based around an old Spectrum (custom made) R531 frame. I wanted to keep it when it was finished.

I also bought a omplete Vitus 979 for £275 and stripped it and every part to a £90 Alan frame. O.K more than your budget but for £365 I have a 1981 Alan Compitizone kitted out with period high end Campag parts (mix of record/super record part + a it of triomphe). It really quite high end so £200 can buy something very nice if you are patient.

I have given up on ebay for bikes, few bargins and many sellers are selling "just a bike" and some unfortunatley have many faults. Other's ask to much for something mediocre. Buy with your eye's open on ebay as the wrong ebay purhcase can cost you alot more than you think.

Retroike is a good source of road gear. Also try the CTC forum.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=207979 needs a hange of bars and then new levers to make it road freindly. Can be done with S/H for £200 though.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=209899
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=210250 over budget.

These are just two example of what an be had for £200.

You'll be lucky mid TDF, every tesco and sports direct will be stacked ot the rafters with heavy POS crap that looks like a road bike. And Ebay prices go mental.

If you're prepared to wait get one in September-December when MAMIL's who thought it was a good idea are giving up. A good indication it's never been ridden is when they're selling off a team replica bike with team replica kit, computers, pumps, tubes helmets etc as a job lot as they've decided it's too much like hard work.

EDIT: if you can stretch to £300-£400 you'll find much better bikes as this is where the big brands have their entry level bikes 2nd hand (I'm caling £1000 entry level as this is where you'll get either/or/and a nice frame/105 groupset/nice wheels) and road bike depreciate like a stone in the first year, mid range (£1800-£2000) depreciate the least as far as I can see but superbikes and entry level bikes seem to be arround half price very quickly.

£300 would get you something like a 2nd hand cannondale R500 which is a really nice (if a bit heavy) frame. That's what I bought 10 years ago then gradualy stuck dura ace on it!

Great stuff, some definite food for thought. The £200 budget is based on stuff that I can sell and therefore get a 'free' road bike. Maybe a little bit more would help out; I'll give it all some thought and keep my eyes peeled for now.

Cheers

i spent 250 on a trek 470 a few years back as my 1st (adult!) road bike. it had a steel frame, 7spd shimano RSX (which was ok), alu wheels, decent tyres and ok parts.

it was great and really got me into the road "thing"

that was from the classifieds on here by the way

You probably could get somethign good for £200, but it'd be secondhand and used (probably an old entry level bike), whereas for £300-£400 you'd be getting a secondhand bike that's barely been touched. Bide your time and get one once the TDF fever has lapsed and the bargains appear.

I'm waiting to see what happens in September, I suspect there'll be some bargains to be had as the £'s gone up all year Vs the Euro so european stock clerance might be shipped over here to get a better price.

I'm still looking at a supersix 105 which are currenlty £1500 (down from £2000) in a few places, and the 2011 is £1500 still at Pauls so if it drops much further it'll be half price! That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

eBay and patience! - there is some right tat that goes for silly money. After 4 months of watching stuff on eBay I picked this up for £240 and its in immaculate condition (carbon forks, carbon rear end, 105 mechs)...

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...there are bargains out there as long as you aren't in a hurry.

Save a search for 'road bikes' within 25 mile of where you live then at least you can go and look at them.

I picked up an old (~10 year) columbus steel framed Vitali bike with campag mirage for about £120. It's a bit heavy but other than that it's fine, did me proud for 112 miles in 6.35hrs the other day.

Doesn't mean I'm not lusting after a Cannondale Six or some other carbon exotica - but that will have to wait until I can get my misses to stop spending on camera lenses......

You could always stick a wanted add on here

Muffin man-If I saw that Genesis for £240 I'd buy it straight away, and I don't even ride on the road. It looks bloody lovely!

I bought an old 'Flanders' road bike with Ultegra on It for £130. Long story short the frame was cracked and the Sti shifters promptly combusted after a few weeks. Got some money back and bought an old Kona frame of fleabay for £50 and shimano flightdeck shifters for £40. Add to that new pedals and tyres and the bike has probably cost me around £200 ish.

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Its not a thing of beauty and with big old chainrings I do struggle on steep hills but Its been great for recovering from a broken collar bone and Ill definately buy a new road bike next year .

With the Tour on road bike prices will go up on eBay as they have done the past two years. I bought a 99 Giant for 120 in showroom condition but you can get an Allez or OCR for that price but patience will be key

I got this for £199.99. I went and viewed it the weekend before (and offered £250 but was turned down...fair enough) and it was in good nick, no noticeable wear to drivetrain, immaculate paint (that I scratched on the first ride) carbon forks, 105 groupset. Extra set of cross tyres. I then bid £305 in the closing seconds but got it for the reserve 🙂

All it needed was a quick adjustment to the brakes, some new cartridge pads that I'd put in the 'useful' box ten years ago, and I then treated myself to a larger cassette for the hills, and some Spesh Bar Phat for the numb hands and some Time pedals (mtb style of course, but single sided for roadies)

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All the brightly coloured Specialized's and other flash bikes were bringing in much more money, even budget models were commanding high prices. I think this one slept through the net due to its subtle colouring, the auction itself was a good effort with plenty of info.