A friend of a friend is offering me this Propel for $1,500. I’m a novice cyclist and have no need for an ultra high-end aero road bike, but I’d almost feel silly turning down this deal. But again, this would be comically overkill for someone like me. Any advice talking me into or out of this would be greatly appreciated.
by sssjjjmmm
8 Comments
Disc brakes
It’s a really nice bike. I would say you can upgrade later but that would be very expensive (brakes, levers, wheels).
This is a very good bike for a very good price.
Does it fit you? Is your friend approximately your height?
This is a good price. But its not like, crazy. I’d call it a homie deal at best. If it had alloy wheels, I’d call it plain fair.
Now, no disc brakes isn’t like, bad, its just going to tank the value in todays market. For the wheels too.
The big elephant in the room here is again, the brakes. Now, rim brakes are not all bad. But, these rim brakes, are *very* bad. They don’t work well, and I’m pretty sure they are, or were at one, proprietary. They were specifically designed for this bike by TRP, and I’m pretty sure they are only replaceable with those exact brakes calipers.
Additionally, I’ve heard they are a bitch to tune, and that they don’t really work that well. Is this OK for *you?* Maybe, I don’t know. I live in a super hilly area, and these wouldn’t work for me. In fact, carbon brake tracks wouldn’t work for me at all, even without shite brake calipers.
So yeah, good homie deal with the nice carbon wheels. Big caveat being ass brakes. And I say ass not because they are rim, because they are ass rim brakes.
Everyone craps on rim brakes but I would take rim brakes over mechanical disc brakes, any day of the week
I own the same bike albeit with Ultegra and lesser wheels. I am very happy with my bike for what I ride. However:
1. It is peak rim brake technology, your are not going to be able to upgrade the wheels, you are limited to 28mm tyres.
2. It is a harsh, uncompliant ride even with 28mm tyres.
3. It has a fixed integrated seat post (ISP) and it looks like it is cut low. You can only increase the seat height by 2cm with spacers. To lower it further you need to cut it.
If you are a novice rider you don’t really need this bike, and you don’t really need to spend $1,500
It you want to get into riding, I would save the $1,500, buy something way cheaper…then later, you can get a better bike when you know what you really want.
If I was your friend, I might be thrilled to have someone give me $1,500 for this bike.
OG Di2, kinda of interesting and also 15 yrs old on a likely 11-28 cassette? I’m cool with rim brakes and ride a dura race mechanical group set of similar vintage, not a fan of rim brakes on carbon unless they have an aluminum contact ring.
I’m not in at $1500, I would lean towards a new aluminum trek Domane for $1800 or maybe an AL canyon offering. Lots of new options out there under $2k that have disc brakes, good tire clearance, comfortable geometry and would be lots of fun road or gravel.