I talked to someone about building a road bike for me for $400 dollars. I wasn’t shown any of the parts before hand and I didn’t know they had started building yet. They just sent me the bike almost completed and I’m not sure if I like it or if it’s worth $400. Will this be a good road bike for endurance training and is it worth it for the price?
by Content-Resource4271
7 Comments
How do you find yourself in such a situation? Getting a bike you didn’t know the specs for, and that you didn’t have input on?
Send it back.
Old bonded carbon/aluminum lugs for $400? Naw.
Whatever, just ride it. Probably a touch better than that Trek you posted about earlier.
Ride, learn, save.
Once you get around $2k saved up, start shopping for a “deal”
It’s an interesting build, but these frames are famously fragile and prone to the glue failing due to galvanizic corrosion. And the frame itself is a good 30-35 years old.
I don’t understand how you’ve gotten into this position, though, to get a bike custom modified for you but without your input?
Hope the workshop area is not a reflection of build quality🙁
No dude, do NOT purchase this one. This is old as fuck construction that people steer away from because it’s faulty. The glues they used to use way back in idk late 90s or early 2000s often caused bonding issues on aluminum lugs carbon bikes like this. To be honest, with this being a trek, it’s not nice enough to hang on a wall either. This is worth $100. If the idiot restoring it thinks it’s worth $400, for him, it’s a labor of love but don’t get sucked into buying some bushit old af fuck trek. This one might cause some serious hospital bills.
No offense but this is kinda hilarious. How much did you know about bikes? What were your expectations for a $400 bike? Was there literally any framework to this deal? Does this person build a lot of bikes? Is it their job or just a hobby? Did they ask literally any questions about what you wanted?
That price is so low that I’m mostly just impressed they managed to build you something that even looks this decent and still turn enough of a profit to make it worth their time. If they did it just as a favor then that helps I guess, but still $400 isn’t gonna get you much. But also I just can’t imagine agreeing to essentially build someone a bargain bin bike and not have literally ANY conversations with them about it. Just agree to make a road bike for $400, not discuss any deets, start the build and MOSTLY FINISH it, and only THEN reaching back out to say “hey it’s time to pay.”