A friend in the Netherlands is selling me his bike. Another friend says it’s a great deal and a very good bike.
I’m curious though what this community thinks. What would you value this bike at? What should I check beforehand and just your overall opinion on the bike that’s up for sale?
I’ll post the price that’s being asked (friend discount) after a few replies 🙂
by Important-Zombie-559
10 Comments
Never had that particular bike, but the proprietary braking system might be worth investigating in terms of performance/maintenance.
Carbon wheels, electronic shifting, high end frame… A few years old, but it’s a lot of bike – especially for a first purchase. The rim brake might make it a bit less attractive to some, but rim brakes are still a very valid option. Especially if you don’t do bad weather riding nor long alpine descends. You’ll find more of the former and little of the latter in NL.
Good componentry and potentially friendly price aside, make sure it fits. No spec can outweigh an ill fitting bike.
Especially because of a particularity of this frame: a conventional seat post will get clamped at a given height, but can flexibly be adjusted for fit adjustment, transportation or repair/replacement.
This frame, however, features a fixed seatmast. This is a permanent part of the frame. You cut down the mast to the size of the rider. You can only ever go shorter, never higher. If the fit of this bike is too small for you, that’s that. For transportation, you cannot make the frame smaller by lowering the seat post, and the seat mast is more exposed to potential damage while getting transported. Which leads me to repair/replacement: if cracked, maybe you can have a specialized, qualified carbon repair done. But if the damage is too extensive or the repair is uneconomical, a broken seatmast results in the frame being toast.
Finally, the black strip on the fork leg is likely a timing chip attachment for events or races? If the bike has been raced, potentially it will have been beaten a bit more than a “leisure” bike. Take that into consideration when checking for potential damages, or for wear parts needing replacement (cheaper: chain, tires, pulley wheels, brake cables, brake pads; more expensive: cassette, chainrings, anything relating to the electronic shifting; very expensive: wheelset if the brake track is worn out).
Make sure the bike is your size, or you’ll be in pain forever with it.
Also compare to what 1500 euros would get you in Decathlon, and what would would rather (e.g. hydraulic disk brakes Vs rim brakes, alunvs carbon, cable shifting vs di2, service from the shop…). I don’t say there’s an obvious best choice, just consider what’s important to you and your riding.
If it absolutely fits you with no bike fit issues whatsoever, if you won’t do alpine descents it’s a great offer.
Love this bike, despise the braking system
It is a lot of bike, but make sure the bike fits. Too much non-standard parts for my liking.
This bike has rim brakes. Rim brakes are good, but these ones are a proprietary design that is known to be fiddly to set up and they do not deliver a good performance.
Rest of the bike is actually really nice and high-end.
HOWEVER, the adjustability of it is questionable.
It has an integrated seatpost that has a fixed height, so if you need it shorter you need to cut it down, if you need the saddle higher, you are out of luck.
It has a one piece bar/stem combo, so if you need to adjust your position, it will be a tedious and expensive process (not to mention you cannot put the handlebars higher, just shorter or longer if you replace them).
Speaking of position, this bike is a racing/aero bike, that is really aggressive, and I see your friend has put the handlebars as low as he could. This is (for most people) uncomfortable, and requires great core strength and low upper body mass.
If the bike fits you well (try a 3 hour test ride), then great (this would mean you have almost the exact same body proportions as your friend). If not, then stay away.
Integrated seatpost and fully slammed headtube as a first bike? Hopefully you and your friend are perfectly identical twins.
If you have never ridden fully slammed, your neck will be a world of pain for quite some time.
And if you buy this and realize it doesn’t fit you, this will be really hard to get rid of because of the integrated seatpost.
As others have said the size and fit considering the ISP and the slammed stem has to be addressed but in terms of just my opinion on the bike, as the owner of 2 similar era propels, they’re are great bikes. Fast, comfortable and responsive
This is a bike for a well seasoned rider who races- not a beginner. A Lamborghini is not a good first car. It’s such an aggressive position I’d argue you won’t be very comfortable and might end up not enjoy riding it.