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[OM] Re: [OM][OT] Bicycle advice

Subject: [OM] Re: [OM][OT] Bicycle advice
From: Dan Mitchell <danmitchell@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 07:55:38 -0600
Andrew Dacey wrote:
> Suppose I should've qualified the budget a bit more. I'm thinking no
> more than $500-700 CAD (so roughly $300-500 USD), less is preferable
> but depends on what I can get for that. I'm thinking a mix of used and
> new parts is one of the better ways to go because it means I can get
> better control of where I put my money. 

  That should get you a pretty decent bike, it's just a matter of 
shopping around. I've found that here in Calgary, some of the Sport Swap 
branches have nice used road bikes, whereas all that pawn shops have is 
clunky old mountain bikes -- this may vary where you are, and of course 
there's also the classified pages in newspapers/etc. Used parts can be 
hard to come by -- e*ay will work (ediscountbike.com tend to have decent 
deals), but you need patience, an alternative would be to check out 
pricepoint / cambria / nashbar / etc and see what they have in the way 
of "this week's hot deals" at any given time.

  Buying a decent used bike will get you started just fine, and then all 
you have to do is upgrade the parts that need it -- and a lot of old 
bike parts will still work just fine with a bit of a tune-up. Downtube 
shifters, say, while they take a tiny bit more time to shift than STI, 
are a heck of a lot more reliable.

  And, of course, MEC is the cheapest place for _new_ components, they 
just don't have as big a selection as a real bike shop would -- but if 
all you need is a new rear derailleur, say, they'll have those.

  -- dan

  (oh, and if anyone's looking to stock up on 
cable/housing/ferrules/etc, icyclesusa.com is a great deal. If you don't 
need 25' of shifter housing, you may as well buy it from your LBS, but I 
figured I may as well sort myself out for life while I was there..)

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