Buying First "Adult" Bike, Very Confused

[mstone]

@DismalScientist 65304 wrote:

The internet bikes I suggested. actually had better components then the brand name bikes the OP mentioned.
As for touring bikes with bad frames, I guess I should just toss my Trek 620 with double butted Reynolds 531 since it came with a 52 tooth chainring

I’m sure BD did have a higher level groupset, that’s their general practice: they put relatively more of their cost into the group than the frame, to the point that people seriously consider buying the bike for the parts and tossing the frame. Their marketing strategy is to put the money into the group because it’s easy to advertise that (you will rarely see a discussion from the BD owner that doesn’t talk about components). Maybe the end result works for you, maybe it doesn’t. The point was not to look at any one thing (“ooh, it’s got an unobtanium frame”, “ooh, it’s got an ultraviolet group”) and rather to look at the whole package and how well the parts are integrated for your particular needs. The frame on a vintage Trek 620 is nice, but a 28/28 low isn’t what I’d want to actually load up that frame and then try to ride it up a mountain. It’s not really a fair conversation, though, as the parts available 30 years ago aren’t exactly the same as what you can find today. Trek also was bouncing around in those days trying to figure out exactly what they wanted to be selling. Some years it was touring, some years it was “sport touring”. Some years they had long chainstays designed for panniers, some years they did not. Many had nice frames but are really better suited to rando or light touring than loaded touring (though you can obviously tour on anything you want, and a lot of those bikes did the transamerica). I guess that was kind of my point about looking close at ALL the specs and trying the bike and seeing if it works FOR YOU.

[DismalScientist]

Bikesdirect and Nashbar fully specify their frames and wheelsets. The bikes I suggest had similar framesets and somewhat better components. The reason people buy BD bikes and part out the components is not that the frames are bad, but rather that the price of BD bikes often aren’t significantly higher than retail price of the groupset. I’ve bought a bike each from Nashbar and Bikesdirect and am not disappointed with either frame (although the wheelset on the Nashbar wasn’t particularly good–and there problem could easily and cheaply be lessened by using a good rear skewer).

When my 620 was originally built up, I used a 14-32 freewheel and a Deore rear derailleur. I can tell you from experience that a 28/32 low is perfectly fine for loaded touring in the mountains. I appreciated the 50 (sorry I was wrong: it wasn’t 52) tooth chainring even when touring fully loaded when experiencing tailwinds on the Great Plains. (The current 50/12 high gear is still useful now when putting the hammer down against these ELITE cyclists with their plastic bikes when riding the 620 unloaded.:rolleyes:)

Trek in those days may have been confused in what it was trying to sell–it is not as if trends in cycling are easily predicted. However, they consistently labelled their bikes according to their intended use. Sport-touring is simply an intermediate between racing and touring geometry. At that time, there appeared to be a major shift in demand to more touring bikes, but that shift was obviously very short lived.

[hozn]

@DismalScientist 65320 wrote:

Bikesdirect and Nashbar fully specify their frames and wheelsets. The bikes I suggest had similar framesets and somewhat better components. The reason people buy BD bikes and part out the components is not that the frames are bad, but rather that the price of BD bikes often aren’t significantly higher than retail price of the groupset. I’ve bought a bike each from Nashbar and Bikesdirect and am not disappointed with either frame (although the wheelset on the Nashbar wasn’t particularly good–and there problem could easily and cheaply be lessened by using a good rear skewer).

Yeah, in my experience their frames are great. I love my BD Motobecane Le Champion CF frame; it’s not the lightest carbon frame out there (~1200 grams for size 58), but it’s stiff and the attention to detail is impeccable. This frame gets great reviews. I know their ti frames get rave reviews too — both road and mountain — and my coworker loves is alu motobecane road bike — and, yeah, it was like $800 for that bike w/ Sram Apex build. From what I’ve seen the Nashbar frames (admittedly I’ve only seen a couple of CF frames from nashbar) are also quite good. I’m guessing that Nashbar is probably using more open-mould framesets than designing their own, but nothing wrong with that. Yes, people don’t buy BikeDirect bikes for the group; they buy them because they ride “just as nice” as a name-brand bike and cost half the price. (Maybe a bit more if you can catch a good sale at a LBS, but the value proposition is enormous.)

OP, see what you did? You can’t ask for advice about buying a bike on a bike forum. People are way too opinionated. Probably the best place to ask for bike-buying advice is in a public restroom — next urinal/stall over; that should keep the conversation short and on-point, if a bit awkward.

[mstone]

You customized it, great, probably because the stock 28 cog was too high. I think you’re overstating the consistency in their labeling. The 520 was itself both a touring and a sport touring bike at that time, with no significant changes apart from marketing between those model years. I think the 620 was the same frame as the 630 and some of their other models, and they were mostly differentiating on wheels. (Which were themselves more narrow than you’ll usually find on a modern tourer, but there’s much better selection of tires these days. )

[DismalScientist]

I don’t recall the exact order of things back then. Maybe I had the wheels with the original Heliomatic hubs for a while before I switched to the Mavic sealed bearing hubs/MA40 rims (40 spokes!) wheelset. Even with the original equipment, it was better than my ’75 Schwinn LeTour with a 39/32 low when we some loaded touring with that.

[jabberwocky]

I don’t think there is anything wrong with buying online (I personally hate shopping local and buy almost everything online). But I recommend against it for a new rider getting their first bike. Being able to actually test ride is invaluable when you aren’t entirely sure what you want and are completely unfamiliar with how bike geometries differ.

And I’d caution against getting too hung up on the groupsets. There isn’t that big a difference between them. Is 105 a bit better than Tiagra? Sure. Is Ultegra a bit nicer than 105? Yeah. Is Tiagra still perfectly functional? Absolutely. Its not like a less expensive group is going to get you to work any slower or prevent you from riding further or anything.

[mstone]

My first 10 speed was a Le Tour. Didn’t tour on it, though.

[americancyclo]

My first ten speed was a Panasonic Sport 500. Was I sporty? Jury still out. Maybe deserves its own thread.

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