for a coworker

[GB]

My coworker asked for a recommendation for a road bike under $1,000. He’s just going to ride on nice weekend days, probably 1k or fewer miles a year.

He’s leaning towards something from REI due to divideds and sales, but i think that’s just from this weekend’s browsing.

Size 53/54 if that makes a difference.

Thanks

[ebubar]

I’ll toss out two suggestions.
1) A Jamis Quest Comp – steel road bike. Pretty comfortable and around 1K new. This is my nice bike and it has served me well for a year of commuting around 30 miles a day. It comes with a Sora triple.

2) A Giant Defy 3. I like the Defy line as they are reasonably priced in my opinion. The Defy 3 (I think) comes with a nice frame and a carbon fork with a compact Sora double. This one is aluminium, so not as smooth as the Jamis, but it’s a couple hundred cheaper leaving extra cash for fun toys like a Garmin or clipless shoes/pedals.

Last thing I’d say is to be flexible with budget (if possible). Test things in your budget but if something is a little more but rides a lot nicer, be willing to up the cash a little. You’ll be happier in the long run.

[rcannon100]

I would choose this one. It’s green.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8339[/ATTACH]

[jrenaut]

I loved my Defy 3 until the cab driver ran me over.

[peterw_diy]

There are a few nice 54s on Craigslist now, especially if you can deal with downtube shifters… Italian steel under $500…

[Crickey7]

With today’s bikes and at that price point, it’s really not so much a quality issue. They’ll all be great bikes. It’s much more about what feels right and what best meets their riding needs. They just need to get out there and test a few, at different LBSs.

[vvill]

If they like REI, I think they may carry the cheapest Cannondale Synapse which is roughly $1k.

[mstone]

@Crickey7 113736 wrote:

With today’s bikes and at that price point, it’s really not so much a quality issue. They’ll all be great bikes. It’s much more about what feels right and what best meets their riding needs. They just need to get out there and test a few, at different LBSs.

Yup. It’s fine to pick a price point and then try a few to find the one that works best for that person. Yes, there’s a danger they’ll get bitten by the bug and dump bike #1 to spend twice as much on bike #2. But there’s a good chance that bike #1 will work fine, and a greater risk that an expensive bike #1 will end up in a garage sale in a decade, “barely used”. There tends to be an over-representation of people warning about the need to upgrade on bike forums, because the people that just ride a bike occasionally and are happy with anything that has two wheels tend to not hang out on bike forums.

Do be aware that bike stores can be like car dealers, and push the sale & the upsell. If he gets a vibe that the store isn’t interested in selling a bike at the price point he’s looking for, he should just move on to a store that feels more comfortable.

The most important thing is to try several bikes, because there is no such thing as one bike that’s perfect for everybody. The better bike shops will know that, and not pressure the customer into buying the first bike they try. He should expect to spend at least 20 minutes on the bike, not “around the parking lot and done”. A place like bikenetic right off the W&OD makes that super easy.

[dasgeh]

I find that people who aren’t super into biking are NOT into maintenance, in which case finding a shop that is close to them and that they like is way more important. I’ve heard good things about buying bikes at REI, but I haven’t heard much about their maintenance. I would recommend he just head to the nearest shop, hopefully at an off time, then test ride bikes at his price point. He should know pretty quickly if he likes the bike and/or the shop. If he doesn’t like either, move on.

[mstone]

@dasgeh 113750 wrote:

I find that people who aren’t super into biking are NOT into maintenance, in which case finding a shop that is close to them and that they like is way more important. I’ve heard good things about buying bikes at REI, but I haven’t heard much about their maintenance. I would recommend he just head to the nearest shop, hopefully at an off time, then test ride bikes at his price point. He should know pretty quickly if he likes the bike and/or the shop. If he doesn’t like either, move on.

Agree that they should probably have a plan for maintenance, but I’m not sure that it matters that much if the bike is bought at the same place. Most shops will throw in a year of tune ups or something, but that’s generally not really worth that much and probably shouldn’t be the deciding factor unless all else is equal.

REI service depends much on which location and which tech you get. Some are great, some not. That’s probably true of most places, though the “location” part is less variable if there’s only one location. (If you get the new guy’s first job, or if the regular guy is having a bad day, you might get crappy service anywhere.) The one potential advantage of dealing with a larger chain is that if you think they screwed something up you may be able to get a different location to follow up or get satisfaction from a corporate customer service department. (Or not.)

[hozn]

Here you you go, full carbon Sram Red 54cm for $1175. You can’t really do better than that.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/bik/4977235692.html

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