So I'm here at College in Angola, IN and my fiesta is getting a new head in Virginia (refer to my summer roadathon thread), so I figure now is the time to look around for a good road bike to get around town, save gas, and stay fit.

So here's the deal. I dont have a lot of money, but I'm willing to shell out about 300 max so I get something decent that wont fall apart on me. I have a 30-31" inseam which is a 56cm frame (yes?).

Nobody here in town has roadbikes new or used except the Schwinn dealer, which from my friends who ride say isnt the best place to do business. And as far as craigslist and such, there's pretty slim pickings for anything within an hour of here (which is as far as I'd ask my roomates to drive ).

The other option is Ebay . There are a few roadbikes new and used for around 300 like a mercier (which I've never heard of but apparently was lance armstrong's first bike?). Also some used bikes from 200 to 300 and the GMC (?!?) bikes that are somewhere in the 100's.

Ideas, comments, wisdom?

I've had great luck with mail order from Performance Bikes Last summer I used some discount coupons I found on the internet and got a $700 K2 bike in the store for $135 mail order.

ad is few days old but in your location.
http://fortwayne.craigslist.org/bik/379041989.html

Look into getting a hybrid... they are based on mountain bikes but have skinny tires for less rolling resistance.

For use around town, a roadbike put's you into too much of an aggressive/forward posistion. Hybrids are more upright and more durable for city commuting.

my .02

real men ride single speeds....LOL

get the best bike you can afford, as you will have to throw less into it later.
IN is flat no?

you may be able to get away with a double ring (no granny gear) vs a tripple ring bike.

One of my first bikes was a Mercier. In fact it was my first serious bike with sew-up tires and Campy components... They were at one time a serious road machine. These days, who knows. Big bike companies swallow small all the time. It is actually hard to NOT be riding a Trek these days because they bought everyone in the 80's...
A Hybrid is probably the best choice for a campus bike. It can be outfitted with panniers to carry books and groceries, it can go on road or light off road... It will take some abuse without blowing tires every sixty miles...
I have a couple spare bikes laying around but they would be more like $1000 and $3000 each... One is titanium Look Team bike and the other vintage Bianchi Raparto Corsa... Try local Craigs List...

Thanks for the advice. I think there was a little misunderstanding with what I was going to use the bike for. My campus is really small, I can walk from one far end to the other in maybe 5 min. I was going to ride up to the store (3 miles away), and pack a couple small groceries in my backpack as well as taking it out on rides outside town. And in the winter, I'll want to be timetrialing it to the grocery store and back anyway.

eBay is hit or miss. I think bikes in general come in two flavors: ridden hard, barely ridden at all.

You're 20 so you don't have to worry about comfort, you could probably ride the lowest drop bars up front and have the stiffest frame beneath you (at 51 I've got a steel frame that's forgiving...you just wait you young whippersnapper!).

Maybe a singlespeed would do it. Virtually no maintenance, can have a single gear in the back that will let you coast (unlike a track bike or "courier" bike can have the pedals spinning full time with the back wheel) and handbrakes would get you back to 0 in a hurry.

But at 300 you might be best off waiting for a good used bike. Hey, when I was in college I had a 914 AND a bike, too!!!!

wikipedia singlespeed

Good luck,

Paul

Found this on Craig's list

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/bik/406628026.html

No picture, so I can't tell what's on it.

But.....
Cannondale only makes a few models of frames but puts different components on it to hit different price points. If you can spend the money on a new one outfitted with the cheapest components, you'll have a frame that will last you for a long time that you can upgrade with better parts later if you want.

$300 for a new bike won't buy you much unfortunately, look for used. Single speed would be a good choice $ wise, but a pain in the ass for long rides.

I completely agree. Cannondale for life!

Anyway $300 is going to buy you an entry level mountain bike or a hybrid. If you're not going to ride it off road, go for the hybrid and be sure to get 700c wheels. There are a number of good hybrids right now with that size wheels that make great commuter bikes.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.j...amp;language=US

Check this guy out. We sell them and I've got to say that for a bike to ride around town without having to pay up for a true road bike the Sirrus is awesome. You get true road wheels, tires, cassette and derailleur which make it pretty much a road bike with flat bars. From there you go up to at least $700 for an entry level road bike from almost any manufacture. That will get you drop bars, race geometry and shifters. They are pretty nice, but if you're on a budget something like a sirrus makes an awesome bike.

Now if you're willing to go single speed the options get super sweet. You could find
an old road steel frame, get a rear wheel built up with a fixed gear/single speed hub and make it totally custom. If you're super cool you can run the bike fixed with no brakes and practice your skid . It's a good time on a fixie and it's totally custom, relatively cheap and with bolt on wheels pretty dam hard to steel or take a part.

If you want to go with a pre built bike specialized makes the langster

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=32712

And Bianchi makes the Pista

http://bianchiusa.com/07_pista.html

Both are nice bikes. I think the specialized rides nice because it's alluminum and it's snappier, but the bianchi is a bianchi and that's hard to argue with.

With used bikes, it's hit or miss, but if you can find an old cannondale especially a CAAD 4 get it. You'll love it. Super light and stiff.

Eric

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm still waiting on my mom to deposit some big $$$ in my account for painting her house this summer, so I'm not buying a bike until thats in my hands. I'm also looking for something that I can use while I'm here at college (2-3 more years) and then when I have an engineering job I can pony up and get a good road/commuter bike depending on my situation then.

I found this on Ebay, i'm not a seasoned ebay-er, so I'll let you guys give me thumbs up or down on this one:

Ebay road bike

A couple friends of mine got those. They actually arn't that bad for the price. They are really heavy but for riding around campus it's not to bad. I would suggest having a bike mechanic build it for you. You're going to ge the most out of it if you start with everything in the best shape that it can be.
Eric

I vote for a bottom end Trek mountain bike- I guess it is a 700- about $299, aluminum, naybe 24 lbs, robust and fun, yet common enough to not attract pilferage. I think the ebay one is too heavy.

Mountain bike with street tires and a couple of bags hanging off a rack.
Wife and I lived in JApan for 2 years. We got groceries and everything by way of bikes.

Decent used bikes can be had for 300 and should serve you well.
way more comfy than road bikes.

However I have a cannondale 2.8 road bike with mid level components for $700.00

Check E-Bay and look for the seller Sprtymama. Look up Motobecane road bikes. I just bought my wife a real nice Motobacane aluminum road bike from his E-bay store. His stuff sells for about 50% less than comparible bikes in shops. His site is legit as I know another person who bought a great bike for a great price there as well. It's worth a look.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-NEW-ROAD-RACING-B...4QQcmdZViewItem

Well I still dont have money to buy the bike, so nothing is set in stone. I'm leaning strongly towards the Dawes, I just need something to get around town and I'm young, so leaning over on a "heavy" roadbike isnt the end of the world. Plus I dont have a lot of cash, I rather get something decent I can take care of and then when I'm a proper engineer, I can upgrade to the all-carbon super-bike.