Couple of Road Bike Questions

That’s the exact figure my wife’s cousin decided on.

TC - I may have told her to buy a Reid.

I tend to get this at work. Only ever had one guy take the advice. The others all come back with, “Oh, I found this on special.” etc.
The only decent bikes at work are mine and the one I built for a mate. The others are a collection of boat anchors, rusty shitters and hard garbage finds!

So regarding the creak, turned out to be a split steerer tube! He’s getting a new one under warranty. Go Giant.

I told him to get a real bike…

The Reid Factor™.
Shows people are willing to pay for rubbish & then spend much more repairing it or trying to make it better.

I don’t actually think it’s a bad thing because after being laughed at by most bike shops and realising they were too cheap in the first place teaches them to pony up and stop being such a tight arse if they are actually serious about riding bikes. Most people aren’t. And then you’ll get the idiots who’ll spend money on Brooks bar tape but have steel rims & brakes that didn’t work 40 years ago when new. They’ll profess to love vintage bikes but won’t spend $20 on a new chain … just tight arses pretending to be stylish.