Newbie Advice - Old steel roadie, 'Blucher' brand

[shakes]

Having a quick look at aReid osprey Vs a Giant Defy 3

Roughly $500 in it retail $$ wise. And it looks similar for each spec model.

Short of geometry and some of the finer details like tires/cables/tape/etc there is sweet FA between them. Build quality of most giants straight from the box is typically pretty damn good, Reid I’ve had no experience.

[a.davis12]

For gods sake buy the giant.

[DaFROG]

@ shakes thanks for this info

@ a.davis12: keep your pants on i was just curious as i was looking into this for a mate I ended up building a 9sp 105, nice japanese steel frame with trued and properly tensioned Reid $40 wheels for him.
There’s little danger of me buying a reid or cell anytime soon (don’t think they come big enough anyway).

Besides I already have a “roadie”*:

*may or may not be considered worse than a reid

[a.davis12]

@shakes

Short of geometry there is sweet FA between them.

i just took offence to this comment. that’s like saying “short of being a person, there is sweet FA between this tree and a person”

[munga]

@Colin_Oscar_P

Ok thanks guys.

I spoke to the seller and he said he would take it at $400 pick up tomorrow.
I’ve got bar tape and cables and other bits and pieces and can borrow any tools I need from a friend should I need to do a bit of work.
That’s also kind of what I want, to do a bit of work and get familiar with bike maintenance.

I already need to go up to Melb tomorrow anyway, so I think I might go and have a look at it.

So I should be looking for:

• dents or other frame damage
• how smoothly the drivetrain operates
• wheel true-ness (wheel truth…?)
• busted spokes
• condition of tyres
• braking performance? Is it recommended to just get new brake pads anyway?
  What else?

I guess I should add that I have somewhat of an aversion to buying brand new cheap stuff, it seems wasteful to me, I’d rather reuse/refurbish older stuff for around the same price.

tl;dr thread but if you have a friend with tools, take him/her along to inspect (unless you’ve bought already).

[Colin_Oscar_P]

Hey guys I ended up buying the Trek Roadie from the eBay listing.
Reason being that he took $350 for it, and that the wheels are true, no bad spokes, the whole drivetrain is in great condition and it has Ultegra brifters, not 105 (I couldn’t tell from the photos).
I rode about 15km yesterday on it, seems pretty good, just need to wait until I get back to Canberra to do a bit of work on it, i.e. cleaning, bar tape, bit of tweaking etc.

[heavymetal]

Not bad, considering Ultegra. That’ll clean up nicely I reckon. And at that price definitely better buying than a cell or reid.

[DaFROG]

complete, not shagged, ultegra brifters, $350, Nice work

[Bigadz]

@Colin_Oscar_P

just need to wait until I get back to Canberra to do a bit of work on it, i.e. cleaning, bar tape, bit of tweaking etc.

Please make fixing the bar angle a first priority.
If you need any tools/a hand, let us know.

[Colin_Oscar_P]

@Bigadz

Please make fixing the bar angle a first priority.
If you need any tools/a hand, let us know.

Ok thanks, will do. I’ll do a bit of research on how to do that.

I might, I’m Sean’s (‘Aeons’) neighbour at Fenner Hall so it depends what tools we collectively have between us.

[Bigadz]

@Colin_Oscar_P

Ok thanks, will do. I’ll do a bit of research on how to do that.

Loosen bolt with an allen key, twist up handlebars, tighten up bolt, take off bartape, loosen brifter and adjust to suit, put on new bartape.

@Colin_Oscar_P

I might, I’m Sean’s (‘Aeons’) neighbour at Fenner Hall so it depends what tools we collectively have between us.

Well that helps, he’s pretty handy on the tools