3 Points To Consider When Buying A Road Bicycle

Too often people are looking at the price and not the quality of the road bike when they are in the market to buy. As equally important as the price for a road bike, quality can't be discounted.

You must consider several options when you start looking for a new road bike.

Used-vs-New
There is no shortage of used road bikes on the market today. Craigslist is one of those places and has hundreds available for sale in every imaginable category and price range. This may be a viable option if you are limited to how much you can spend. Buying a used road bike can pose many problems including knowing about any existing issues the former owner had with the bike. Even if the bike appears to be clean and in good shape there may still be small stress fractures that may cause a catastrophic failure.

You must look carefully at the components to see if you can see obvious wear on the metal. Naturally all bike parts will eventually wear out, it is the degree of wear that you must concern yourself with. The frame has to be looked at with a careful eye because if there is a small crack in the weld the bike will be virtually worthless.
Components can be changed provided you are willing to do the work yourself. You can go to a bike shop and have them do it for you but the cost will be exponentially higher. These are just some of the problems with buying a used bike. Not to mention that if the bike has a structural failure while you are riding it you risk serious injury or worse.

Mid-Range Price VS Low-Range Price
You can categorize road bikes relative to their pricing so in this article we will focus on the mid to lower-range road bikes. Road bikes generally range in price from 200 to 400 dollars for the low range and 400 to 1200 dollars for the mid range. 1200 dollars may seem like a lot of money to pay for a bike, but when you consider that most high end bikes sell in the 7 to 10,000 dollar range, 1200 doesn't seem so bad.

The difference among these types of road bikes is the quality of their components including the tires, seat, derailleur, crank and frame. So basically the overall quality of the bikes will be as different as night and day. Although you will be probably be getting a Shimano derailleur on both bikes you will be not be getting the Shimano XTR Shadow on the low priced road bike. For most of the components this is true. The less expensive bicycle might be your best bet if it doesn't matter to you. An example would be, if you couldn't afford the higher priced Schwinn Laguna road bike you could instead look at the less expensive Rapido by Lamborghini. Both are excellent road bikes and for a beginner the Rapido may be good enough. If you can afford something in between, the Monza by Tommaso is the road bike for you.

Cost Of Repair
If you factor in the cost of replacement for the cheaper components you have to ask yourself what you really saved by buying the cheaper road bike. To replace the derailleur will cost you anywhere from 100 to 200 dollars and more depending on the bike shop and the derailleur you choose to replace it with. The same holds true for most of the components on the bike. The total cost of replacement will certainly out price the original cost of the road bike.

You will find that with most things you buy the cheaper it is, the cheaper it is.