Racing Bike Buying Advice

Hi all,

I've been asking buying advice on another forum, and it was recommended that I ask here as well.

I ride a recent single speed bike as my commuter bike. I'd like to do the occasional triathlon in an entirely non-serious-if-i-finish-i'm-happy style, and gears would help. At a recent triathlon there was a rider with a Claud Butler Professional that he paid £150 for on ebay, and that definitely got me thinking. Some research has suggested to me that buying a bike that good for that little money was a fantastic bargain that would be very hard to repeat, however, and my expectations of a bargain aren't that high.

I'd like a ready to ride bike, not a rebuild project. I am very tempted by this Raleigh Quasar. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190844345854? ... 1438.l2649 My eyes near popped out when I saw this Raleigh Record Sprint http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/ralei ... 1019260725, but it doesn't come with wheels, and the wheels on it are 18 month old expensive wheels meaning I'd need to offer much more than £100 to get the wheels too. I'm not very technically advanced cycle building wise, and am hesitant to buy a bike that's not already a going proposition. There is a shop in Leicester which sells rebuilt bikes, but at a premium. E.g. a Peugeot Carbolite is £250, and I can get a B'twin Triban 3 on ebay for that if I wait long enough.

There's this bike for sale locally, but I have no idea of its true value as it's some sort of bitsa. If someone skilled built it, it could be a good bike, but I don't know. http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/road- ... 1019381493

Comments and recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I don't know which bikes are suitable for me, I'm simply googling whatever comes up. Provided it doesn't sell today, I will be test-riding an 18-23 tubed Raleigh Banana tomorrow. My main concern for that will be how much it weighs.

I have looked at the 'for sale' section on this site, but didn't find anything local. I really would prefer something local so that I can try riding the bike before purchase.

Having just bought my first road racing bike I can understand where you are coming from.
But to be honest if you want to try out a triathlon and do some training then something a bit more modern than the bikes you mentioned above would be a good start, in my opinion.
I recently bought a 2001 road bike from eBay for around £180, Shimano Sora 24-speed gears, STI brakes/shifters, alloy rims etc. so there are decent bikes to be had out there for not a lot of money.
There are a few things I'd want on a bike though, especially if you plan on doing some sort of competition eg. STI/Flightdeck combined brake levers/shifters, so much easier to use than downtube mounted shifters. Perhaps some tri-bars, can be picked up cheap and will make a big difference to your performance.

Here's a few examples of what I'd be looking at, I realise a lot of sellers put "Collection Only", so shop around, or ask if you can arrange your own courier etc...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ridgeback-rac ... 232b2468fe

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vitesse-Sprin ... 27d2ec4c19

A Claud Butler Professional like this? That was a bargain: just the frameset for £150 would have been cheap.

My first piece of advice would be to ride before you buy: but you already know that.

Second would be to join the local Triathlon club: apart from being able to offer advice on specific bikes, it's likely someone will have one to pass on.

If you are, mechanically speaking, a novice then buying an old bike second hand on a budget is not what I would recommend, especially to compete on even at a modest level.

The current post-Olympics/Bradley Wiggins bike boom combined with the usual pre-Summer upturn, means you've got every monkey and his Uncle dragging the myriad of run-of-the-mill Raleighs and Peugeots out of the shed where they have been languishing unloved and unmaintained for the past twenty or thirty years and sticking the "retro" tag and an inflated price on it.

Interesting you mention the Triban 3: excellent value and highly recommended. Other decent "beginners" bikes to look out for are the Raleigh Airlite 100, Edinburgh Bike Co-Op Revolution Continental, Halford Carrera TDF Ltd and Dawes Giro 300.

The "bitsa" in Leicester could be a hidden gem and absolute steal, but do you know what to look for? "minimal amount of damage to frame" covers a multitude of sins, do you know what to look for? Apart from which, it is a lot smaller than the other bikes you linked to: do you know what size you need?

The Record Sprint: £100 without wheels? Move on.

The Quasar is the "least worst" of the three, but over-priced: if it came from a shop with six months warranty and had been serviced by a qualified mechanic then you might be able to justify the premium, but being "completely checked over and given a full safety check" by some bloke on Ebay means nothing.

With your limited experience it would be sensible to pay the extra that buying from a shop would involve, but £250 for a Carbolite Pug? Only £150 over the odds.

Thanks for the replies.

The Claud Butler Professional bike was as pictured in the link above.

There aren't many recent bikes coming up locally, and it seems that £200 is the minimum I'd have to spend, and even then, I'd have to be lucky. I've added the Dawes Giro bikes into my saved searches for local bikes, which now looks like this:

(triban,tdf,virtuoso,scr,aloh,1.0,1000,giro) (dawes,trek,fuji,carrera,b'twin,btwin,giant)

More bikes to add to that would be helpful.

I have a saved ebay search for classic bikes too. I do like the idea of a classic bike, but note the recommendation to be more skilled in maintenance. Maybe I should try to resuscitate my dead Dawes Mojave solely for the practice, then considering what to do if I'm successful at that.

If a £100 Raleigh Sprint without wheels (it is available for a higher price with the FSA RD60 wheels) is not a good idea, then what would be a better bike for the same price? What should I be looking for? Providing it doesn't sell today, I may be having a test ride on an 18-23 Raleigh Banana tomorrow, which is selling for £70.

If you have a bike to cut your teeth on, that would be a good idea: the Park Tools blog and Sheldon Brown are two good sites.

£70 for the Banana is an ok-ish price if it fits and is roadworthy, but 18-23 was Raleigh's basic in-house tubeset and certainly not light: I'd pay £50.

For £100 I'd want a roadworthy bike built from Reynolds 531 tubing (the benchmark tubeset for donkey's years).

Steer clear of mid-Eighties and earlier Peugeots as they can be built to quirky standards. Plenty of Raleighs around, but they made so many different models and variants of them, at different grades, that you need to know what you're buying to avoid paying over the odds.

You must first decide what size you need, the three bikes you have linked to range from huge (black Raleigh) through 'normal'ish' (Quasar) to small (local one). Only one of them will be right for you - but which one?

I currently ride a 57cm commuter, which I find a touch small. I have no idea how large my Dawes is, will look when I get home. It felt large to me. The Sprint bike (the big one) is ridden by someone about the same height as me who says that it's OK. I thought I was looking at bikes in the 56-59cm or so range, with the assumption that I'll find out if it's the wrong size when I ride it. I'll check the listings in case I've made an error.

ScillySuffolk":2qkqzgev said:

For £100 I'd want a roadworthy bike built from Reynolds 531 tubing (the benchmark tubeset for donkey's years).

Click to expand...

Where can I find one of these? If I found one of these on gumtree and it fit me I'd buy it today. Surely there would be little risk at that price as I could easily resell it for little or no loss.

Steer clear of mid-Eighties and earlier Peugeots as they can be built to quirky standards. Plenty of Raleighs around, but they made so many different models and variants of them, at different grades, that you need to know what you're buying to avoid paying over the odds.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information about Pugs. I'm being very hesitant about them as I don't know which ones come from which decade. (I think it's a matter of looking at the badge at the front for some of them).

I've noted how many Raleighs they are. When I find a new model, I google it. And then I find another model. I've found a page full of Raleigh Carlton bikes.

Having sold off a collection of bikes on Ebay that my father started over the past 18months, I suspect that Ebay prices have fallen. You should be able to pick up a decent 531 framed bike with forged drop outs and integral gear hanger with pretty good components for around £150.

This was a bargain at the weekend: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290916761597? ... 1423.l2649

You've just got to keep looking and something will turn up

ebay - Ribble 531 / 753 with full matching groupset - there's been 3 at the size you want in the last 4-6 weeks at around the £250 mark if I recall correctly. A lot of bike for not much money and that's with the ebay 'premium' as well. Gumtree or the for sale section / wanted section on here may prove fruitful as well.

If your looking at entry level triathlons, the last thing you want is to trying to power a heavy bike bookended inbetween a swim & a run - I'd be looking at the weight of the bike - things like the Record Sprint will mean your expending energy just moving the bike never mind riding a decent lick.

An early 90's onwards bike would be the best bet - likely to be 18 gears minimum with brifters and should you ever need to, replacing parts should be simple and fairly inexpensive.

Best of luck, and welcome aboard the good ship Retrobike

I'm looking to see what 531 tubed bikes sold for about £100. There aren't many. Dawes Galaxy here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dawes-galaxy- ... 232aff6f4c Sold as seen, needs a service.

Raleigh Cyclo Cross bike sold very cheaply. £77.69. Any particular reason why? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Mount ... 460f5bd6bc

Raleigh racing bike. £77. We're guaranteed that the 531 sticker was removed before respraying. The guarantee is all in capital letters. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RALEIGH-RACER ... 33820f329d

Another Raleigh. £92. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-23-5- ... 20d2a4bd66

This looks cheap to me, £67 something for a Claud Butler 531 tubed bike. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLAUD-BUTLER- ... 2a2cae80c8

Another sub-£100 Claud Butler, for £87. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Claud-Butler- ... 3cd1731915 'For parts or not working' due to a sticky dérailleur.

Unisex Orbit £79. I've seen a number of Orbits on ebay, I'll have a search on this site to see what people think of them. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orbit-mixte-r ... 257da5080e

It does look like there are cheaper bikes around. I haven't seen any sub-£100 531 bikes in my local area yet though.