Advice on a secondhand bike

[PrettyboyTim]

Hi folks - I quite fancy getting a road bike to complement my (rather heavy) hybrid, but very much on the cheap. I saw this one going for next to nothing - does anyone have any comments on what they can see from the pictures? Normally I'd snap it up, but it might be a bit of a pain for me to collect:






Yes, one pedal is missing and according to the ad the crank needs replacing - anything else obvious I should be concerned about? I did wonder if the front forks had been bent at all - they look like they might have been bent backwards very slightly...

 

[John the Monkey]

Tim, here's a gumtree ad that has a pic of the bike;

http://leeds.gumtree.com/leeds/32/21623932.html

The fork on the one you're looking at does look wrong to me.

Don't know much about the bike as a road bike per se, but I do remember lusting after one (or a Kelloggs Pro Tour(?)) in my youth. I see quite a few of the Raleigh Banana bikes around town, and I'm always tempted to stop the rider and make an offer

 

[Christopher]

hi Tim

Don't touch it. It has bent forks - look closely at the top pic and you can see that the headtube does not align with the fork, so the fork's been bent backwards and it looks twisted as well.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

Heh. I figured there was probably a reason why is was £10!

 

[e-rider]

These bikes were very cheap when first produced in the late eighties. There were more expensive Raleigh Bananas made but this is the cheap version.

The forks are clearly bent, so just that on its own should stop you buying it. The rest of the bike also looks suspect (saddle area) and it clearly hasn't been loved!

Look elsewhere - decent 'old' road bikes can be found for under £100 and even as low as £45 but don't look on eBay as everything on there is well overpriced (usually) - scrap metal assembled into the shape of a cycle sells for £100 on eBay!

 

[GrahamG]

I think there are some features which you should deem to be essential if you want a bike that is going to be rideable right from the off, rather than a 'project' which inevitably ends up as a money pit unless you have a whole stock of parts at your disposal.

1. Alloy wheel rims - as you can see on that bike the wheel rims are shiny, indicating that they are steel. Braking on steel rims just is not good enough in this day and age of heavily trafficked roads (especially in London!), avoid like the plague.

2. 700c wheels - save faff with finding deep drop brake calipers etc. or if the wheels are FUBAR'd then you can get a cheap set of modern 700c factory wheels safe in the knowledge that they'll fit just fine.

3. Reasonable quality drivetrain - just check that all gear changes are OK (or parts look fine and just need adjustment/new cables) and the cassette/chainrings are not worn. Don't be fussy here as older 5/6/7 speeds with downtube shifters are perfectly functional and last a lot longer than modern parts!

4. Frame damage - look for rust/cracks/bent stays orr forks as above!

Finally, seeing as you're in London, avoid anything that looks nice and has horizontal dropouts - the fixie fashionista will hoover these up at inflated prices only to strip back to the frame and bin the parts. I reckon your ideal machine is a butt ugly (bright colours and speckles!) late 80's/early 90's job with 700c wheels and a basic shimano drivetrain that has been well looked after as a keen cyclists winter bike and therefore will be great right from the off.

Examples:

This one is too expensive really, but appears to be 700c wheels and light usage. old raleigh

Here's one to be avoided - Peugeot (funny part sizes), steel wheels etc. Old peugeot

This one is better (the decade or more between this and the last one makes all the difference). Peugeot but better

This is pretty sweet so will probably go for a bit more than current bid levels.
Fondriest

This one looks OK, I suspect the size and pickup only is the reason it hasn't gone.
Raleigh without decals

This one looks great, only £20 postage. Ignore the crap photo, I've bought loads of stuff off these guys and they've been superb. Dave Quinn 531


Hope that helps.

 

[GrahamG]

Oh and as pointed out above, ebay gets a bit silly price-wise on a lot of items (bicycle or otherwise!). The forum classifieds here or at Bike Radar don't seem to be quite as active as the old C+ but for your old school steel road bike, the CTC forum classifieds should be the first port of call.