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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 1, 2012 at 2:08am

Nashbar, on the whole, tends to make and/or license to be made under their brand name some fairly decent products.     This bike looks like it is an amalgam of quite of few of their components and, if properly put together, set up, and if it fits you should be a servicable bike.

I do have a bit of  an issue with the price though for a used/as-is Craigslist deal.   It very well may be that it is as the CL lister says and you are saving $40 from what you could buy it online and it is like new.

Or it could have "fallen off the truck" and be stolen. (I'm not saying that it is but any CL deal has its pitfalls.)  And buying something used you will not get the same attention from the manufacturer that you would if you had bought it directly from them.  If, 3 months down the road there is a problem like the fork or frame starts cracking is this guy going to stand behind the bike?  Is Nashbar themselves going to stand behind the bike when you are not the original purchaser?  Maybe -maybe not.   And if it was not a 100% legit bike that may have fallen off the truck how much would it suck if the legitimate owner showed up and claimed "your" bike that you paid almost full price for.

$40 isn't much of a discount if you ask me.  These things do not require a lot of assembly or set-up.  And personally this is stuff I would want to do myself anyhow and not leave up to someone else.   For the extra money you get it sent directly to your own home rather than having to drive out to wherever this guy is to pick it up yourself.  And finally you lose some of the protections and warranties of buying something new from the distributor rather than "some guy" on Craigslist.

I've bought a ton of bikes and bike stuff used off of CL over the years and I'm not against this in any way.  But a new bike is somewhat like a new car that loses a good portion of its new sticker price the minute you have ridden it out of the showroom and this bike is no different  $40 off of retail is ridiculous IMHO.  If this is the bike you want I advise you pay the $40 extra and get a brand new one from Nashbar.  To me, that $40 is just not worth the headaches and unknowns of buying "used" -no matter how new the first owner claims it is. 

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Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on July 1, 2012 at 3:19am

Also, doesn't Nashbar have a ton of coupon codes for 20% off, free shipping, etc? 

To me, bikes are just like cars in that they lose 25-30% of their value right off the bat. Unless a bike is brand new, I'd offer about half the retail value if I'm buying used. And, I've gotten some good deals off of craigslist.

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