Bike Buying Advice Needed for a Tough Customer

[jwfisher3]

@mstone 45287 wrote:

I’m an idiot–the choice is obvious: find a deal on a cannondale bad boy!

I have a Cannondale Bad Boy Ultra (with the Headshok suspension fork) – it’s a great bike – fast, adaptable to road or mountain disc wheels. I’ve logged a few thousand miles commuting on it. But – it can’t take fenders, at least not on the front suspension version (the air valve prevents it) and the CL market has them going at an inflated price point – the blacked out urban bike hipster factor is still operative, apparently. I’d go with a CX bike, and I’d bet Proteus has some sweet ones, if the CL search doesn’t work out. Good hunting!

[mstone]

I should have put a smiley on the bad boy suggestion–the name seemed amusing in context; I agree it’s not a great choice for this situation. I’ve also heard they’re extremely theft-prone, which is probably not great for a kid’s bike.

[DismalScientist]

This appears to be a low information CL seller: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/bik/3663347955.html

You may want to see if this Bianchi Alfana is the right size.

[eminva]

@DismalScientist 45428 wrote:

This appears to be a low information CL seller:

Indeed, the bikes were sold by the time I emailed them. Thanks anyway.

He has been measured now and the fit calculators suggest a frame size of 52 to 53-ish for a road bike. I guess that corresponds to about 18″ for the bikes sized that way.

Thanks for your help!

Liz

[bikenurse]

@eminva 45431 wrote:

Indeed, the bikes were sold by the time I emailed them. Thanks anyway.

He has been measured now and the fit calculators suggest a frame size of 52 to 53-ish for a road bike. I guess that corresponds to about 18″ for the bikes sized that way.

Thanks for your help!

Liz

So isn’t that roughly your size? So, here’s what you do. Get him a bike that you’d like for yourself (perhaps as a backup)! That way if he grows out of it at some point, you’ve got a new/spare bike!

[eminva]

@mllwhnp 45432 wrote:

So isn’t that roughly your size? So, here’s what you do. Get him a bike that you’d like for yourself (perhaps as a backup)! That way if he grows out of it at some point, you’ve got a new/spare bike!

Oh how you tempt me!

[Greenbelt]

http://www.konaworld.com/bike.cfm?content=dew

Kona Dew. Fast, rugged, light, badass. Not too pricey.

Bikinetic probably has out your way — they do Kona. -Jeff

[ShawnoftheDread]

This might do the trick, if you wanted to go lower budget.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/bik/3667248636.html

[eminva]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2488[/ATTACH]

We snagged a lightly used 2010 Cannondale Quick CX on Craigslist. This is a similar model to the bike my husband used for his C&O Canal Trip in 2011, so we knew it would be good for the job, as well as a decent bike overall.

We took a ride today and he is happy with it. We might need to switch the saddle, but otherwise it seemed good.

Thanks so much for all your help and advice, very much appreciated. And thanks to dcv for the Craigslist tip.

Liz

[mstone]

I would have killed for that bike at that age, great choice. (Of course, we were still happy with a five speed cassette and down tube shifters back then, so apply salt as necessary.)

[vvill]

Excellent choice, I agree.

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