Entry level road bike in Costco.

[Cataboo]

I saw this today in Costco, I think it was $600. Available in 19" & 17" male frame sizes:

http://www.northrockbikes.com/road-scr1.php

It's aluminum with a carbon fiber fork, sora shifters, tiagra front derailleur and sora rear (I think).

If it fits, it seemed not bad for the price.

[Grog]

No answers, but some questions one may want to ask:

Who assembles the bike?

Who will fit the buyer on it? (A bike may be the right size but it still needs to be fitted)

Who will make adjustments after one has ridden the bike a few hundred kilometers?

Who will service it?

[ladyicon]

From your signature it appears that you already have a stable of bikes, why would you want a Costco bike???????? Just asking

[Cataboo]

From your signature it appears that you already have a stable of bikes, why would you want a Costco bike???????? Just asking

I don't want a costco bike. I just found it curious to find a tiagra/sora mixture at costco.

[redrhodie]

Do you know if you're allowed to test ride it?

[KnottedYet]

I know two people who've been badly injured by carbon forks failing.

Other than the carbon fork, the bike sounds like an interesting step outside the type of bike Costco generally carries.

(and Felt just recalled a bunch of 2011 bikes because their carbon forks are failing, nice timely addition to my carbon-fork-paranoia)

[Cataboo]

Do you know if you're allowed to test ride it?

There were 2 of them assembled while I was there, and one guy was riding one of them around the warehouse, which doesn't give you any practical experience on hills.

I sort of assume that the costco people didn't do a great job of tuning them if they assembled them, but I didn't try riding one. If it fits someone who has a handy bike friend/husband or BF it'd be a good deal for an entry level road bike. 9 speed triple.

I just saw the guy get on the bike and thought "well, that's surprisingly nice looking for costco" and went over to check out the components.

[Cataboo]

If it were my bike, the answer to all of those questions would be me. As it is for all my bikes.

The whole bike shop vs. chain store question has been debated a ton of times on here. It all comes down to what people are comfortable with. I posted the bike because I was surprised to see a bike with reasonable components at costco and because it's cheaper than the equivalent trek, giant, or specialized that people often post. It's probably cheaper than performance bicycle, as well. We quite often tell people on here that to get the most bang for their buck, they should buy used off craigslist or ebay - all of those bike shop services don't come with a used bike either. Around here, fittings and servicing aren't complimentary most of the times when you buy a bike from a bike shop, you pay extra for it - just like you do when you bring a bike you bought elsewhere to the bike shop.