Quote Originally Posted by sarahspins View Post
Is it crazy to consider another bike so soon? Should I wait longer and possibly save up more? If I bought now it would have to be used... but I'm the impatient type. The advantage I see to buying used now, is that I would have one to ride now, and figure out what I like/dislike about it, and I could still save and buy something better later, and just resell whatever I bought used for close to what I paid (I hope). It sounds reasonable in my head, anyways.
I guess you already know that no one here will talk you out of buying a bicycle, right?
Anyway - actually buying a used bicycle is often a better deal than buying a new one. It's like buying a used car, you get 'more car' for the same money: for the price of a new toyota you can buy a used jaguar. So if you buy used you can actually afford a better bicycle than you could afford new.
The downside is that sometimes you do not know what happened to that bicycle: we don't have carfax reports on bikes so you would not know if the bike has been crashed - unless the damage is evident. Thankfully, most sellers will be honest and tell you if they have crashed the frame - or at least I would and hope others do too.
Anyway, my advice would be go visit bike shops and test ride road bikes. Don;t worry about their price right now - you are test-riding to learn what fits you, so feel free to test-ride bicycles that are out of the price range (when new). I would be straightforward with the shops you visit, and tell them that you are trying to figure out what bicycle fits you best - but you are not planning to buy in the immediate future. You can also ash the shops about used bikes - some shops take trade in's, others sponsor clubs and teams and could know if a member is selling a bike.
So really the short answer is: test ride many different road bikes, and find the kind that is a good fit for you. Once you know what to look for (and which size), then you can safely buy even on ebay or craigslist.
Good luck!