Choosing a bike, seat, shoes

[susanm8048]

I was reading on another discussion board that you should be wary of buying a second hand carbon bike. The reason being that you never really know if it has been in a crash. They were concerned that there might be cracks in the frame that are not visible to the naked eye and that could compromise safety.

I have no idea if this is true or not but as we were discussing the option of second hand bikes, I thought I would open it up for debate.

[Nanci]

Maybe you should look at the Trek WSD 1500 and 2200. The 1500 is $1200 MSRP, the 2200 is $1900 MSRP. Both have carbon forks and seat posts, the 2200 has carbon seatstays as well. I'm 5'2", and have the 2005 2100, 47", with 650 wheels that they changed to 700 on the 2200, and the 2200 has better components, but they are basically the same, and I _love_ my bike- it's perfect!!! I love the smaller handlebars and whatever they did to the brakes/shifters to make them easy to reach. I don't believe WSD bikes are just hype- for one thing, the geometry is supposed to be different. Sure you could change the cranks/bars/brakes/shifters etc, but that's a lot more expensive than just starting out with a bike that has those things in a smaller size.

Nanci

[kelownagirl]

Maybe you should look at the Trek WSD 1500 and 2200. The 1500 is $1200 MSRP, the 2200 is $1900 MSRP. Both have carbon forks and seat posts, the 2200 has carbon seatstays as well. I'm 5'2", and have the 2005 2100, 47", with 650 wheels that they changed to 700 on the 2200, and the 2200 has better components, but they are basically the same, and I _love_ my bike- it's perfect!!! I love the smaller handlebars and whatever they did to the brakes/shifters to make them easy to reach. I don't believe WSD bikes are just hype- for one thing, the geometry is supposed to be different. Sure you could change the cranks/bars/brakes/shifters etc, but that's a lot more expensive than just starting out with a bike that has those things in a smaller size.

Nanci

Thanks Nanci, I think I did try the Trek 1500 on my first day. I've been planning to back and look at it again more seriously so I'll try to do that this week. At that point, I hadn't learned about the carbon, and the various components so I need to check it out. Your comments about the WSD bikes make sense to me.

What do you think about the more "upright" comfortable bikes like the Specialized Sequoia? Have you tried them?

barb