- About buying any used triathlon or road bike.
Do that before you do anything.
I just realized something on that trip to the camera store.
Hola, trainerinos.
One of the more common questions that I get asked
is I am thinking about buying a used dot dot dot bike.
I've got a deal on a used dot dot dot bike.
What do you think about the dot dot dot bike?
Well, here are gonna be some principles
that you can use about buying any
used triathlon or road bike, all right?
Listen up, write it down, I don't
wanna have to repeat myself.
Let's talk about getting sized up on a bike.
Often people will ask me, I am five foot nine,
and I have a 32 inch inseam.
Not me, I'm midget size, actually.
What size bike should I get?
Well, you know what, I can't really tell you.
You need a bike shop for that, and
what I would recommend doing is,
kind of a shitty thing to do, but
if you patronize a local bike shop regularly
and spend a fair bit of dough in there,
in other things they might be a little
more willing to help size you up.
So if they know that you're gonna be
coming in, you're gonna be buying
all the accessories, you're gonna be buying
all the parts, all the things to
maintain the bike, go into your
local bike shop and get sized up
and ask them what size bike you should be on.
Do that before you do anything.
One of the biggest determinants about,
are you in a good price point at a bike
that is going to last quite a while
and hold its value for a while, are the components.
Probably the most common set of components
that you're gonna be looking at are Shimano 105's.
That's what's on this bike here, however this bike
is a 2016 model.
Shimano 105 in the 2016 2017 model is basically
old Altegra from 2014, my old bikes,
because as bikes continue to go on in years,
what happens is the trickle down effect of the nicer models
of components ends up coming down
into the entry level models.
Now let's say that you are buying a used bike,
it's gonna be a few years old, so you want a better level
of components than the entry level of today.
So what I would recommend is if it's Shimano,
you want Shimano Altegra or Shimano Durace,
if it's Schramm, you want Schramm Red or Schramm Force.
Shimano 105 or Schramm, I think it's eight packs
from several years ago, those are really entry level
components that aren't gonna hold up and stand
the test of time after three, four years of riding,
so you're gonna be getting a level of component
that has probably had the piss ridden out of it
and you don't know if it's gonna last very long.
In addition to that, it's not gonna hold its value.
Next thing is the frame itself, if you aren't getting
a brand new bike, hopefully you can afford
an all carbon bike.
An all carbon bike is gonna be the lightest,
typically more aerodynamic because you can design things
like this big long aerodynamic headset
and curved like teardrop shaped seat post,
down tubes, and things like that all over the bike.
So ideally you want to be getting a carbon bike.
Carbon is very tough, however if there's a crack in it,
if there's a chip in it, if there's a dent in it,
like if there's a knock out of the frame anywhere,
that's gonna be a weak point and
it's gonna be very dangerous, so you want to look over
the entire frame for any cracks, any chips,
any dents, any major scuffs.
You can also go through the whole thing,
and you want it to sound very solid,
if you start hearing places that it sounds like something's
busted, and you'll know it when you hear it,
you're not gonna want to pick up that bike,
because odds are it's got a flaw in the frame.
Next thing you want to look at to make sure
you're not gonna have a complete disaster with the bike
is look at all the bolts and screws on the bike.
If there are areas that you have stripped bolts,
stripped screws, that's a sign that you're gonna have
a big problem on your hands and you might have to take
it into a bike shop, and you're not gonna be able to work
on it yourself.
Similarly to that, you're gonna want to check the seat
post, make sure that it can go up and down
and that it hasn't been rusted into one spot.
And you want to ask the owner about indoor training.
If they've been on an indoor trainer quite a bit,
you kind of want to feel them out and ask
if they've put a towel over top of the headset
like you see me doing often, on the indoor trainer.
Because if they haven't, they've probably sweated into
the headset, and you can't see from the outside,
but that's probably caused a fair bit of corrosion
on the inside and you could have
a big problem on your hands.
The headset might be seized up, and I've heard
as much as having to throw away a bike
because people have sweated into the headset
of their bike.
Rough, eh?
And then finally you want to spin the wheels
and look at it head on, and watch for trueness.
If there's any sort of wobble back and forth,
you've got yourself a set of wheels that are untrue.
If it's an aluminum rim, it'll be fairly easy to true up,
but if it's a deep section rim at all,
you're gonna be in trouble son.
And then lastly you might think that
I might tell you to look at the chain,
or the cassette, and see what kind of condition that's in,
or where the brake pads are, but frankly,
those are like changing the oil in your car.
You're gonna have to do it, if you buy a used car
you're still gonna have to change the oil.
Those are things that you just cycle through
on a year or biyearly basis.
So even if the cassette is worn down, if the chain
has a lot of stretch, if the brake pads are worn down,
whatever, what I'm looking for with all of these tips
is to get you in a position that you're getting a bike
that's gonna be easy to work on,
you're not gonna have any major costs after buying the bike,
and it's gonna hold up and hold its value after you buy it
and decide that you want something shinier and newer
two years down the road, because let's face it,
new bike day, best day.
Fortunately today had nothing to do with new bike day,
it had everything to do with long run day,
and it knocked the piss out of me.
Body's retaliating, trainiacs.
Does not like me now.
(pop music)
No cameras, please.
(pop music)
Well Sony, your time has come to an end with this channel.
I mentioned this to you before, well a while ago,
that we got this big telephoto Sony RX10 mark three.
Well it was awesome for beautiful slow motion,
long video footage from like a mile away.
But the battery life sucked, and anything but perfect
bright lighting conditions sucked.
And then lately I've been trying this Sony RX100 Mark 5,
which is like the go-to vlogging camera for tons and tons
of vloggers out there, however I don't think
many of those vloggers live in Winnepeg,
they're only like New York or California,
or they travel all around the world
where they actually have an outdoors that they can go to
year round, well outdoors, again, the Sony RX100,
you don't have a stop sign, no, you absolutely
don't have a stop sign.
RX100 Mark 5, as soon as you take it inside, same thing
because it's just got this wee little one inch sensor.
As much as I keep trying to outsmart myself
by changing different cameras, the old trusty GH4,
it's what works.
I'm gonna bring this back.
I just realized something on that trip to the camera store.
You know how I recommend that you patronize your local
bike shop and develop a good relationship with them,
because there's gonna be that one time out of ten visits
that you really need a favor, and if you haven't patronized
your local bike shop because you've ordered everything
online, and then you show up and you're like hey,
can you help me out, they'd be like piss off.
Same thing at the camera store.
I've got to start ordering more things
at the camera store, like this, this is a thing
that you go basically underneath your chin here,
there's a little clip, and then you take that clip
and you clip the camera into my backpack.
Living in the future here, folks.