How to buy a used bike

vickaiser

If I were shopping for a used bike, how do I know what to look as far as size is concerned.  I know the BEST recommendation is a pre-buy fit from TTBikeFit but my friend may not want to invest that money to do that?  I guess I need to convince him to do that.  Bus short of that, if he were just browsing Craigs list or ebay, what size would he look for?

tuckerm

Have your friend walk into a bike shop and try out some bikes. They should tell him what size he is. Then start looking.

John Withrow

You can get close with a simple calculator like this: http://www.ebicycles.com/bicycle-tools/frame-sizer/road-bike
or here: http://www.sierratradingpost.com/lp2/bike-fit-guide.html
or here: http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/techctr/bikefit.html

But any bike shop can probably tell him just by looking at him based on his height and whether he has longer legs or torso...

vickaiser

Thanks, that helps a lot.