On Apr 22, 10:44 am, SMS wrote:
landotter wrote:
At any rate, not a thing wrong with that Bianchi Avenue. Even cheaper
components shift great these days, and considering this bike probably
won't be getting thousands and thousands of training miles, a plastic
bushing here or there matters little. If you need them, spares will be
dirt cheap. AFAIK, it's Gripshift (ewwww), but if that doesn't bother
her, you're good to go, after you dial in the wheels and replace the
likely ****e stock brake pads. Rims are Alex X202s, which are single
wall and look gimpy on paper, but I've got a pair of the 27" version
that I laced up nice and tight on a utility bike, and they've stayed
perfectly true.

Yeah, I feel that since it won't be a high mileage bike, it'll be
sufficient. The older Specialized she got a few years ago had similarly
lower end components and nothing has needed replacement.

In this region (SF Bay area) the demand for cro-mo has kept used prices
abnormally high. There are people that rebuild the higher end cro-mo
bikes and resell them for relatively high prices. You've even got people
posting on craigslist offering to buy cro-mo bikes, and others asking
where to buy them. If not for my eventual plan to S&S couple several
bikes in our fleet, I'd probably go to aluminum.

Have you considered a folder to save the hassle and expense of
installing the S&S couplers? For about the same price as the Bianchi
you can get a basic Dahon D7, and it even comes with fenders and a
rack.