dublinbikeman

italodisco

hi folks,
just wondering if any of you have bought an old steel bike off Paul from dublinbikeman.com?
I'm interested in 1 or 2 bikes from his site but unsure of quality and to be honest he's a little overpriced.
just curious if anyone can advise.

Cheers

Darkglasses

italodisco wrote: »

hi folks,
just wondering if any of you have bought an old steel bike off Paul from dublinbikeman.com?
I'm interested in 1 or 2 bikes from his site but unsure of quality and to be honest he's a little overpriced.
just curious if anyone can advise.

Cheers

Wouldn't recommend, a mate of mine bought one and it was pretty bad value. I'm sure his stuff can be hit or miss, but my friend got a complete pup. It was one of his slightly retro european tourers, and it was in a pretty bad state. BB was shagged within a month and the front derailleur basically spontaneously combusted.

comeehan

I would not advise you to get your bike from Paul. I bought a €240 bike from him and at first it worked great. Then 6 weeks later, after having only used the bike on Dublin roads, the left handlebar snapped clean off as I was cycling it, causing me to fall and fracture a bone in my forearm and almost lose two front teeth.

I can't say for sure why the handlebars snapped, but to me the only reasonable explanation is that they were too old/structurally weak. Paul's idea was that it was because they were vandalised (there was no sign of this), or because of the way I was riding the bike (whatever that means). I've been told by a bike shop that the bike is probably more than 30 years old - so age seems to be a more reasonable explanation. Given how old it was, I think the handlebars should have been replaced before it was sold to me. The frame was steel, which gives it a very long lifetime, but the handlebars were aluminium, which means they are at risk of snapping if left on the bike for too long. Evidently, 30+ years is too long.

So my advice is to stay safe and buy your bike from a shop.

And if you have 30+ year old handlebars, think about replacing them!

saccades

Holy moly - he's trying to get premium prices for everyday 20-30 year old tat.

exage groupset and he's looking for e350!

Does he go to france and buy cheap auction stuff by the van load.

I've an similarly aged Kona (a recognisable good brand) in good condition with stx/xt (middle to upper spec) groupset and it's not worth half what he's asking for a no-name bike fitted with low level shimano stuff.

happytramp

Freewheeling on Pearse St do nice secondhand stuff.... might be worth giving them a ring.

cjonesy1

Wouldn't recommend either. I bought a bike off him and had problems within 5 minutes of cycling it.

Andy Magic

I'm currently searching for a tt bike (second hand) and whenever i google search this **** looking site keeps coming up.. So I googled it and it brought me back here.. Anyway it got me thinking, where does he get the bikes from ? There's a lot of really old bikes there, is he a time traveler

alexinkildare

Try Coynes in Kinnegad. Always have decent stuff in stock and as far as i know hes clearing out the second hand stock atm

Andy Magic

alexinkildare wrote: »

Try Coynes in Kinnegad. Always have decent stuff in stock and as far as i know hes clearing out the second hand stock atm

Cheers, I'll actually be in Kinnegad Saturday

alexinkildare

Tell him Alex from Kinnegad Cycling Club sent you. What are you looking for anyway? Road, MTB or Hybrid?

Andy Magic

alexinkildare wrote: »

Tell him Alex from Kinnegad Cycling Club sent you. What are you looking for anyway? Road, MTB or Hybrid?

TT bike, however I've checked there FB and no sign of any

alexinkildare

I'd ring the shop tbh. FB might not be all that up to date.

Wishbone Ash

Andy Magic wrote: »

... Anyway it got me thinking, where does he get the bikes from ? There's a lot of really old bikes there, is he a time traveler

He goes over to France and buys them in bulk.

Dubliner111

<snip>

Wishbone Ash

Dubliner111 wrote: »

... so I was getting puncture every second week while cycling only in the city...

Leaving aside everything else, you do realise that you are much more likely to get punctures in an urban area.

Dubliner111

Leaving everything else aside, you do realize that with the cheapest tires possible, the probability of getting puncture increases wherever you cycle.

Wishbone Ash

Dubliner111 wrote: »

Leaving everything else aside, you do realize that with the cheapest tires possible, the probability of getting puncture increases wherever you cycle.

You missed my point - your use of the word 'only' suggests an implication that punctures should be rarer in the city whereas the opposite is true. If you said "while cycling only in the Wicklow mountains' it would make more sense.

(And there's no need to be smart especially on a second post).

Dubliner111

Got you. Thanks.

Beasty

I always treat someone signing up to slag someone else off by resurrecting a zombie thread with some suspicion over their motives

Dubliner111 if you wish to discuss how I would expect someone to interact here please drop me a PM

Thread closed