[brewinphan]

anyone have any opinions on REI's line of Novara bikes? I'm looking for an entry level road bike and have a friend who works there. Already tried the LBS and their cheapest models started at $800-$900 and I'd like to stay under that. If not novara, anyone have any experiences off of ebay? thanks a lot.

 

[Cory]

Seem fine for the money; see a lot of them around here

I haven't looked at them closely in a few years, but they seem decent and there are an awful lot of them running around in California and Nevada. REI is good about warranties and returns and stuff like that. I'm not sure how much difference there is among bikes in a given price range anyway--the profit margin is pretty small, and they all use about the same components. Nobody can afford to put Ultegra parts on a bike in the Sora price range or whatever.
Can your buddy buy the bike and pass along his discount? Some retailers won't allow it, but others don't have a problem with it. That could save you a few bucks.

 

[BelaySlave]

I'm a parttimer for an REI.

REI is good about warranties and returns and stuff like that.

Yup...you can have the Novara for 10 years and then bring it back for whatever reason.

Can your buddy buy the bike and pass along his discount? Some retailers won't allow it, but others don't have a problem with it. That could save you a few bucks.

Officially the answer is "no". I'll leave it at that. BTW...the Novara employee discount is 40% off of retail.

I have owned a couple of Novara bikes and still have a Ponderosa MTB that I converted over into a singlespeed. Prior to that it has held up well.

Novara's definately don't have that Cervelo or Trek Madone cache, but they are good valued bikes.