I'm down $225 after last week. My boss decided he didn't like his road bike and wanted to unload it. He put it on craigslist, asking $270. I have been riding a Fuji Finest from the dark ages, 1998, that I swear was formed out of plumbing pipe. The venerable old bike weighed in at almost 24 pounds, about 1 pound less than my ancient Klein mountain bike. Since it seemed like a good price, I expressed some interest. He brought it to the office and I took it home for the weekend. His parting words were, "I was thinking I would go as low as $225."
Once I got home, I tried riding it. Wouldn't shift to the large chain ring, Rear derailleur pretty screwed up, but overall in pretty good shape. I spent a couple hours cleaning and tuning, then took it out for a 20 mile ride one morning. It's now a reasonable road bike, although not new by any means.
To give you an idea of its age, it has a square taper bottom bracket. Makes it at least 10 years old, but still newer than my Fuji. It is an aluminum frame and the total weight is probably 21 pounds. I could have spent more for a lighter bike, or I could eat less and cut more weight than the 21 it weighs.
Road riding is really just a good way to improve mountain biking.
