Beginner bike recs

[fernweh]

I’m looking to get a road bike. I don’t plan to do anything competitive, it will just be for exercise.
I don’t have a specific budget it mind but as I’m not an avid rider I don’t want to go too expensive.
Any thoughts?

[sadlebred]

What's your budget? What type of riding will you do-actual roads with cars, paved paths/rail trails, gravel paths? I'll go from there.

[fernweh]

Aug 2, 2020 15:12:11 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

What's your budget? What type of riding will you do-actual roads with cars, paved paths/rail trails, gravel paths? I'll go from there.

It’ll be some roads but mostly paved paths. I’m not sure on budget... I don’t know what is a reasonable price for a decent bike. I was thinking $200-300 but is that too low to get a decent bike? It doesn’t have to be too if the line but I want it to last.

[sadlebred]

I will be very honest. You won't get a bike at your local bike shop for $200-300. Very basic road bikes are going to start in the $700-800 range. Hybrids will start around $450-500. Prices on bikes have gone up about 20% in the last year or two, which a lot of it has to do with new tariffs on foreign produced goods. Is that price range something you could do? For that price you get a bike with a good warranty, assembled by a professional mechanic (not the teenager at Wallymart that puts parts on backwards), and you often get free adjustments for a period of time. Sometimes it's a year; sometimes for the life of the bike. (Adjustment=tweaking the shifting, adjusting the brakes, minor things. Not replacing worn out parts or broken things).

If not, I recommend you look for a local bike shop in your area that sells used bikes or bikes on consignment. Your city may also have some kind of a "bicycle coop" that sells used bikes. My local coop called "SOPO" sells older bikes (usually 10-15+ years) for about $200-300, and the money goes back into the coop.

FWIW, I never recommend a first time bike purchaser buy online or used. It's easy to get a bike that doesn't fit. A bike that doesn't fit can cause problems like tendonitis in the knee, back problems, neck problems, etc. At the very least it's wasted money while the bike sits in the garage/shed not ridden.

[wanderingback]

I got a very basic road bike a few years ago to start doing triathlons. Unfortunately it was stolen last year. I’m actually going to head to the bike shop this week to likely pick up a very similar bike. Since I won’t be doing triathlons anytime soon it’ll be used for basic exercise (I actually don’t really enjoy riding that much :/) and for transportation as I don’t have a car.

My bike was a trek. The basic bike I got I think started around $700-$800, so I plan to spend that again. They made sure I was fitted properly and I road it around for a few minutes on the streets before I purchased it. I was happy with it. At the bike shop they would tune it up as needed, so that was nice. Don’t forget to budget for a helmet as well. I think my helmet was $80, so gotta get another one of those as well.

[fernweh]

Thanks. I knew $300 was probably low I just wasn’t sure where to start and as someone who hasn’t had a bike since I was a kid I had no idea you had to be fitted for one. I will find a local bike shop and start there. I appreciate your thoughts!

[sadlebred]

fernweh Once you talk to a local bike shop or two, LMK if you have any other questions! Also, if you walk into a shop and they talk down to you because you are female, that is NOT the right shop! There are lots out there that want your business!

[k3am]

You picked a really, really terrible time to get into biking. At least around here, people being stuck at home has really increased the demand on bikes, so your choices will be more limited.

My goal was basically to have a bike to ride around with the kids through the neighborhood and on paved trails knowing that I'm not a mountain biker and didn't want to do long distances, so ended up getting a comfort/cruiser bike and I'm pretty happy with it.

I've now bought 3 bikes during our shelter in place (DD, me, and DH) all from the same local bike shop, and the process has been more and more annoying as time goes by. With DD, easy peasy. By the time I got mine, very limited supply/choices and long lead time. For DH's we tried 3 local bike shops, and ended up having to stalk a FB page for the shop to see what they'd be getting in each week and rushing down to the store to place an advance order.