Lol!! I was going to be nice and not saying anything, as an overweight artist myself, STARVED for attention…
And are there really 79$ bikes? My Canadian tire and sports check bikes growing up never came in as less than 210 after tax…
This is a very very solid idea.
A good bike makes a huge difference. My wife started riding bikes a year or two ago with a group of friends. They are all younger and fitter than she is. She had terrible trouble keeping up with them on her old crummy bike and was sore for days…then she borrowed my bike. I have a moderately-priced bike, around $500 maybe 10 years ago. She says it makes an enormous difference – she routinely outperforms younger males using this only-modestly-better hybrid. She’s still raving about it after over a year – just last weekend they went out again, and she came back singing the bike’s praises.
It may no longer be my bike, if you know what I mean. 
Hi SA, I will toss in some of my advice and avoid the hijack about expensive bikes.
I will start off by saying that for the most part, the quality of a bike and the price have a very strong linear correlation. A Wal-Mart bike will of course get you around, but it probably won’t get you around well, last very long, and, most importantly, be comfortable. If you want to actually ENJOY riding your bike, you will need to spend some money. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount, but the amount you invest at your local bike shop will be worth it in terms of time you spend enjoying yourself on a well-fit comfortable bike.
Pick a good bike shop (from yelp perhaps) and stick with them. They will fit you for a bike and should offer a free tune-up after a month or so and then one or two tune-ups that you can cash in at your leisure within the next year. After your initial fit, the bike will probably need a small tune up a month in after all of the relevant parts have been put under tension. After that, however, you will probably not need to visit the shop hardly at all. I would buy a couple extra tubes and learn how to replace your tires at home. You shouldn’t have many problems, though. I wouldn’t worry about the distance to the shop, because most of the minor maintenance can be performed at home.
Now then. If you are planning to ride for any significant distance or over any hills, you will want gears and lots of them. From your description, it seems like you don’t want to ride off-road, so a mountain bike with its wide, knobby tires would be an awful decision. I would recommend a starter hybrid with narrower, smooth tires appropriate for surface roads and maintained gravel roads. A good starter bike (the one I bought when I took up the hobby a year ago) is here: Specialized Vienna Globe 1. This bike is good for beginners who plan to ride on surface roads. Your local bike shop would be happy, I am sure, to attach any fenders/accessories that you think are necessary. Whatever you do don’t get a fixed gear or a cruiser. I am guessing you’ll give up the hobby pretty quickly due to knee complains and/or lack of comfort. Your local bike shop can set you up with a simple, starter hybrid that will be fun to ride.
About traffic and theft… you will certainly have to worry about theft. A U-Lock will be your best friend. Some of them, like OnGuard, provide a guarantee that they will reimburse you for the cost of replacing your bike if the lock is ever cut. A chain will prevent crimes of opportunity, but a U-Lock will prevent just about all but the most dedicated thieves from stealing your ride. I have no clue where you live but in urban areas, it is not uncommon to use a small cable that locks into the U-Lock to prevent someone taking off the quick-release wheels if you have them.
Biking in traffic can be stressful but is ultimately not that big of a deal. You’ll find yourself planning routes to follow bike lanes and less-trafficked roads. If you absolutely MUST ride in traffic, the key is to be aware and visible. I have biked throughout Los Angeles in bike paths and on some main roads without problems. Know that if you give a car a chane to share your lane and pass you VERY closely, frequently they will. If you don’t think you and a car can safely share a lane, take up the whole lane and force them to go around you. You’re a vehicle and have just as much right to be on the roads and be SAFE on the roads. To avoid unnecessarily aggravating people, stick to non-busy roads and bike lanes; for the most part, however, you won’t have to worry.
I will just say that I have no clue what your purpose is in purchasing a bike, but I think you’re making a great choice. Since I started riding to work and casually on weekends, I have dropped over 50 lbs in a year and now weigh less than I did at any point in high school. The best part was that none of it really felt like work or unpleasantness. I have a fun, comfortable bike that I like to ride whenever I can. If you use your local bike store to find a bike that is fun and comfortable for you, you will use it a lot. A well-fit bike is ergonomically anti-injury and will be fun for you.
Good luck!
I recently bought a Specialized Crosstrail and love it. A joy to ride and I have been riding it as much as I anticipated.
My previous bike, a Schwinn bought new in the 90s, was a pain. They put a pretty decent lugged frame on it, decent brakes and gears but cheaped out on the rims/spokes. Every three to four rides the wheels would get a little wobble that would steadily get worse. Had the rims straightened by two different bike shops but I think it was just crappy rims. Very frustrating.
get a wide springy seat with a wiener groove in it, let your buttocks hold you up.
I have to agree with this one. I weigh around 280 and have a bike I bought at Target for $99 5 years ago. According to the bike computer I have on it I’ve put over 1,000 miles of street and trail riding on the thing. About all I do for it is put air in the tires. Works just fine for me.
I wasn’t worried so much about the frame as I was about the pedals snapping when I put all my weight on them. And that was in reference to get up hills with a single-speed, which I’ve since learned would be a bad idea.
Thanks very much, everyone, for all the good information in this thread. I’ve pretty much done a 180 in my thinking about this and will most likely go for a utility bike with lots of gearing.
P.S. - I’m still a little confused about the seat. Wouldn’t a wider, spring-loaded seat distribute the weight more comfortably than a narrow seat? And with regard to the “sit bones” should they rest on the seat, or straddle it?
And “weiner groove”? How’m I going to keep my mind on the road with a seat configured like that?
Oh, one other thing, Schoaff, if you don’t mind. What style bike did you buy? It’s not so much that I want a Walmart (or Target) bike as it is that they’re both close by and I won’t have to drive all over town to find one. Plus, if anything goes wrong with it the first 90 days, I can take it back and exchange it or get a refund, with a new 90 day return policy on the replacement too. Sometimes I wonder how those stores stay in business.
For the record, one if the real huge issues with Wal-Mart bikes is that they are built by Wal-Mart employees. That might sound snobbish but it is a simple fact. The bike store will have an employee who will have a much better idea of what they are doing
(note: some Wal-Mart bikes get shipped fully assembled - this is even worse as nobody even looks at the thing once its out of the Chinese superfactory.)
It might seem a little counter-intuitive, but really a smaller seat is the way to go. Wide seats actually can put pressure in really odd ways, crease you (don’t ask!), and while they are initially more comfortable (the thin saddle will make your ass hurt the first couple of times) they actually grow more uncomfortable over the long run, and they screw with your agility on faster bikes.
Honestly you don’t even notice them. Doesn’t matter since they are pretty much based on a bullshit issue to begin with.
Cool. Thanks for the explanation, but (and I’m not trying to argue but just to understand) wouldn’t the primary problem with a Walmart/Target bike likely be that they just aren’t tightened up properly? Couldn’t that be fixed by tightening everything up once I get it home? I suppose there could be some problem with the gearing that I wouldn’t catch right away, but couldn’t I adjust that after the fact?
goes typing off to find out what the hell weiner grooves are
Thanks for the explanation on the seat, too.
Sorry for the fragmented posting, everyone. I’ve got several things going on at once right now.
Weiner grooves-A groove through the middle of the seat to lessen pressure on the perineum.
A properly fitted seat should not result in much pressure anyway .
Just tightening up everything won’t help with shoddy welds, poor design and fit, substandard materials and performance.
Tightening can do a little, but its not just that. Among the reports I have heard of Wal-Mart constructed bikes are: parts forced into place (tires,brake pads and seats are big one for this), parts installed out of balance (wheels, brake cables, brake pads, gear cassettes), parts grossly over-tightened (pedals, handlebars, quick release locks on wheels), parts just sloppily put together (brakes!). Another fun one is failure to remove the infamous Chinese packing grease, or in one case the assembler wiped it off on the seat, in another case they used the chain (let’s just say that is not the grease you want to use). And yes there are plenty of cases where they undertighten as well - the wheels being their biggest offender). With all the work (and skillset) needed to make certain a Wal-Mart bike is decent you might as well have bought a disassembled bike and put it together yourself.
Okay, you guys have convinced me. No Walmart bikes. Guess I’ll just take a Saturday and go roaming the bike stores.
You don’t have to pay much more than a Walmart bike, but it will be money well spent. There’s a good ROI for the first $200-300 you spend.
Thanks. I understand that now. It’s just that the nearest bike shops (or at least the ones I’ve heard good recommendations of) are 40 to 45 miles away in one direction, and the distance between the ones to the north and the ones to the south is about another 30 miles or so (I’m way out west and about midpoint between the two).
No biggie though. I just didn’t realize going into this that there would be so many things to consider and I thought that bikes from the nearby Walmart would probably do the trick. Mainly I was just wondering what style of bike to buy rather than where to buy one. I know quite a bit more now thanks to you guys.
Sorry, I forgot to answer this.
Obviously I found a more effective source of income.
It says Schwinn Ranger on it. It’s a 15 speed bike with a suspension on the front fork. It came with round mountain bikeish tires but I swapped them out for road tires. I tried a few wider seats myself at first, but they were really uncomfortable and I ended up using the stock seat that came with it.
I bought it figuring I’d use it to get back into biking and then get a more expensive bike, but it works great so I never replaced it. My wife and kids have Trek bikes but I’ve found its easier to add stuff to my bike (like a bag on the back for carrying stuff ). Mine has more holes for bolting stuff on.
As far as style of bike, for what you’re wanting, I’d recommend some sort of cruiser or hybrid. You want reasonably large, smoothish tires and a comfortable (probably fairly upright) posture. The most important thing is that it’s comfortable and will work for you.
The seat choice depends on what bike you’re riding, how often you ride, and for how long at a time. It’s true that hard seats are better for many people. They kill your butt at first, but they’re really much more comfortable for long rides once you get used to them.
OTOH, for occasional short pedals about town on a cruiser, which has a different posture, you may be happier with one of the big soft seats, as long as you don’t go so large that it interferes with proper pedalling. Another option is to get a hard saddle and a gelpad cover for it. I’ve stuck a couple of links discussing seat fit down below.
And you can always change/upgrade your seat if your riding habits change. That’s another good thing about bike shops - they tend to let you try things out and trade them out until you find what works for you.
Another critical point, especially for your knees, is seat height. Having your seat at the wrong height can absolutely wreck your knees. And learn to spin your pedals at high revolutions rather than high torque, it’s much easier on your knees. (That last is hard to learn, it’s the opposite of what comes naturally if you grew up riding bikes before 10 speeds came around.)
The bike shops should let you test ride. Don’t just ride them around the parking lot, take them out for a good spin. There are things that you don’t notice at first, but after 10 minutes are unbearable.
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bicycleseats.html
http://www.epicidiot.com/sports/bicycle_saddles.htm