[No, Discourse, I don’t want to rezz 2 decade old threads, thanks]
With gas prices apparently headed north of $5 ($6 for my premium-using coupe), looks like to enjoy the spring I’ll have to spring for a bicycle if I want to do any rides on crisp spring days, as there’s a parkway half a mile from my place which winds along the Rocky River for 30+ miles, and I can ride either on the road itself or the pedestrian trail (I see people using both).
I have a fairly healthy budget so can afford something pretty state of the art in a 10-speed vein. What do I thus need to look for, avoid, prioritize?
There are so many options for bicycles these days! I think you need to narrow down your intended use and expectations WRT bicycles. Bikes can be broken down into several different categories. Road, mountain, cruiser, utility, and gravel are probably the main ones, but each one can be parsed even further. Your preferred riding surface (pavement, gravel, dirt, etc) will guide you toward one or more categories, and away from others. How fast you want to go will narrow it down even further. And how state-of-the-art you want your bike to be will bring things down to just a few bikes. As far as the ‘state-of-the-art’ question goes, you’re looking at frame material (steel, carbon, aluminum, wood), suspension (rigid, front, fully suspended), component quality, and weight. There are e-bikes in most categories, some that provide an electric assist, and some that are more like electric motorcycles. And everything, of course, has a cost.
Decide where you want to ride, what your expectations are from your bicycle, and how much you’re willing to spend. Once you have those questions answered, the field will be winnowed substantially.
Got a high-end bicycle shop in your area? There’s one near us that lets you do test rides, gives you all sorts of advice, and will service it as well. Ours is low on pressure and high on customer service to increase repeat business - I like working with them.
This. I currently have four different bikes and want to add one more. Then I should be covered for all my riding needs. Currently have:
Road bike/touring bike (has rear rack and is setup for touring)
Full sus mountain bike
Front suspension trail bike that I use for trails and gravel
e-bike
I’d like to add a true gravel bike with drop bars as my trail bike is a bit heavy and I prefer drop bars for longer rides. With all that said, I wouldn’t mind adding a dedicate road bike as well rather than using my touring bike (it is titanium so fairly light for a touring bike) for typical road rides.
I am now. I spotted Fairview Cycle (I am just N of the airport). Yours didn’t come up on a GM search because they classified it as a “thrift store” for some weird reason. [I did find it tho]
Are you only ever going to be riding on paved paths? If so, a lightweight carbon road bike will be a lot of fun, as long as you’re flexible enough to get used to the lower and more bent riding posture.
Do you ever want to go on dirt or gravel paths from time to time, but still do fine on the roads? Get a gravel bike with wide tires and it’ll be super cushy without impacting speed much.
Want a bit of an assist from time to time, for hills and such? Consider a pedal assist E-bike. But if you ever want to go on trails, check the local rules first… they’re not always allowed everywhere.
Choose a local bike shop near you and go talk to them in person and buy it from them. The relationship will be well worth it even if it costs more than online.
If price is really an issue, REI is a good compromise with their store brand “co-op cycle” bikes and friendly staff.
Oh, and get professionally sized and fit – whether for free by your local shop, or for pay for a more extensive fit program like BGFit from a Specialized (brand) shop. It can make a big difference in comfort and efficiency.
Just saw this. You can get a pure road bike. A non-electric, “acoustic” one, as the kids call them. That’s a broad category though, and breaks down into further subcategories depending on whether you want to sprint or race longer distances (like centuries) or time trials or triathlons… but don’t worry about all that. Just go talk to your local bike shop and discuss this with them. Give them a reasonable budget (I’d suggest $1k to $2k as the sweet spot for value vs performance). Prices are usually negotiable, and you should be able to find a carbon name brand bike with Shimano 105 components (it’s a tier of road bike component, mid level but excellent).
I wouldn’t spend much more than that for your first “real” bike. You can upgrade parts over time, but it’s also more fun to try different kinds of bikes (like mountain biking or gravel or touring) until you for sure find your favorite style. At that point there’ll be no end to the tens of thousands you can spend But not at first.
I was able to get a 2001 model in 2003 for a significant discount. It is a Trek 520, which was in production since the 1970s – this is a touring bike – which has wider tires and is tougher than a performance road bike, but not as much as a mountain bike. It has a longer chainstay (distance between pedals and read wheel) so your feet don’t hit panniers (saddle bags) on the rear rack. I wasn’t in the market to do long distance touring, but have done a few fully loaded (carrying tent, sleeping bag, etc) trips. It is very stable (which does make it it slightly less maneuverable.)
I have > 25,000 miles on it. It makes a good commuter/recreational bike, but is definitely build for comfort, not speed.
The main point is you may get a bargain by getting last year’s (or older) model at the bike shop.
I recently got my second bike – a Bike Friday New World Tourist. I got it from the manufacturer, but it was pre-owned. This is a folding bike, and I think is small enough to be classified as luggage on Amtrak. So I now own two steel touring oriented bikes built in the US. (later 520s were made in Taiwan, but my 2001 was built in Waterloo, WI)
Yeah, I’d second that… used bikes are terrific values, as long as they’ve been vetted by a bike shop.
They’re like cars, they lose a huge chunk of their value as soon as someone buys 'em and takes them out of the store.
If your town is a big bike town, there might be bike swap events (like mass garage sales) where you can score a great deal if you know what to look for. That might not be the best idea for a first-time biker though, unless you have a knowledgeable friend.
Also, if you find a model you like, it’s worth looking it up online, especially at other bike shops in your region or state. Not to buy it from them in lieu of your LBS (local bike shop), but knowing a typical price range for that particular model & year will help you negotiate at the LBS. Don’t lowball them too much — you want to build a relationship with them — but you don’t have to pay full sticker price either.
One random aside: Check with your renter’s or homeowner’s insurance whether bicycles are included, and if there’s a maximum dollar value. If needed, ask if you can buy a rider specifically for your bike, especially if you can attach a “replacement value” policy on it (so you get its retail price covered, not just its residual used value). This is if you do end up getting something $1-$2k plus.
I’ve had my renter’s insurance pay for two stolen bikes already (years apart). Premiums did not go up.
Two more were destroyed in a rear-end collision and paid by the other guy’s auto insurance. We got a nice upgrade that time… our old bikes were bought at a bike swap, but they were very nice high-end bikes that were not replaceable locally, especially used. After much argument and documentation, insurance ended up getting us two new $5k bikes, which I then re-insured with them.
A few grand is a lot for a bike, but not a lot in terms of homeowner policy considerations. Well worth it for the few dollars it adds to your policy.
Just a word about gears: don’t worry about them too much.
You don’t need 15, or 18 or 21 gears. That gives you unnecessary duplication, and the difference between adjacent gears is so small that it’s not noticable.
But you do want a logical sequence for shifting. You want it to be intuitive..so that you know which shift lever to move. There’s an uphill slope starting…you think "I want to make my pedalling easier…do I move the rear derailleur up one sprocket (or two) , or do I move the front sprocket down one size?
Calculate your gear ratios, and learn the shift sequences.
And further, maybe don’t buy a used bike unless you are reasonably experienced (more experienced than you let on) with bike maintenance/repair. Unless…
…the vetted part is key.
I bought a used bike. Not my first road bike, but my first carbon fiber frame. I don’t regret it, but only because (1) I got it insanely cheap and (2) I was able to fix the previous owner’s mistakes. Seriously, the thing was Frankensteined together. Everything was in good shape, but the parts did not match. 10-speed rear cassette, 10-speed chain, 10-speed hub, and 10-speed rear derailleur, but 11-speed shifters and a 2-10 front derailleur but with 2-11 crank arms. Basically, it was a mix of 10-speed and 11-speed components (and the 11-speed components were shimano ultegra), and that made it impossible to use the full range on the rear cassette.
Because I had never changed out internally guided cabling (yep, the cables for the break and derailleurs went inside the frame), I decided the thing to do was replace the rear cassette, rear derailleur, and the hub. Oh and the front derailleur. But then of course I kind of fucked up the cable on the front derailleur (it was already in pretty bad shape, and I didn’t have enough good unfrayed cabling), so I did end up having to figure out how to replace internal cabling (to include buying a special magnet kit and some plastic tubing).
Anyway… I did it (everything is now 2-11 shimano ultegra, which I guess is a level up from 105?), and I have reached new heights of bicycle maintenance and repair, but… yeah. That was a handful. Worth it because the bike itself (less several hundred dollars in new parts I had to put on) was only $500. But a handful.
All that to say, unless you’re prepared to do all that, just buy something new and name brand like @Reply suggested. Unless, maybe, someone who knows a lot about bikes has confirmed all the components are in order and good repair.
The big question as I see it is what kind of riding you’re looking to do.
A road bike is the typical really skinny tired and hunched over riding position type bike like you’d see in the TdF. They’re fast, light, and great for riding distances on roads.
But for most people who aren’t looking for that sort of riding experience, something like a cruiser or utility bike is more appropriate. Larger tires, more upright riding posture and so forth. If your plan is to tool around your neighborhood and on paved bike paths, some other sort of bike is probably best.
Every bike these days is going to be at least 7 or 8 “speed”, meaning 8 gears on the rear cassette. That’s not the total number of combinations though; my “8 speed” mountain bike actually does 24 separate combinations of gears- 3 front chainrings and 8 rear cassette gears.
On newer bikes now, it’s pretty easy to find a 1-by setup (as in it only has a rear derailleur and one set of gears, instead of the 2-3 that was common in the past). You can also get them with wireless electronic shifting now, which is much more precise and much less prone to chains falling off — but it also sucks if the shifter battery dies mid-ride and you forgot to bring a spare.
My partner (who’s newish to riding) loves the electronic 1-by shifting because it’s just so braindead simple: one button on the left handlebar to shift up, one button on the right handlebar to shift down. That’s it, no combos to remember.
As a more experienced rider, I think I still (slightly) prefer the old-fashioned manual kind. Having the wireless electronics is just one more thing that can go wrong, one more thing to forget. They’re actually great when they’re working, but not SO much better as to be worth having another point of failure, IMO.
I guess eventually enough testing and evidence built up where the increased stability (more shock absorption) meant more contact time with the road surface (as opposed to dead air time), which equated to more speed, offsetting the minimally higher rolling resistance of the wider tire… or something like that. And given that they’re much more comfortable, the industry has largely moved towards that direction.
In fact that’s one of the reasons to get a newer road bike; the older ones will typically have smaller tire clearances and can’t fit the wider tires now in vogue.
My Wife and I, recently retired, bought e-bikes. Gazel is the brand.
My wifes is more standard with derailers and such. Mine, a 5 speed has internal gears in the back hub. You shift gears by twisting the right hand grip 1-5, it just clicks through it. You can even do it while your stopped.
They are electric assist. You have to be pedeling to get help form the motor, but the motor does most of the work. And has 4? levels of assistance, you change that on the left handgrip. I think its -
econ (most range, 80 miles)
tour
sport
turbo
It’s easy to change in and out of different gears and motor modes. It’s pretty flat around here, but I can’t imagine any hill would make me break a sweat. Still you do get some exersise, the motor doesn’t do all the work.
We have class one bikes, it will not assist over 20mph (I think that’s the cut off)
But not at first.