However, I’m now 28, and I haven’t ridden one in 15 years. Nonetheless, today I bought a cheap (ie., $100) steel-framed 26" mountain bike from Target (had a gift card, felt like I should get something exercise-y). I would have gotten a hybrid, since I’ll hardly ever use it off-road, but they’re a lot more expensive and I figured if I actually use it on a regular basis I’ll get a nicer one. The only other notable things about the bike are that it has front-only suspension and grip shifters.
I rode about a mile today, and my balls feel like they’ve been worked over by the cast of Riverdance. So, I need a new seat.
The handlebar grips are chunky and almost have “tread” like a tire. So my hands hurt.
I’m 6’, and having trouble raising the seat enough to get my legs nearly straight when extended. That is, the seat is fine, but the handlebars only have about 4" of travel up and down, so they won’t go high enough.
Last problem: it’s my understanding that the front of the brake pads should touch the rim slightly before the back, because they’ll move forward with the direction of travel. This bike came pre-assembled, and on the front left the pad is slanted the opposite way. How do I fix it? They’re “V” style brakes?
So - is a replacement seat worth it? Replacement hand grips (or do I need gloves)? What do I do about the seat/bars? Is the brake pad just misaligned because the bike is shitty?
Any other general tips are welcome. I haven’t bought a helmet yet, so especially those.
Honestly, any $100 bike from Target is a piece of crap. There’s little you can do to make it ride well without spending more than the bike is worth. IMO, return the bike and go to a real live bike store and get a $3-400 bike and have them fit it to you.
If you must stick with the bike you have, a new seat would be a good investment, and you’ll want gloves no matter what, and a helmet. But those will easily cost more than the current bike.
I agree with everything **Telemark **says (except for the part about needing gloves…I’ve never worn them for biking, but I’m not going to tell you you shoudn’t buy some…) Go to a bike shop. Tell them what kind of riding you want to do, what kind of riding you will most likely actually be doing, and what your budget is, and they will sell you a bike that fits your needs. And just as importantly, they will sell you a bike that will fit your physique…there are almost as many sizes of bicycles as there are shoes, and a bike that’s too small is just as bad for you as a too small pair of shoes.
This might be reversed. Getting a nicer one will make it more likely you will use it on a regular basis.
It took me a while to get from the bike I rode 250 miles a year to the bike I ride 7000 miles a year, but I think the interval would have been shorter had I upgraded my bike sooner.
Regardless, your butt’s going to be sore no matter the bike you start out with. Mine would be noticeable after 13 miles at first. But that will go away with time. You just need to keep swinging a leg over and riding. Which will be easier with a better bike. Once I got a better bike, the butt soreness wouldn’t show up until about mile 80 or so.
I also really wish I started when I was your age. I didn’t get serious until I was 50. All that lost time!
I agree that a supermarket bike is unlikely to be much good, but I’d still say it’s better than nothing, at least to see how you get on with cycling. However, bear in mind that cycling will be a hugely more enjoyable process if you have a better (lighter, smoother-running) machine.
To answer your queries:
Saddle - you might need a new one, but you might simply need to adjust the angle. The fore/aft tilt of the seat makes a HUGE difference in the comfort - even a degree or so of tilt can be the difference between comfort and agony. You say it was making your balls hurt, which to me suggests that the front of the seat is too high. Try tilting it downwards a bit and see how you get on with it.
(To adjust the seat, there should be a hex bolt on the underside, which secures the saddle to a curved part on the top of the seatpost. Loosen this slightly (no need to remove it all the way) and you can then slide the seat forward and backwards over the curved part to adjust the angle. You can also move the saddle linearly forwards and backwards - the rails will slide through the clamp giving you a few inches of adjustment. Then tighten and try it out. Repeat as necessary.)
Gloves: I almost always wear gloves for cycling - it’s much more comfortable. A proper pair of bike gloves (fingerless for summer is best) will have padding on the palms to absorb vibration, and rubber patches for a better grip. They’ll help prevent calluses, and this is especially important if you have gripshift gears, as you will be constantly twisting the grips to change gear. They’ll also protect your hands from road rash if you do come off. They needn’t cost much - maybe $25 should get a decent enough pair.
Edit: oh, and re the brakes. The “toe-in” should be easy enough to adjust - on most brakes you loosen a bolt and adjust a curved washer. Cheap brakes may have less adjustment options though. A good place to look for any maintenance issues is the late Sheldon Brown’s extensive site. Look at the pics and see which brakes match yours.
A bike can be a very personal thing, more than a car.
You are going through all the things I usually go through when I start with a new/different bike. Getting all the positions correct is the first thing. You might have to adjust the seat and handlebars 15 times to feel right. In my case, the standard seat is OK so uncomfortable as you noticed. I use a bigger seat with a gel pad on top. I could ride all day with this seat. If the handlebars won’t adjust high enough, you may have to find something with a longer stem. I’m willing to cheat slightly on the adjustment and go above the recommended safe adjustment. I recommend against this for all others.
In the end, you may have selected a frame that does not work for your size. In most cases there is a way to tweak it sometimes involving new parts. When you get it right, stay with it.
PS. I ride about 4,000 miles a year including winter. Biking is healthy and anti-injury. You can run errands and save money on the car or truck.
I’ll assume you meant seatpost instead of handlebar here. It doesn’t matter if you spent $100 or $2000, if the frame isn’t big enough then this is the wrong bike for you. Go to a real bike shop, talk to the people, and make sure to test ride before you buy. Different manufacturers state their sizes differently but at 6’ you’ll need a large or extra-large. Many times shops don’t stock the extreme ends of the size ranges. Don’t let them try to sell you something that’s too small just because it’s in stock. If a shop won’t order in the size you need for a test ride then find a different shop. Prepare for some frustration when bike shopping. I’m 6’5" and have only once found a shop that had a bike that I was interested in both in stock and in my size.
I thought I knew about bikes until I got one from a good bike store and had it fitted and customized to me. It is perfect (for me only) no one else has ever liked it but I can go 100 miles in a day and be ready for another one the next day. It cost $1700, money well spent.
I’m just popping in to say what everyone else says: go to a bike shop and find a nice used bike that fits you. You can screw around with the department store bike forever to get the result that one trip to a good bike shop will give you.
The bits you’ve said about not being able to move the handlebars/seat to the right height demonstrate that you bought a bike that didn’t fit you. If it was a proper fit, you wouldn’t have these troubles.
I’m not buying another bike. I’ve already paid for this shitty one, and it’s an experiment. I’ll try it for a few months and go buy a better one if it works out.
In the meantime, I just want to be able to ride it without my palms and nuts being rubbed raw.
Otherwise, thanks for the advice so far, everyone!
My thoughts:
First, don’t get too worked up about equipment. There’s at least as much opportunity to be a gearhead in cycling as anything else, but in the end, getting out and enjoying it is the goal, not having the most blingiest glossy-magazine worthy gear. A wal-mart bike is definitely cheap in the bad sense of the word, and crappy enough that it’s really not a good deal in the end, but it doesn’t mean you have to immediately burn it and disinfect anything it came in contact with. It’s still going to let you ride, get exercise, fresh air, even take you to the store and work if it’s not too far (and what’s ‘too far’ really depends on you). I think your attitude of ‘spend money on things I can still use after a bike upgrade’ is a good one; also keep in mind the difference between racing gear and gear that makes sense for a recreational rider or even commuter.
Saddle: one thought is examining your clothes, too. I find that cycling in loose shorts and boxer underwear can lead to, um, sensitive body parts being in places where they can get squeezed. For anything more than a quick trip to the store/bar, I’ll put on some briefs; you might want bike shorts for the padding, too, as well as keeping things safely in place.
I only wear gloves when it’s cold. But I do have the slip-on foam tubes to pad my handlebars.
One thing not mentioned yet is pedals. It takes a tiny bit of practice to get used to them, but toeclips really do make a difference. It’s very hard to get a good comfortable rhythm when your feet are slipping off the pedals.
In line with that, the best advice for beginning riders is: pedal faster in an easier gear. Even when you think you’ve already gone to an easier gear, you should probably keep going. The problem is that our instincts are to pedal slowly, like we’re walking, or pedal with a lot of force, like we’re sprinting up a hill. But cycling isn’t like either of those, and the most efficient way is to press lightly on the pedal, moving at like 90 revolutions per minute. It takes concentration at first to overcome our instincts, but it’s worth it.
You might just not be used to the riding position. Even on a mountain bike, the saddle will usually be slightly above the handlebars, which will feel odd at first if you’re used to an old-fashioned “sit up and beg” style bike.
I’m 5’10" and my MTB is a “medium”. I have quite long legs so I had to buy a longer seatpost to get the saddle high enough, but I didn’t raise the handlebars at all.
The temperature has been in the high 80s here recently and I’ve still been wearing full-fingered gloves. Honestly, it does make things much more comfy even when the weather is hot. Go for fingerless ones if it’s really hot. Cycling gloves usually have well-ventilated mesh backs so they’re not as hot as you’d expect.
Hey, maybe there is a reason just about everyone is saying to go to a real bike shop. Maybe you should listen to that.
Getting the wrong frame size (which you clearly did) is bad.
(bolding mine)
I get the idea that you don’t want to shell out $$$ when you’re not sure if you’ll continue using it a lot. The problem is that if you get a cheap bike that’s not the right size for you, 1 - you may injure yourself and 2 - the riding experience may be crappy enough that you won’t want to use it a lot, even though a better bike would give you a much better riding experience.
And basically, you’re saying, “I bought a $100 bike and I’m totally fine with spending $400 on aftermarket parts and labor on it, but there is no way in hell I’m spending $300-400 on a different bike with better parts on it”. It makes NO sense.
On my MTB, I use full fingered gloves no matter what the temp is. It keeps them from getting skinned when I fall. If you ride off-road, you’re going to fall. I’ve only gone over the bars once this season, I’m sure another one is right around the corner.
On my road bike, I wasn’t using any gloves at all, but on longer rides my hands started to go numb, so I bought some half-fingered gloves with a mesh back.
ETA: You might spend more on a new saddle than you did on the entire bike. I, like everyone else, recommend a local bike shop and a different bike.
