Hi to everyone, great forum you have here!

I'm new to cycling, and I'm looking for an inexpensive, versatile bike. I'm looking for a hybrid or light moutain bike, and I was thinking about the Smith and Wesson Perimeter: http://www.gartsports.com/product/in...ductId=1399726

The price and features seem to be right, but what's the word on the street, so to speak? I'm looking for a starter bike, under $500, that can do off-road and dirt roads, but is still light and works find for getting around town and running errands.

Thanks!

There will be nothing light about that tank. Gart sports is nothing more than a step up from Mart type bikes. Suggest you take your $500 and shop LBS for deals on closeouts and clearances. Decide on primary use. If mtb is secondary,you can do without a cheap heavy front shock an go with a better overall bike.

Unless you want to conduct ram raids with it i'd give that a miss

MTB manufacturers dropped steel tubing (for budget bikes) long ago and i bet that bike would weigh a ton.

For $500 US look at your local bike store for something by Giant, Norco or Merida or shop for second hand bikes that were retailing for $700 a year ago

you will get something lighter, stronger and prettier

__________________
Don Stevenson

Strength and Conditioning Coach

Octogen Fitness

www.octogen.com.au

fitness@octogen.com.au

go for a base-level trek or specialized or something like that. stick with serious bicycle manufacturers and avoid that kind of walmart bike. they're garbage and they break

That's alot of hooey.

Perhaps i should have said that any decent manufacturer ie trek, giant, merida, specialised would have dropped steel tubes a long time ago for budget bikes

i know crap department store bikes are still made of the stuff and you can still get custom MTBs made out of super thin steel

but realistically Aluminium frames have taken over for budget bikes

__________________
Don Stevenson

Strength and Conditioning Coach

Octogen Fitness

www.octogen.com.au

fitness@octogen.com.au

Thanks for all the replies! I was looking at that bike to start with because I assumed cops would use bikes that don't easily break, but good points about the frame material. (I got a reply from Gart and they said the weight is 46 pounds!)

Boudreaux mentioned shopping LBS, what's that?

As for primary use, I'm looking for a bike that can go offroad and on lighter bike trails, but I don't plain to do any hardcore mountain biking just yet. How would a hybrid with front suspension do in conditions like that?

I'd like to buy the bike as soon as possible, so I don't have a lot of time to watch classifieds and ebay, unfortunately. Are there any good closeout cycling stores on the net? I don't care about getting a model that's a few years outdated.

LBS is Local Bike Shop. A hybrid may be the ticket. Possibly even without the shock.You don't get much of a shock at the bottom end and it just adds weight.

There's one bike shop where I live (a smallish town), and they only deal with new bikes, unfortunately. I've been trying to find something online, because if I'd like to avoid shelling out MSRP for one of the 04's the local shop carries.

A real police will set you back a little more than $500-- but lots of good bike companies (like Trek and Fuji) make a higher end hybrid bike marketed for police and guard work. If you can afford one, it's not a bad bike to own.

http://www.trekbikes.com/bikes/2004/police/police.jsp

http://www.fujibikes.com/police/default.asp?yr=2004


These are *real* police bikes cops ride--- the one you're looking at is a really a turd

Hybrids are useless off road

get a mountain bike, for $500 you should be able to get something fairly capable

__________________
Don Stevenson

Strength and Conditioning Coach

Octogen Fitness

www.octogen.com.au

fitness@octogen.com.au

Thansk for those links Tacomee! I like the cheaper Fuji one, it seems to be what I want, and at a good price. If someone could check out the photo here, I have a question: http://botachtactical.com/fujpolpat.html It looks like the gear rack is held horizontal by a thin cable, what's the logic behind that? It seems like if I had stuff on it and was going downhill, it would come and crash into me.

They're not thin cables. You're seeing a profile of thin, wide steel strips that attach the rack to the seatstay. This is pretty standard. Don't worry -- they're quite sturdy.

Regarding your bike purchase, I highly recommend visiting your local bike shop. You should be able to get a nice mountain bike for $500, Giant, Trek, Specialized, etc.. They will be able to help you determine what size you need, make sure everything is adjusted, and so forth. Most bike shops will also include a free tune up after 3 months or so, and you'll have somewhere to go if you have problems.

--Josh

If you don't know what you are doing and that includes alot of things, online buying could cost you even more.

That is alot of hooey.Try reading the intended use AGAIN.