Bike buying advice · Public discussion

Is this fine for a starting biker?

Started by TheGiraffe · · Last activity · 4 posts · 1,070 views

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Bike buying advice
Published
25 June 2013
Last activity
28 June 2013
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TheGiraffe
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  1. First let me provide you with some background about myself.

    I'm not proud to say this and can't really find a better title but, I'm a gamer and as you can guess I'm lazy in out of shape.

    Lately though, I've started to become bored with video games, and idle activities. I find myself wanting doing something else to keep myself busy. I had this old old bike from Wal-Mart, in my back porch for a couple of years but really only used it a few times. It rode fine but the gears and chain were rusted, I used some WD40 to at least make it function, and it's heavy (low quality steel). After awhile I find myself having fun riding it, but I can't help be feel how well bad the shape the bike is in, then lastly the smaller cassette gear and spacers cracked, making the bike unusable.

    So I decided to get a new bike instead of having it repaired, did some research about bike sizing as the one I had was a little too big for myself.

    Now I'm 5'7" with 30" inseam, and I used a bike frame calculator that suggested to get a 52cm frame size with 170mm crank size. I weigh 170~175lbs.

    So I bought this bike at bikes-direct after doing some searching around and research.

    bikesdirect.commirage sl.htm

    I'm a little worried if this was too much bike for a novice
    I plan to ride this for fun and exercise, not for sport and competition.
    I live in a area with okay roads and a good amount of hills, few level roads.
    Also is wearing cycling clothes/shoes necessary? I live in a somewhat rough part of my city and I really don't want to stick out like a sore thumb.

  2. That looks like a great bike to start out with. Not to pricey and good enough to actually enjoy riding, I hope you realise cycling is highly addictive - more so than gaming. [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/ROTF.gif[/IMG] If you're concerned about hills, the best thing you can do is make sure you get low gearing fitted, say a 39x25 or 39x27 should allow you to pedal smoothly up most hills

  3. So the bike came today and I was pretty excited when I unpacked it from the box and put it together. I was able to install the front brakes, steam, seat post,saddle, handle bars, and front wheel. Sadly the front and rear gearing systems aren’t working properly. The rear gearing system won’t go to the largest gear, and it skips when moving to other gears. It’s also hard for it to move the shift handle. The front rail system doesn’t move, it stays on the lower first front gear. The cable to the front rail wasn’t anchored on tight and was loose. I tightened it but it still doesn’t move or anything. So yeah..went from pretty excited to very disappointed that I can’t try my new bike. I plan to call a few local bike shops, is this something that should be fixed easily and somewhat cheaply?

  4. Hard to say without seeing the shift systems operate, but sounds like cable and/or limit stop adjustments. Both are simple and relatively inexpensive shop services - maybe $10 -$20. If more adjustments to "tune up" your self-assembly are required, you're probably talking about $50+. Not a bad deal either way to get you on the road quickly. At some point you will most likely have to make adjustments for "cable stretch" and general break-in - might as well start off right and maybe the shop will include the follow up adjustments free.

    Tight moving shift lever can result from the spring in the derailleur being new and strong and/or cable/housing issues. Depends on how "hard" it is to move.

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