Do you really need to go big bucks on a new bike ?

[jhuskey]

Originally Posted by new_rider

My first (adult) bike was a sub $200 10 speed clunker that was poorly assembled and quite noisy. I rode it several miles a day, pretty much every day for about a year and nothing on the bike came even remotely close to "wearing out." The braking was absolute **** in the wet, and the shifting was very noisy, but everything worked properly.

It was stolen, and I was very, very grateful to have recovered it. I bought another bike shortly afterwards, and it didn't see as much use, but your 3 month timeline is quite ridiculous.

I hate a thief especially one with crappy taste. Anyone with any experience knows fit is the most important issue when buying a bike and cookie cutter department style toys are not fitted. I had such a bike a one time and rode it about 170 mile a week for one summer. By the end of summer the bottom bracket was shot and the rear cassette had a half inch wobble in it, the cheap wheels could not be trued and wobbled all over the place. Yep, about three months.If you want to ride around the block a few times a week a cheapy is just fine but if you want to do serious mile you need a fitted, quality bike. I doubt that you will convince many on this forum otherwise.

 

[danfoz]

Even for a hobby bike I'd avoid going to a department store, but I do believe a completely adequate bike for your needs could be had for $500-700 from a bike shop, one that could even be called upon to do some entry level racing with a few cheap mods (tires, etc.), if you ever caught the bug, and quite a nice used bike could be had for the same price assuming one knows what to look for. But a very heavy caveat emptor should apply on the used bike market, it is not the appropriate venue for the uninitiated. If you do go that route make sure to bring one of your cycling buds along.

Don't forget to set aside $2 for some Bic razors

 

[Froze]

Any hobby will have you by the balls when it comes to buying **** for it because the manufactures of hobby products know that a hobby is disposable income and they will make sure you dispose it quickly! Consider an expensive professional racing Pinarello Dogma2 bike cost $15,000, now consider you can buy a brand new racing KTM 1190 Rc8 motorcycle for that same price...which of those two vehicles has the greatest degree of technology? I can go on and on with these sort of comparisons.

I answered before that you can indeed ride a vintage bike with no problems assuming the bike was taken care of during the years. I kind of frown on buying department store bikes like from Walmart because they can be problematic and the bike assemblers there are actually monkeys who had their thumbs chopped off and been smoking weed for the last 10 years. If this is a new sport/hobby for you I would go the vintage route and spend no more than $400, if at the end of two full years you're still riding and you love it then consider a more expensive bike. But I would only get a really nice mid level priced bike and not anything more expensive because a mid level bike is about 98% of what a high level bike is! If you spend a lot now that bike could become garage art if you fail to ride it after awhile, so you don't want expensive garage art.

Another option is if you want a new bike but don't want to spend a lot consider Bikes Direct, they have a sale going on all the time, currently their best deal is this: http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/gravity/liberty_cxd.htm They ship for free with the bike supposedly preadjusted before sending it and all you do is attach the pedals, wheels, handlebars/stem, and seat/post. The assembly is easy with the instructions included, however once assembled I would take the bike to an LBS and have them go over to make sure everything is adjusted properly, don't let them do the assembly if you can help it because that could cost $125 range whereas going over it for proper adjustment will only cost $40 max. A bike like the one I mentioned will easily last 2 years before you decide to make the jump for something better and you're not out a lot of money.

 

[oldbobcat]

Originally Posted by new_rider

I would have an extremely difficult time recommending a $200 bicycle nowadays. But a $400 road bike from bikes direct can probably be ridden as athletically as a more expensive bicycle, assuming it is properly assembled which is assuredly a big IF.

You get it. I've also rebuilt BD bikes that were mangled in assembly by their owners or the buddy "who knows everything about bikes."

As for cheap bikes, there are "cheap bikes," decent bikes that just fell into disrepair, and "CHEAP BIKES," bikes that are intended as disposables, not durables. Yours sounds like the first kind.

 

[AyeYo]

Originally Posted by Froze
Consider an expensive professional racing Pinarello Dogma2 bike cost $15,000, now consider you can buy a brand new racing KTM 1190 Rc8 motorcycle for that same price...which of those two vehicles has the greatest degree of technology? I can go on and on with these sort of comparisons.

That's an excellent way of looking at it. The prices for bikes and bike related parts are absolutely laughable. The fact that you can get a 2014 Yamaha R1 for $5,000 LESS than the cost of a high-end TT bike is absolutely disgusting.

 

[Volnix]

Originally Posted by AyeYo

That's an excellent way of looking at it. The prices for bikes and bike related parts are absolutely laughable. The fact that you can get a 2014 Yamaha R1 for $5,000 LESS than the cost of a high-end TT bike is absolutely disgusting.

Lol the quality is a bit "questionable" too...

260 euro for these shifters:

 

[AyeYo]

Exactly. They do it because people will pay it. Who is Shimano kidding? That's a $0.05 push button switch in a $0.10 plastic housing.

 

[Volnix]

Originally Posted by AyeYo
Exactly. They do it because people will pay it. Who is Shimano kidding? That's a $0.05 push button switch in a $0.10 plastic housing.

Apparently there has been some debate about wether these are the actual insides or just a DIY project on another thread. (I just took the pic of the net).

On the same page it says this is apparently what's actually in those shifters...

They have another housing in the housing, where they keep the push buton circuit.

Just 260 euro...

 

[Froze]

Originally Posted by AyeYo

That's an excellent way of looking at it. The prices for bikes and bike related parts are absolutely laughable. The fact that you can get a 2014 Yamaha R1 for $5,000 LESS than the cost of a high-end TT bike is absolutely disgusting.

Exactly, the problem is it's a hobby thus disposable income is at stake, but the bigger problem is us the cyclists ourselves! How's that you scream? Because we're the idiots that believe all the marketing hype and rush out to pay whatever ridiculas price the manufacturer can put on an item because it's the newest technology thus better than the previous technology. If we said enough is enough and only bought mid level stuff and abandoned the high end expensive stuff the manufactures would be forced to reconsider their pricing structure...but that ain't ever going to happen because people want what they want regardless of the cost, or regardless if they can afford it because most just put it on a credit card.

I know people who buy computers every 2 years, why? because it's outdated they say, really? I'm doing this response on an 7 year old computer with Windows Vista that I have never updated other than a wireless mouse! And I will continue to use this computer until it dies however long that may take, and when that time does come I still won't go out and get the most expensive, in fact this computer was the lowest price Dell model and opted for a larger HD and doubled the ram, I will probably buy the lowest price Dell (or something similar from a different manufacture) I can find again. I have no need for a high end computer, I don't play games, all I do is word processing and internet stuff which both require very little in terms of processing speeds, and I need some storage space because I back up all my music CD's onto the computer which is why I opted for a larger HD.

The R1 is a nice motorcycle too.

 

[jhuskey]

My bike is 11 years old but I have switched out some components. The motor is a hell of a lot older than that.