Looking to buy a cheap bike



Thomas van Dop

New Member
Mar 8, 2013
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Hello,

I am visiting the US for 6 months and am looking for a cheap road bike to train. As a student my budget is limited (the less I spend, the better).

I'm unsure as to what I need, so could you give me some advice? I know that I would like a bike that requires little maintenance.

I have visited a cycling shop, but they only offer more expensive bikes (starting around 700-800). On craigslist I find cheaper bikes, but I do not recognize the groups on them, and they're often old, so I question the quality. Do you have any idea how for example the bicycles that are sold on the website of Wallmart (example: http://www.walmart.com/ip/700c-Schwinn-Varsity-1300-Men-s-Road-Bike/21191098 ) are qualitatively good enough for a relative newbie? Or any other place to find a decent bike (not for racing, just for training) for ~250 dollar?

Regards,

Thomas
 
Walmart, Target, Any small sporting goods place I stopped in at a Dunhams just to see what they had to my surprise they did actually have some bikes of course out of season here in Michigan they didn't have a good selection. I just picked up the GMC Denali Road Bike from Walmart I ordered it online but not here yet so I cant tell ya any more than that what sold me is all the postive reviews on this bike compared to a few others plus I was also looking at Mountain bikes and they all didn't have as good of reviews as this one I looked at You Tube Videos looked at reviews online- took me about a week to break down and say this one is the better of the low end bikes like you I can't go out and spend 700+ dollars on a bike either. Good luck
 
I'd go with that Schwinn, over the Denali, if you're going to get a Wally World bike.

But if you want something with little to no maintenance, keep looking at Craig's List for a used chromoly frame with friction shifting. It's much easier to keep friction derailleurs in tune than a low end indexed unit. Old doesn't necessarily mean bad. Suntour and Simplex were two decent brands of derailleurs back in the day, and if you check out eBay, you'll see that Suntour Cyclone RDs sell for a pretty good price.