My name is Doug and I live in the mid-west (Crawfordsville) parts of Indiana. 42 yrs. old 6'3" and 225lbs. Just recently stopping smoking (in Sept. of '05) and had a spinal surgery, I packed on a few pounds and am ready to rid myself of them and to start living a more healthy life style.
I hate running and too self conscience to go swimming, I always enjoyed riding bikes way back when. So biking is where I want to go.
I recently visited the LBS and he tried to steer me towards a Raleigh Passage 3.0 for $285, as that is within my price range I would like a bit more input from some more experienced riders. I have searched some of the bikes that you have listed throughout the forum and they are way out of my price. I'd like to stay around $300 and maybe someday move on to a better bike.
So any help would be very appreciated.
Any other Hoosiers in here? I saw Indygirl, I am assuming from Indianapolis, saw another guy from Lafayette (I work there).

Thanks,
Doug

Looks like a good bike to start with to me. The components are about as basic as you can get, but it's sturdy, has a decent range of gears, and most importantly, looks cool. Actually the most important thing is to take a test-ride on one. Take a good long ride and make sure it fits what you want. I couldn't tell from the picture if it has rear dropouts for putting racks on and such, but you may just want it for recreation anyway.

I will warn you about riding to lose weight. It is great exercise, but I find I'm a lot hungrier after riding. It's important to replenish what your body loses in the workout, but it's a fine line between that and overdoing it. If you enjoyed riding bikes years ago, you will love it again. It may take a little while to adapt to that exercise so don't get discouraged if it doesn't seem as fun as when you were 12 years old. Congratulations on deciding to adopt a healthier lifestyle. That was probably the hardest part.