General Cycling Discussion - Another What bike question

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momtohanna
08-10-09, 02:03 PM
I am a newbie to cycling, I currently have a cheap walmart mountain bike. (hubby would not let me spend much money in case I flaked out with riding), however, the more I'm on my bike the more I LOVE it.

I am doing a 35 mile ride at the end of Sept and have set goals for next year to do at least one century and then Bike across Kansas in 2011.

I have 1/2 mile of gravel/dirt road I have to get through to get to the road, and being new I don't know much about what bikes are good for getting past the gravel and will work well for long road trips. I talked to my LBS and they said they can help me figure out a bike that will work but I want to have a clue before I walk in there.

Can you give me some ideas at what I should be looking at as far as makes/models of bikes?

I appreciate it!!

joe_5700
08-10-09, 02:44 PM
I would keep on riding the bike that you have to help you decide which bike you want in the future. I started out with a a dept. store mountain bike, upgraded to a hybrid, upgraded to a road bike and upgraded to an even better road bike. If your goal is long distance riding, you will be able to go further and faster on a drop bar road bike. The only problem with that is the gravel roads you have to ride on. Do a search on Cyclocross bikes.
c_m_shooter
08-10-09, 04:55 PM
You need a road bike. Anything will handle a little bit of gravel (I live on a dirt road also), so don't worry too much about that, just accept that your bike will never be as clean and shiny as the others on your group rides. Entry level bikes are all going to be about the same, so get whatever your favorite shop carries that fits you.

If the $1000 price tag on a road bike is to much for your husband to handle, then the next best thing will be a road based hybrid with 700c rims and a rigid fork. Should be able to get one for around the $500-$700 or so.

badmother
08-12-09, 12:09 AM
Buying a second hand bike is also a way to go if price is an issue, but it sounds like you want to do This. Good thing about buying from a LBS is you should get help to find the right size and help to get it fitted.

If you hang around and post some more you could get into the womans forums and get some help from there also.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=568805