Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.FluidParadigms
08-14-09, 12:05 PM
Hi everyone. I'm a student who's new to cycling and am looking into getting a first bike. I'm planning on using it for going to class, exercise and some light trail riding for now, though I want to move to more serious stuff when I'm back in shape.
The problem is that i only $350ish to spend and there aren't a lot of opportunities for getting a good deal around here (and I drive a 20 year old car with almost 300k miles on it; so no 4+ hour road trips to buy a bike...). I've been looking on craigslist and everything within a 2 hour drive is either too expensive or someone asking msrp for a bike that's several years old (they always say "NEVER RIDDEN. ONLY 10 MILES OR SO" or some crap like it). The few bike shops around are also expensive. As for <$500ish stuff, I think my LBS only has a Raleigh Mojave 2.0 and Mojave 3.0. He wants msrp for both. I assume cycling is like anything else in that the price rises with quality then at a certain threshold the quality evens out and performance becomes the main focus. I just want something that's around that threshold (something that is going to work as intended and not break all the time).
I'm stumped. I thought about trying to piece together something with used components but I don't really know where to look. Am I just out of luck for my area and price range? Should I get the Mojave 3.0 (for $359) and upgrade it later with decent harware? Are there any websites that are likely to have good deals? I've read some on the forums but there's so much info and I'm not sure where to look next.
P.S. sorry for the book. :innocent:
The problem is that i only $350ish to spend and there aren't a lot of opportunities for getting a good deal around here (and I drive a 20 year old car with almost 300k miles on it; so no 4+ hour road trips to buy a bike...). I've been looking on craigslist and everything within a 2 hour drive is either too expensive or someone asking msrp for a bike that's several years old (they always say "NEVER RIDDEN. ONLY 10 MILES OR SO" or some crap like it). The few bike shops around are also expensive. As for <$500ish stuff, I think my LBS only has a Raleigh Mojave 2.0 and Mojave 3.0. He wants msrp for both. I assume cycling is like anything else in that the price rises with quality then at a certain threshold the quality evens out and performance becomes the main focus. I just want something that's around that threshold (something that is going to work as intended and not break all the time).
I'm stumped. I thought about trying to piece together something with used components but I don't really know where to look. Am I just out of luck for my area and price range? Should I get the Mojave 3.0 (for $359) and upgrade it later with decent harware? Are there any websites that are likely to have good deals? I've read some on the forums but there's so much info and I'm not sure where to look next.
P.S. sorry for the book. :innocent: