Argh! Bike Shopping is leading to over analysis.
 

Ok, so here is my deal. Clyde + (6'6" ~350) looking to get back on a bike. Looking at a few options.

1. Trek Verve 4. Plan to swap out seat post first thing.
2. Trek FX 7.4.
3. ???

I've read some advice suggesting not doing the Verve in favor of the FX because many people outgrow the Verve in short order. But there is a fly in the ointment. I had surgery of my wrist and can't really handle a forward leaning position for long. Of course, that may get better as the weight comes off.

Plan to ride roads and paved bike paths. Plan is to ride a lot. :)

My budget is about a kilobuck ($1000).

Advice solicited and appreciated.

Matt

Hi Matt,

Welcome the forum.

I don't have any specific recommendations, other than test ride everything you can! The Trek FX series is a popular choice here. My wife tried it and didn't like it at all. She also rode a Specialized Vita and Cannondale Quick. She bought the Quick and loves it. Your mileage may vary! However, the bike that is comfortable is the bike you will ride.

Enjoy!

Seconding what PhotoJoe has written. Plus, buy the bike that calls to you. The one you "want to ride". If everytime you see it there in the garage, you want to get on it and take it for a ride you're far more likely to do so.

Oh. And, as far as position is concerned: there is no reason you can't change the stem on the FX to achieve a more upright position.

Since I am also over analyzing bikes right now and you mentioned the FX, I'll give you what I'm looking at....

Trek FX
Giant Escape
Fuji Absolute
Specialized Sirrus
Cannondale Quick

These are all pretty much the same style bike, same as the Trek FX you mention. I am only over analyzing because I tend to do that and I won't be buying anything until maybe next year at tax return season. I pretty much sit in front of a computer all day while my equipment runs hour long cycle times so I've been looking at all this information on the fitness hybrid style bikes.

Now, how do you pick which one? Well, I've been reading down through a lot of the forum since joining just a short time ago. All I see is, ride them and pick the one that you are most comfortable on. I haven't even listed them all, I see a lot more names that I've never heard of. These 5 just happen to be the most common brands and just happen to be the only ones available at "local" shops to me (Ok, Specialized I had never heard of until joining this forum.) "Local" for me being out in the middle of nowhere means about a 50 mile radius. I'll have a long time come near springtime waiting for the tax return to visit all the shops and check out the various bikes for even more over analyzing.

Every thread I come to talking about particular bikes as I continue to browse down the Hybrid forum I read. It seems that no matter what the bike is, the person writing loves it whether it is a Trek, a Cannondale, a Giant, or any of the names I don't even know. I have never seen a written bad word about any bike other than bikes from X-Mart (like my current bike, which I agree, it's a POS) or big box sporting good stores which confirms to me that yes, I need to just ride each one and see what one is most comfortable when the time comes to buy.

Give a relaxed fit road bike a try too - like a Specialized Secteur or similar Giant or Trek models. You might find that you like the various hand positions it offers.

When one bike doesn't speak to you more than another, I would recommend that you buy from the shop that you believe will provide you with the best support and after sale experience. Since this thread is in the C&A forum, some of the questions that might seperate shops from each other revovle around wheels and whether they're capable and willing to give the stock wheels a bit of presale attention, in the form of repeatedly stress relieving and retensioning them until they can hold uniform and high tension that is not effected by further stress relieving. If they smile and answer to the affirmative, they may be the better shop to do business with. If they say, "don't worry, just bring it back in a few hundred miles for a tune up" I would shy away from them.

To further complicate your considerations, a Surly Long-Haul Trucker might be a fairly good idea too, but... I think it's important that you do maximum window-shopping at as many good LBS's as possible and pick the best deal offered by a LBS. Having a bike that's best fitted to you, your needs, your intended riding style and uses for the bike and your budget is IMO by far and away the most important thing of all. Establish a solid relationship with a good LBS and buy from them -- because you will be going back there for repair/service/maintenance, so you might as well start out by getting yourself "preferred customer" status by buying the bike there...

Good luck with it.

I bought my first bike on 5/24/13 and it was a Specialized Expedition Sport. I was around 375lbs at the time. I bought it because it was comfortable. After riding it a month or so, I was topping out at about 12 MPH at full speed and getting easily out paced by riders on faster bikes. I wanted more performance, this lead me to look for a faster bike.

I figured the Trek FX 7.2 would do it. Fixed fork, narrow tires, etc. And it was faster. Also less comfortable. A friend of mine bought a Trek DS 8.3 and let me check it out. I traded my Specialized Expedition Sport in on it. After riding the Trek FX 7.2 and DS 8.3 back to back for a while, I found that even though the DS 8.3 was heavier, had a suspension fork and bigger tires; I could do higher average speeds on it for longer durations. So I switched over to the DS 8.3 full time and that's what I ride today.

I had the bars raised and brought a little closer to me to get more of an upright position on the bike. As other mentioned, especially for Clydes, its important to find a LBS that will work with you post sale. In my experience, I break spokes on stock wheels. I found it important to develop a relation with the local tech at the store and have him help me get to a reliable spot on my spokes. Spoke tension is a big deal for us. Work it into the price of the bike, to have the tech do a full check and tension of the spokes of the rear wheel at least.

So to sum it up:

I like the Trek DS 8.3 over the FX 7.2
Proper spoke tensioning on the rear wheel is essential for us
Spend some time talking to the tech(s) that will be servicing your bike

Beware at 6'6" you will have a hard time finding a bike that fits from a shop now. Fit is very important for comfort...more important than the other specs of a bike. A lot of people including shops will try and tell you that factory sizes fit...and they will be wrong.

On a budget, with patience you can find used bikes from the 80s when they used to sell large frames. For more than your budget you could look into the KHS Flite 747 or do a custom build. Doing a full build with all new parts is the $2k range though.

Have you considered a recumbent?

And I will agree with those above....buy based on the shop. They will all have similar models.

For those of you who are recommending test rides of many bikes, does your LBS let you take the bike outside of their parking lot? Riding in circles is barely enough to shift through the gears, which is one of the things to think about when you buy a bike (too low or too high gear combinations?). Every single bike I've had before the Detour has been from a department store, where you can only size yourself up by sitting on it. Personally my experience at the LBS wasn't too far off, except for the fact that the staff was super friendly and informative *the main reason I insisted on buying a bike there*, and put it through a final adjustment before I left the shop. I made 5 trips to the LBS altogether, sat on 15 different bikes - test rode only 10 of them in the parking lot - and had it narrowed down between the Fuji Absolute and the Raleigh Detour. Because most of the bike paths around here aren't even paved, I went with the "hardtail" hybrid model (well that's what the sales guy called it, I thought hard tail hybrids had suspended forks..but what do I know, I'm just a newbie). Overall, after 900+ miles, I'm not disappointed with my choice HOWEVER I am reconsidering the thought on speed not just comfort when I was shopping and will reserve that for my next bike. The weight loss and my fitness level is improving each day I ride, which was my main goal. The real test of my endurance will be next summer when I ride my first multi-day bike tour (500 miles in 7 days).

Honestly, if an LBS didn't let me take a bike beyond it's parking lot I'd walk away, but I'm in a place where I have lots of shops to choose from too.

When I bought my Jake I think they were surprised I was back so soon, and when I left with the bike on the test ride the guy said, "go as far as you want, go down to the lake on the path if you want."

Back when I bought my roadie, I don't think they had the size I needed at the time, so they ordered it for me, and then I test rode it, but then again, it was beyond the parking lot (different shop too).

Bottom line ... you're in charge when you shop for a bike. If you don't like the LBS, find a different one. If they won't work with you, and just want a quicik sale, walk. You set the tone. A good and reputable shop knows a happy customer will be a repeat customer.

For me...a sloped tube road-bike was not only a little more comforatable, it is far more comfortable then my straight bar hybrids or Mt. bikes - even when I was upwards of 260 lbs. I purchased a Jamis Satellite Comp for a couple hundred bucks less than the list of $1,000.00. More hand postions on the bars, I noticed immediately. The Satellite is also Reynolds Steel and warranted for life. There are other sloped top tube road-bikes out there as well...I suggest riding one.

Now that I am approaching 200 lbs. once again, it is even more enjoyable to ride :-)

Thank you, everyone, for the advice so far. Going to sneak out of the office early today and visit a couple bike shops / test ride some stuff.

I really appreciate having access to the wisdom of those who have gone before me on this path...

Yes, you're over thinking it. I find a shop I like and go with what he sells. For a given price point, there ain't a hell of a lot of difference quality wise between them. If you are bike savvy, and have the time to setup and tune a new bike yourself, there's the internet, but you don't get to test ride. If you are a little savvy like me, but prefer your bike built and set up by pro's a good bike shop is the place to go. Shop the shop first, then test ride his selection. The one I go to sells Masi, Surley, Haro, and Salsa, as well as a lot of vintage.

Of the hybrids I test rode, I liked the Giant Rapid best. Your results may vary.

Well this particular bike shop I went to was located at a very busy intersection, so I didn't really want to take the risk of injury to myself or the bike in case I got hit on a test ride. The salesman was super cool though, he made sure everything was in tact and I was on the right size bike before I took it outside and pretty much let me ride it around the lot for however long I wanted while he pulled out other options. He knew me for years, so probably wouldn't have minded if I wanted to brave the traffic to take it on a longer ride.

Another tip before purchasing, if you're not mechanically inclined, find a bike shop close by. The shop I went to is over 50 miles away, in the city where I used to live, a shop I used to do business with all the time, but haven't been back since. I shop elsewhere for accessories, online for most parts, and try to service the bike myself due to the distance to the shop. I do most of the work on my cars, so servicing a bike isn't that hard. There's a lot you can learn from reading DIY articles online.

If you find a Cannondale LBS see if they have a Quick with a JUmbo frame...Also, if you get a road bike get the kind with the sloped top tube like the Cannondale Synapse... Head up style.. with a stem riser you will achieve your upright position and can go back down after a while...
I am more familiar with Cannondale but other MFG have the same also... the Verve 4 is a nice bike...Make sure you have a good relationship and feel good about the LBS you are picking, see if they have a return policy or exchange....

Well, the analysis is over :)

spent the afternoon checking out a couple bike shops, and riding some bikes. Took the advice here and skipped the comfort hybrids.

Went to shop #1 and rode a Cannondale Quick (Jumbo) and Specialized Sirrus Elite (XL). Liked both but the Sirrus felt a smidgen better. Got then both on the road and around the block. Shop was nice, but furthest from home.

Shop #2 is a Trek dealer, and I rode an FX 7.3. Also quite nice but I felt more in sync with the Sirrus. Sat on a 1.2 road bike, but the lean was too much for my wrist.

Finally, I went by shop #3 , which is very close to home. They carry Jamis, Giant, and Specialized. Was looking for a Jamis Coda. No go on the Coda, but I was chatting with the shop guy and he revealed something very useful - in their previously owned rack was a Specialized Sirrus Comp, XL, that had been traded in by one of their regulars. He owned it for a week, didn't like it, and traded it in. Maybe 30 miles on it. Tires show almost no wear, still have the fuzzies on them. Chain rings and cassette look brand new. They wanted $740 for it. I rode it, and put a deposit on it on the spot. Had a nice test ride - was told to take it out and ride it "wherever you like, just be back before we close".

I pick it up tomorrow. Plan to ride it like I stole it, because I kinda did.

Super excited!

Congratulations. That's a nice find and from what I can tell, it's the one you wanted after the test rides. Glad you did yuor leg-work!

Isn't it amazing how what seems to be an "identical" bike from two different manufacturers can feel so different? I was amazed on my day of test-rides.

Oh, and pix or it didn't happen! :thumb:

+1 on pics....not enough bike pics in C&A

Went and picked the bike up today:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=337512

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=337513

Watching the clock SLOWLY tick down to 2 o'clock so I can go for an inaugural ride.

Enjoy the maiden voyage. May many more follow.

Any discussion with your lbs about stress relieving and tension balancing the wheels?

You Sir suck:lol:. Great find at a great price. The Comp level is at or near Spesh's top. It should work very well indeed. We will require a ride report though. We have the obligitory pics now we want the report!!!!

Congrats and good luck.

Mark Shuman

Here's his ride report...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...n-the-new-bike!

I'm hoping to find a similar deal but on a lesser bike next year. Unfortunately for me it will probably be the rich guys getting rid of the $1500+ 2013's for the $1500+ latest and greatest 2014's. I need a $500 bike for about $250.