I Need Responses Quick!!!
 

I am 17 years old turning 18 aug 11. I bike as much as I can. I am going to buy 1600$ bike hopfuly. My family says that my biking is a fad!!!! i am insulted!!! i been biking to school for 3 years and just started to bike on the mtb trails for a year. i did one tour on a borowed mtb bike and love it. i am going to do a ms bike tour aug 9-10. i need to know if my biking is a fad or not. argg this is bugging me.

i have a 600$ full suspension MTB. i use it for my bike to school and Mtbing but i find its too hard to bike on roads. thats why i want to invest in a 520.


joel

Mountain Biking...a fad? It's been around for what...nearly 20 years now (maybe more depending on who you talk to)...

Maybe what they meant was a "phase"...like you are going through a phase that you'll grow out of and you'll have wasted money on a bike. It all depends on the person - if you've been biking for three years to school (a good start)...and MTB'ing for a year on trails, who knows at this point how long you'll be into it...

That's not really a question we can answer, man. It's all about your own personal dedication and enthusiasm to bicycling. Maybe your parents believe that will change when you are driving a car, if you aren't doing so already. Maybe they think you'll grow tired of bikes in a year. I really don't know: I don't know your parents or your level of enthusiasm. Only you really do.

sorry i was reffering to phase. maybe my mountaing biking is a phase, but i don't think so... each time i ride each time i want to bike more and more. same with commuting to school, BUT i get fustraited when i take a wal-mart special bike a try to commute. ( i did canada day) it was awful! i could only max out like 28 kph. i was using my cuzins road bike and i was doing 40kph coasting.


why do you guys bike??? what make you bike more?? would you stop?

hehe the funny thing is my dad doesn't want me to get my driver permit. my mom also doesn't want me to get my drivers permit but she incurages my biking! not my dad.

hehe i was just remembering...
i was taking the city bus to school instead of biking because my dad said it was tooo cold. i was getting sooo fustrated, i would of went crazy if ididn't hold back. i wanted to bike!!! city buses are sooo freaking slow (time wise) and cars are sooo lazy!

Well then, I think you answered your own question. ;-)

I commute to work, do my shopping, and get my exercise on my hybrid. I'm also nearly finished refurbishing an old Schwinn LeTour (Panasonic) to try out road biking. It's a fun little hobby that helps keep me in shape and save gas and insurance money. That's why I bike.

When I was 12 years old I started skateboarding. My parents referred to it as a phase i was going through until I was 27 and finally had to quit because my knees couldn't take it anymore. I was 16 when I started to play guitar. It is a phase I'm still going through at 29. I started riding a bike in the year 2000 largely in an attempt to strengthen my knees to get back on the skateboard. The bike turned into a phase all its own. All of these phases seem to be ongoing and I don't see them coming to an end any time soon...I still want to get back on the skateboard and still have them in my car for when I see something worth skating. I have long phases. :D

Phase or not....$1600 (Canadian or US) is a lot of cash for a teenager to spend on a bike. I'm not saying it's too much, just a lot. Heck it's a lot of money for an adult to spend on a bike.

If you're at all into biking you should learn maintenance and repair. Then, with a little patience, you could find an AWESOME used bike on E-Bay or something for half of that price.

Good luck!

As said before $1600 is a lot to pay for a bike specially at your age. I was basically the same way before I got my license at 16, then I got my car...Addmittedly I was a hardcore runner, but biking dissapeared for about 3 years. Additionally, you can get a hell of a lot of bike for $1000-1100 US (or less like me) best save your pennies for when you hit college and cash kinda disapears, wait to spend $1600 on a bike when you start racing or feeling old ;)

I just bought my first 'real' road bike on Sunday. I've been on it every day. I spent $530 (USD) on a new Trek 1000. Definitely entry level compared to what's out there, but perfect for me. My plan is to wear it out as soon as possible. If I don't, then I didn't invest too much.

I'd look for an entry level bike or a used bike to start out with.

-Dave

1600 is way to much for a bike that i am guessing will be locked up at school. It will just get all messed up from locks and bad weather. Anyway its eye candy for a bike thief. My school bike was a 500 dollar aluminum shwinn (before they became walmart bikes). I still have it and ride it as my mtb. It needs some upgrades but whatever. Specialized has some nice ones out.

btw its 1600 CND 1000 USD

I remember when my dad was like that, cycling is a fad.... You can get a second job ( or a job pending on my employment status) with amount of time you spend riding. From my step mom it would be that "You spend more money on bikes than you do your vehicle." It was true the "Blue Beast" cost me 1000, the bikes in the back of the BB cost over 2000 in total.

Just recently that has all changed. Of course it took 10 years the parents to change their tune. An amount of time that I wish had not been so long. Now its "You been riding lately?" "You need to not work so much and ride" I even have them understanding there are different levels to shimano compenents. My dad had done his own homework on disc brakes and was happy that I got the XTRs! They are even supporting me having tattoos, they even carry my buddies cards to hand out.

Like I said, good luck with your parents.... as you can tell they can be weird.

Look at it this way.

Some people go out and spend 1600 dollars on a computer. Others spend it on a bicycle.

Don't even get me started on how much people pay for cars. Many people pay WAY too much in gas, insurance, interest, and sticker price for their oversized SUV or ridiculously fast sports car.

Tell you parents that I said that they are wrong. A 520 is an awesome investment.

respect man!
thank you! thats what i have been trying to do, tell them what is the difference between the shimano components. what is the difference between shimano components that arn't even listed on there website and real components that are.

my disision what to do with my money was between an expensive computer that i would put to gether or a new bike, i desided that i would get a new bike, since computers go out of date and that i already have a computer for myself.