ImaginaryEnemy

Hello. I'm 6'0 and weigh around 270 lbs and I'm looking to lose weight. I want to get a bike so I can do cardio. I'm on a budget of under 300 dollars. What are some good bikes for my price range?

cannonman

Hi and welcome.

Try posting this in the forum below. You'd probably get a lot of answers from others who have gone down that road already.

https://www.bikeforums.net/forumdispl...-(200-lb-91-kg)

Best of luck.

StephenH

$300 does not get you very much bike when buying new.

I started off on a $100 mountain bike from Academy. What I found with it, and what other people have found generally, is that for most bikes, your weight will not be a big issue with the frame, but may be with the wheels. The $100 mountain bike worked for me at 285 lbs, except that I popped spokes when I took it off road a couple of times.

I went from there to a Worksman cruiser, which ran around $400 including shipping. I put about 7,000 miles on it. It's fairly heavy, not fast, but reasonably rugged, and with indestructible wheels.

Now, I'm on a Raleigh Sojourn touring bike, going faster, still having fun.

The main problem with buying a bike in that price range is that you can get good deals on used bikes, but you need to be a bike expert to do it (or lucky). You'll find people selling bikes for $250 used when it is currently selling for $200 new.

MichaelW

270lbs is not overly heavy for a bike, it is within the design range of most production hybrid style models.

The main source of weakness are wheels. More spokes = stronger wheels. Most std wheels have either 32 or 36 spokes. You should go for 36. Higher spoke counts are specialist custom items outside of your budget and not really necessary. You can get 40-spoke wheels from the kind of bike shop that sells to tourists, tandems and other niche/heavy-duty styles. The standard race-bike or MTB bike shop may not have experience of this style.

A good bike shop with a wheel-building capability can take the standard, machine-built wheels and tune them for more stength. (they stretch the spokes then retension).
Pick your bike shop with care. Pick from the brands that they carry. Make sure the bike is prepped to a high standard including a wheel tuneup.

In your part of the market, the price-performance curve is quite steep, a little more money buys a lot more bike.

Loose Chain

The 300 dollars is not going to get you much of a bike considering your weight and requirements. I doubt you will find many suitable on cl either. You should budget out a cool 1,000 dollars to include a good bike and accessories, otherwise you are not being realistic.

Bionicycle

Sadly I must agree that $300.00 isn't going to buy you a very nice bike new, but you aren't, as some of us go, that large, or heavy. I'm 6 feet tall, and 300 pounds, and I have had no reliability problems with the bikes I own. Just about any hard tail mountain bike, or steel diamond frame road bike will have a strong enough frame. As has been said the wheels can be a weak link, but as long as the spokes are tight just about any wheel with a fairly high spoke count should do just fine. Shop used, $ 300.00 can buy you a very nice used bike indeed. And by the way be sure to check out the C&A forum.
https://www.bikeforums.net/forumdispl...-(200-lb-91-kg)

colombo357

Why the arbitrary $300 budget? Just because that's the "norm" for budget bikes doesn't make it your actual budget.

So what are you actually willing to spend, and how much time are you actually willing to commit, to lose 70-100 lbs?

Losing all that weight will probably take you 2 years. Are you ready for that commitment and is this something that's important to you?

Kimmitt 

Whoa, $1k is maybe a little much. Torker and Worksman both make bikes which will serve his purposes nicely for much less than that.

ImaginaryEnemy

I doubt it will take me 2 years to lose 70 lbs. I'm currently lifting weights 3-4 times a week(once I get summer break from school and work I will be lifting 6 times a week) I want to use the bike for cardio early in the morning riding 10+ miles.

Lifting weights + Cardio + a healthy diet = 2-3 lbs weight loss per week. And to answer your question this isn't a temporary thing. It is going to by a life style change. I never want to weigh this much again.

https://bikecologyonline.com/product/...er-58421-1.htm

or this one

https://bikecologyonline.com/product/...st-58356-1.htm

are these bikes any good?

Esteban32696

I like Giant bikes, overall. In MY opinion, they offer about the most bike for the money. That bike is a decent ride. A trip to a dealer would help you. One thing to consider on any bike purchase,new or used ,, would be to replace the pedals. So many are plastic , even the shafts.