laneman34

Hello, my name is Lane. I am 23, just graduated from the University of North Dakota, and am now living in Lawrence, KS. I am here to try to inspire myself to get back on the bike, and shed some poundage before I get married in Jan of '07. I am currently in the market for a new bike, but not sure what kind to buy, what questions to ask, and when the best time to buy is to get a good deal. I will be looking for any advice that I can get. Thank you for reading, and good day

Mojo GoGo

Lane,

Welcome and you shouldn't have any problem getting advice. I'd suggest going entry level or even finding someplace that sells bikes on consignment until you either quit or become addicted and only if the later exists get a higher end bike.

ken cummings

Speaking as an old married man (34 years) Check to see if SHE is interested in cycling. If she is then it is either two bikes or a tandem. If two bikes divide money by 2 to get price of bike. If tandem well ride one before buying. A tandem can make or break a relationship even after marriage (better before ). I have a new friend. When he and she upgraded from K-mart class She got the first good bike. He went later. Too, Kansas is not flat, listen to the LBS people then get even lower gears. If she is not excited by cycling she may resent the time you spend cycling, my wife did when I thought of training for RAAM. Talk to her.

laneman34

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. What does LBS guys mean, I guess I don't know all the terms. Tandem biking would be fun, but I could see us fighting quite a bit. Back up in North Dakota where I am from this guy builta bicycle for 8 that fits his entire family and they do some amazing things.

Mojo GoGo

Local Bike Shop

I wouldn't worry about a tandem or even if she rides. My wife doesn't ride [into scrapbooking and cloth/fiber type hobbies] but she's very supportive of my hobby as I am with hers. It's all about mutual respect. (Note: a tandem would be fun for leisure rides but it's usefulness would be limited unless she wants to ride a lot - and they're not cheap).

RonH

Welcome to Bike Forums.


NOW is the best time to buy. Sales are slow during the winter months and shops will be pushing the new models this spring.

tulip

Hi Lane,
You have a great name--there are Lanes in my family. Riding is great, but I'm really not a fan of tandems, personally. My husband doesn't ride, but we both kayak, and the double kayaks are just no fun because I want to go over there and he wants to go over here...plus the person in the back (bike or kayak) can't see as much. But each couple is different. Have fun, and congratulations on the upcoming marriage.

doingthis

Hi Lane,
I'm just going through the same process although probably ending up with a different bike being that I'm a guy 6.2 and 200. I can tell you that you need to start with what kind of riding you are looking to do. For instance, for me, I'm looking for XC (Cross Country) not really interested in DH (Down Hill- requires real sturdy bike parts and usually you want long fork travel (more than 100mm)). I want a fast bike so my energy needs to transfer to the rear wheel, which means a hardtail (front suspension only) and I want it to be light so I'm looking at aluminum frames by the frame makers that make good solid bikes using aluminum. You may want full suspension, but you really have to spend a minimum of $500 to get a full suspension (FS) bike that will hold up. I like GIANT for hardtails but Gary Fisher, Specialized and Kona make great bikes too. The bikes that I'm interested in will generally have very good components, but not the best, lightweight, yet strong enough for hard riding or agressive XC (sometimes also known as AM or all mountain). Most of these bikes are $1300 new, but I prefer to find them used and fix them up or build up the frame myself with the components that I like for what I want.
I can tell you that you should probably make sure the bike has X-type bearings on the crank if you are planning on riding hard in any kind of weather or just riding on rough trails, etc. ISIS bearings were the "new" type of bearings after the old square taper you probably know, but they are smaller bearings than even the old square taper BBs (Bottom Bracket-the bearings in the bottom that connect the crank arms together). There is a sweet Kona on ebay right now that I may buy for someone to use to go riding with (always good to have an extra bike). It has upgraded components, it may be your size, I think it's a 17" frame (too small for me, I need a 21"), and it's still only $355 (well it's going up unfortunately). Copy this link into ebay:
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

If that's still too expensive, let me know I can make some other suggestions. But, ABSOLUTELY stay away from the cheap Walmart stuff, etc. It won't hold up. It will just be discouraging when it doesn't perform which will definitely not help you to get excited about it, and you will get nothing for it when you sell it. As an example, if you bought that KONA and did simple maintenance, you could turn around and sell it for what you paid without much trouble...really. And you wouldn't be looking to upgrade all sorts of expensive parts when you owned it.

Anyway, I'm Jeff in Scottsdale...good luck. (I just joined this forum today also! :-)
noreallythink@hotmail.com

doingthis

Local Bike Shop (LBS)

lrzipris

You may want to start out riding with a local club. There's the Lawrence Bike Club www.lawrencebicycleclub.org/), for example; clubs are a good source of local information--which are the good bike shops, which to stay way from; where is the good riding, etc.

laneman34

Hey that bike looks awesome, and what a price. I am 6'1'' and weigh about 235 so i htink it may be a little small for me as well. I have an old trek 8000 aluminum thats pretty beat up, and I'm thinking of turning that into a singlespeed because the components are just not in good shape, but the frame is super lite. I think that on my new bike I would like to do some road riding, skinny tires to achieve higher speeds. But can a roadie bike hold my largeness?

doingthis

Hey Lane,
I can see you are getting bombarded with the posts...as to be expected! The trek was definitely a good bike and I think it should be a great starting point to do anything with except for extreme FR (Free Ride) or DH (Down Hill). (I won't keep spelling the acronyms out unless you ask from now on). I'm SURE there is no problem with going with road tires and/or MTB tires for your largeness LOL. The guy at the shop that I talk to that seems to know quite a bit carries 2 sets of tires and changes them when needed...one for street and one for off road. Everybody who's serious uses tubeless and he says they're easy to change. So, it sounds like you can have the best of both worlds.
At this point I have quite a bit of research in the frames (materials, geometry), suspension (front fork only), cranksets and BBs (bottom brackets). So, when I get to the wheels/tires in the next few days, I can tell you some specifics. The frame you have will work perfectly for what you are doing just remember to go with x-type bearings if you replace the crankset and intend to ride the bike a lot. ISIS cranks are really cheap right now because the industry knows they're inferior. The problem is they work great for a while until the bearings wear out and then its $50 bucks a pop to replace the BB. I like building something for cheap, but it has to be bulletproof for what I'm using it for and then last.
Let me know what your thoughts are.

-Jeff