Bike Forums - Help New Rider

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Hi all -

I am new to cycling and signed up to ride a charity event in October, the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour from Irvine to San Diego, in order to support a friend who was recently diagnosed with MS. I need to know what bike to ride because I was given 2 hand me down bikes for the event: Bike #1 is a GMC Denali Pro Series Road Bike; upside is that it is fairly new and rides pretty well; downside is that it does not have a quick release rear tire and has standard pedals with straps. Bike #2 is a Trek 1200 that is very old but and probably needs some work to bring it back up to good quality riding condition but it has all the bells and whistles from a high quality road bike from a decade ago.

Any thoughts? If I ride the Trek, what do you think it would cost to do standard maintenance on it to bring up to riding condition (i.e. cleaning and lubing all gears and chain, checking brakes and tires, etc.)? The Trek also has clip in pedals that are old, are the clip in shoes and pedals universal so I could just buy a new pair of shoes?

Thanks for all your input.
Jon

The Trek most likely is the best of the two bikes.

Take it to a bike shop for an estimate to get it running smooth for you.

I agree on the Trek. Welcome to Bike Forums and good luck on your ride!

How far is that ride? I may be interested, I live in S.D.

Welcome to Bike Forums. Good luck on your ride. I would agree that I would take an older, quality bike over a newer very entry level bike any day of the week.

Make sure you stop by the SoCal forum and say hi.

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdispl...ern-California

Thanks for the input. As for my other question, does anyone know if the clip in pedals are universal? Specifically, would a really old pair of Shimano clip ins work with newer shoes?

Byron - the ride is from Irvine to San Diego, 100 miles over 2 days with a stop in Carlsbad. If you want more info on the ride, check out the link below.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/si...ry&fr_id=18684

I am on "Terry's Team" if you are considering joining.