maxfieldl

Hi all,

With my first year of college over, I'm now staring at three completely empty months of summer. I'd like to fill those months with as much biking as humanly possible.

Trouble is, I don't have a bike that fits me. I'm hoping to get some guidance in these forums on my search for a new/used bicycle.

Specifically, I'm looking in the touring/road category for my next buy. However, I haven't got a clue as to what touring/road type will best suit my needs, let alone what "types" exist.

The first question (and definitely not last) question: Which subforum should I head to in order to decide which bike type will be best for me?

Thanks for your time. I'm looking forward to both getting help here, and my future rides.

-Lars Maxfield

Henry III

Hi Lars,

There is a Midwest forum that has some active WI folks. Otherwise I just moved from Neenah last June to Southern Oregon. Wheel and Sprocket does a few rides from more relaxed to longer hardcore rides. Oshkosh Cyclery also does a ride I believe but don't quote me. If you want something more chilled out and relaxed. Check out Wheels of Fire downtown by the Bluemoon coffee shop. They carry a lot of used bikes and may be able to get something reasonable from James. They also do a cruiser ride Wednesday nights. Not many shops in the valley carry used bikes so Craigslist might be your best bet on finding a touring/road bike. Otherwise maybe check out just around the dorms or apartments as some people may just be throwing away bikes they don't want to take with them if they're leaving.

Also there's some criterium racing that takes place up in Appleton if that's something that interest you. Also Oshkosh has a group of folks who put on alley cat races that are pretty fun.
https://www.facebook.com/events/651706074846323/

Hope you find something that tickles your fancy as their enough to do besides sit around Oshkosh and just drink. lol

Henry

qcpmsame 

Hello Max, welcome aboard at BF. First off, you need to decide what type(s) of cycling you want to do, if it is recreational riding, no matter the distance you will look towards a more relaxed frame geometry and larger volume tyres, if it is fast "club" type rides like a training ride you will want a tighter geometry and stiffer frame. You can choose between aluminum, carbon fiber and titanium pretty much for the frame material, with titanium being expensive and most likely custom made. Carbon fiber is popular, especially with the fast rides and racing types but, it is moving into all the bike types due to its light weight. Aluminum is the material a lot of the entry and mid range frames are made of, I ride this in my CAAD 10 Cannondale. Steel used to be the dominant material but now it is largely Classic and Vintage bikes or custom built framesets. There are pluses and minuses to all of the materials and their suitability to your needs.

Read up in the Road Cycling and Commuting Forums for a while, ignore the snarky and generally off the wall stuff in the Road Forum, just absorb the information there. Unless you are thinking about hard down training and racing take a lot of the stuff with a grain of salt. The commuting forum has people that are using their bikes to get to work, for errands and around campus, as you probably want to do some. I did my Junior and Senior years of Engineering school commuting and training, it was a lot of fun, granted that was in 1978-1980, long, long ago, I am on lod guy, give me a little leeway here. As said above visit the Local Bike Shops (LBS in BF speak) and talk to them about what you want to do with your cycling, if they don't want to talk with you and listen to your concerns and needs, walk away from them and find another. Clubs are a great place to meet people and usually they are more than happy to talk bikes with you, just avoid a hard core racing club that is training seriously, right now. You can lar about fitting the bike properly here and from books (Try Lennard Zinn's "Cycling Primer" and some others you can find at a book store or on Amazon to learn the basics of fitting and why it is important.

Best of luck and don't get discouraged or go to Wal-Mart or a box store and buy their Bike Shaped Objects that will let you down quickly. Ask questions here and use the search function, too.

Bill