VibeBox

hi there! i recently kind of fell in love with biking when i decided to take it up for exercise. i bought a pos bike from a garage sale and hit the ohio eerie towpath which runs a block away from my house (sick! very nice to ride). well, recently my crappy bike was stolen (my own fault, left it sitting unlocked on my front porch) so now i need to choose a new bike. i'm p poor, but have decided to invest in a decent bike because i'd rather use it as primary transport as well (i hate cars).
i googled my way to your fine forum and thought you might all be interested in helping me comb through my local craigslist to choose a suitable bike, as i am not very knowledgeable in this regard myself.
so without further muddling about here is what i'm a looking for and my local craigslist bikes section:
looking for a bike for a ~350 lb 6'1ish male
for use on towpath and street transport
$100 - $300ish dollars, whatever looks like best value
style not much of a factor

https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bia/
and some candidates?
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bik/3084055041.html
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bik/3059051225.html
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bik/3082583413.html

i will continue to post itt about the bikes that come up that i am considering. hopefully within the next couple weeks with your help i can learn what i'm even looking for and find a nice bike that will support my fat ass.

thanks in advance for having a look! cool supportive forum you've got here imo

goldfinch

I'd skip the Raleigh, it doesn't seem suitable for the towpath and if the seller is right on the size it would be too small. Though I question whether he is right on the size.

The Giant Yukon looks worth trying out. The Specialized doesn't have a size listed so hard to tell if it would fit. Otherwise, maybe not a bad choice, but I would be a bit worried about the suspension fork at your weight.

You can go to www.bikepedia.com and put the name of older bikes and find out what they sold for new and get some information on a particular bike. Just doing a quick look makes me think that the Raleigh and Giant are 1990s bikes and both may be over priced. With the Giant you might want to put "slick" tires on it if you ride the road a lot. The Specialized Crosstrail has only been made since the mid 2000s and there are many model levels so it is hard to tell if the pricing is right as the seller is telling you nothing about the specific bike. It may be worth following up on it though.

VibeBox

edit: thanks to goldfinch for the suggestions and the link! looks like the crosstrail was sold though cause it's been deleted by author, so oh well. guess it's bakc to square one waiting for a good listing.

something i forgot to mention in the op! for my height i have short legs, like 30" (with size 15 feet at the end, go figure)

uhm, so i have done nothing since last post. been a bit busy, but now want to focus on picking out a bike. will check up on the previous one to see if it's still available, but in the meantime i'm going to check the cl again.

i've been thinking about getting something like this to just beat the hell out of the first few months while the abuse will be the hardest, then upgrading later when i'm more familiar with what i need/want/like in a bike. not sure that's a good idea or what though
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bik/3089387166.html

Edit2: so i think i need to get in touch with this guy jack in medina, cause he has like a dozen listings and the three below include pictures of what is clearly his garage full of bikes from buying out some company. i'm thinking odds are i can find something decent there and offer him 200 bucks and he'll be happy to get rid of one. the only thing is i don't know brands and quality components and the like so maybe from the pics you guys can tell if there's likely to be anything worthwhile there:
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bik/3037534316.html
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bik/3052834570.html
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/bik/3088248022.html

Rhodabike

The last one you posted looks like a decent enough bike. The seller doesn't seem to know what size it is - 26" is the wheel size, definitely not the frame size. I'd guess about 19", which would normally be too small for someone 6'-1", but if your inseam is only 30" it could work with a longer handlebar stem. Have a look at it, it might be worthwhile. You could spend another $100 or so getting it tuned up at a local bike shop.