Quick question- how heavy are you?
My weight usually goes somewhere around 200lb, most of the time less than that.
Wow, that looks impressive, the packed Surly bike looks much more compact than the other one which required a huge box. Is this S&S thing a special feature of Surly bikes only? Also how does it perform? I mean if I go offroad and start having a bumpy ride, I won't need to worry that the thing will break under me? I mean it's still not solid and will probably have the risk of wearing off and falling apart eventually?
Also, thanks again for the list, I keep studying it!
Fenders and mud don't play well together. Fenders are good if you are dealing with water but when you ride in mud, the mud just ends up clogging the space between the wheels and the fenders. Then you end up with the mud rubbing on the fenders...slowing you down...or clogging up the works entirely and you end up carrying the bike. A rack on the bike will act like a fender but it's not terribly effective. It doesn't clog because there's more distance between the wheels and the rack, however.
You can avoid the issue of muddy clothes by carrying a dry set of clothes. I don't ride to work in work clothes because bicycle clothes are cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
Yeah, I'll be able to figure it out. When I say mud, I usually don't imagine that much of it so that it starts clogging the bicycle
If that will be the case, I'll try to avoid that region of road or something like that. And yeah, I can always take separate work clothes with me. I am still not sure what the climate is like in NY but it doesn't apper to be raining constantly so those paths should be quite usable (I hope)
Drop bars are fine for road riding. So are flat bars. However if you going to ride off-road, drop bars require far more skill. Drop bars put you further forward over the front wheel. That makes getting your body over the rear wheel to keep it from lifting and throwing you over the bars harder. Braking with drop bars on an off-road bike can be terrifying...especially if you don't have good braking skills to begin with.
Yeah, that is one of my concerns. I was once riding a cheap mountain bike (which had flat bars though) down the hill, then bumped something and completely flew off the seat, rolling the remaining part of the road on the ground. It was magic that I didn't break anything then. Even though I definitely learnt things after that, I am still kind of scared of assuming aerodynamic positions and prefer more upright ones which also feel slightly more comfortable for my back. However I've never rode a normal bike so may be things are not that bad, I'll need to test how that thing feels.
If you test ride bikes at a local bike shop (LBS), buy from them. On-line is cheaper but the LBS answered your questions, let you test ride their bikes, helped you with the selection, put the bike together and made sure it was road ready, etc. To then turn around and buy on-line would be rude at best.
Well, it's not price only but also availability of bikes. I am not sure there are huge bike shops here so I might just end up test driving individual features of bicycles (e.g. flat vs non-flat handlebars) and then ordering the actual bike model online because the shop won't simply have that bike. However the price is unfortunately a parameter for me too. If the difference is not huge, I of course would be more than happy to order locally and get my bike right away. However if it is hundreds of dollars, I'll probably have to go online.
Back to the Basics , What brands are sold in the local bike shop?
dropping brand names that you have nobody around to buy that brand,
help fix, warrantee issues, and so forth..
if you are not savvy enough to DIY, is not helpful..
That is a very good question! Even though there appear to be some sizable bike shops here, I can't easily answer that question because they have very poor websites (or don't have them at all). There is a guy who seems to carry lots of Jamis bikes, and another shop with lots of Trek-s and "Specialized" (I am not fully sure if that's a brand name). I am planning of analyzing everything I've learn and still keep learning from this thread, than paying a visit to the shops, test driving something and then I'll see how it goes. If the local shops are just too small, I might select some weekend day, get on greyhound or amtrak and go to some city with a huge bike shop and then test drive everything there
