Originally Posted by
ColinL
I don't know what you can learn from a book versus experience, but in this subject I suspect it's a lot. I spent hours researching my first modern bike and bought the wrong one.
I bought a hybrid with a suspension fork and I should've bought a 29er MTB. But why did I buy the wrong one?
Because I didn't get out and try singletrack trails that are near me now, ones that didn't exist when I rode MTBs in the 90s. After I did get on the trails I realized that my bike and cross tires were a big handicap, especially for a new rider.
Is there anything like singletrack for road bikes, that is impossible to know if you like it until you try? Probably not that dramatic, no. But as someone already mentioned, road bikes can be very different for commuting, recreational (I would say endurance) riding, racing, and so on. You can still buy the wrong bike. You can definitely buy a bike that doesn't fit... and good luck dealing with that in the book!
Conversely, before I bought my first road bike I was riding my hybrid on the streets in the conditions I would use a road bike. I borrowed a road bike from my dad. I did the same hours of research except this time I bought the right bike, mostly. I'm for sure a lot more satisfied with it right now than I am my hybrid.
Anyway, I see potential value in this book. It needs to be better than picking pieces from Bike Forums, sheldon brown's site, and reading reviews in Bicycling. Fortunately at least one of those goals is easily achieved.
I couldn't agree more that actually testing out a bike trumps any book I could ever write. Of course, things like fit, comfort, and so forth can only be construed so much through text.
All I'm trying to do is just provide a free guide with credible, expert info that will, at the very least, set people in the right direction. I was lucky enough to have found these forums when I was in the market for a bike, and I read a lot of extremely helpful information. I guess what I'd like to do is curate the knowledge that helped me so much here and make it more accessible to a wider variety of people.
My name isn't going to be on the book; I ideally wanted this to be a community effort, where everyone with special knowledge on a particular aspect of cycling could contribute writing or input. That's really the only way I foresee this being a unique, conclusive endeavor. I thought it'd be a cool thing to do for the cycling community, and just anyone in general who is interested in buying a bike. I realize this is very broad, and that many, many sub-categories must be covered, but if everyone were to chip in a bit, we could potentially make the most helpful guide available, anywhere.