Hi. I've been without a bike for ten years now, and currently I'm looking at some entry level street bikes to start myself back into riding. My plan is to get a pavement type bike this year and then probably more of a trail / mountain bike next summer. For now I'm just wanting about a $600 bike that's good for say up to a 15 mile route through town, but for the most part I'll mostly only be doing shorter 5 mile routes, mostly for exercise.
After visiting all the local shops I've settled (for now) on the Specialized Cirrus Sport here...
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/...name=Multi+Use
Was considering the straight plain Cirrus model but I decided to upgrade to the Cirrus Sport because of the upgraded shifter. Although my budget's not all that much here, I am willing to spend more to get the best shift action I can (afford).
Here's the bikes I've been shown so far...
Raleigh Misceo
Giant Escape
Specialized Cirrus Sport
and nothing at the Trek store (due to low inventory apparently)
I've been told the Raleigh bikes aren't up the same quality as Giant or Specialized so unless someone here speaks up about Raleigh I'm probably just going to leave that one out.
I liked the Giant Escape and Specialized Cirrus Sport about the same. Only big difference to me was the SRAM shifter on the Giant vs. the Specialized's Shimano Acera Rapidfire (9 speed) shift levers. The SRAM seemed to tire my thumbs out a little while the Shimano levers just seemed intuitive and easy to use. Dunno, maybe this is a beginner's thing where the Shimano looks good at first but then after I gain experience possibly the SRAM would begin to look better. Guess I'll just go with my gut here.
Honestly if I could have the Shimano shifter levers on the Giant Escape that's probably what I'd do. But as far as I know the bike isn't offered that way. Is it possible to make a deal with the bike shop to put the Shimano levers on the Giant?
Well, that's where I am right now. If you guys have any comments on what I'm looking at or maybe suggesting other bikes that I don't know about yet please feel free to speak up. Especially if anyone knows much about the TREK line (which again I haven't seen anything from) please let me know what models I should maybe have a look at.
Thanks!