Originally Posted by
Yo Spiff
I disagree. This bike is likely to have steel rims. Heavy & slow to accelerate. If he didn't already have a basic bike to ride, it might be a start, but I think he might be better to save his pennies and watch for the right deal to come along. This isn't going to be much improvement over his Roadmaster MTB. For $150 he could find a good 80's era road bike.
He said he can't afford a bike that expensive. I don't know how regularly you troll craigslist for bikes in the OPs price range, but there aren't tons of screaming deals out there. A bike, any bike, thats functional, for $40 is pretty good price. You are worried about the bike being heavy and slow to accelerate...well what do you expect for $40? I used to ride around a steel-rimmed Schwinn Varsity...it was still a lot faster on the road than my 22LB ti mountain bike.