Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest

Steel (or other) framed mountain bikes are great for riding in the mountains, where you have dirt, roots in the trail, very steep hills, etc. But for long distances on pavement, they're not such a good choice. More than anything else, you want comfort, because you're going to be spending a lot of time on those bikes. Touring road bikes let people carry lots of stuff, tend to be set up for comfort, and have lots of hand and back positions, so you can move yourself around, like stretching.

Put walmart out of your mind. The second most important thjing you need is reliability. A used bike from Craigslist is going to be a better deal than an xmart one. Bikes ("bike-shaped objects") built with the cheapest of parts and assembled by people who know absolutely nothing about bikes and are allotted almost no time to assemble them ... tend to fall apart with use. They're ok for very occasional use, like driving them to Seward Park and doing a loop around the peninsula three times a year, eg when the sun comes out. But you don't want to be stranded somewhere.

I really like Speedy Reedy. They won't stock anything you're interested in, but if you go the used route, I'd trust them to inspect bikes that interest you and tune the ones you two wind up with.