Originally Posted by
wphamilton
On the amazon bike I'm not real thrilled about the shifters, brakes, and 7 speed freewheel but that's to be expected on a $300 road bike. For your two mile commute I wouldn't have any qualms about it. You'll need to familiarize yourself in making adjustments, maintaining the brakes and so on.
If you or a friend can tune the bike yourself, I think a $300 road bike would be serviceable and will work for your commute. My guess is that you'd decide you want to upgrade to a better bike after a while.
If you can't tune it yourself, a cheap bike isn't going to be very enjoyable. In this case, spend a bit more at a LBS where you'll get the bike tuned to begin with and generally get one free tune-up. Unfortunately, it is often the same with used bikes (a great deal if you or a friend know what you're looking for and can tune it up, can be not so much fun otherwise).