Originally Posted by
MRT2
Look for a used (5 to 20 year old) hybrid or hardtail mountain bike with slicks in your size. Old Trek 7xx, 8xx, 9xx, 7xxx, 8xxx or FX bikes, for example.
Yup; my one-little-scuff 7100 was $200 from the bike shop in the next town over.
Also grab a set of the Bell Radian lights; they mount with allen-head screws, so they're hard to steal. Not real bright, but don't take up much space and have great battery life on easy-to-find AAAs. Don't count on them as primary lights, but since you will be leaving them on the bike, they're a heck of a lot better than nothing on the day you didn't expect it to get dark before you got home or forgot to charge a Magicshine.