Howdy! Bike newbie here. Similar to Spunny's recent thread, I'm looking into getting bikes for my son and I (and eventually my wife) for driving on all pavement and no more than 6 miles one way (most trips would be 2 miles or less). There will be no mountain biking or touring, just running around town.

I'm trying to spend as little as possible as this is mostly to reduce vehicle costs (though the exercise is needed, too) so even a $100 bike would need to be ridden over 1500 miles to pay for itself at current gas prices. He'll be commuting to college the next 4 years so it will be outside much of the time. Thus, I'm having trouble deciding if I should just get him a basic used mountain bike as a beater or get him something that will actually last him for many years to come (eg, Trek FX 7 series) and try to keep it clean through the rain and snow.

I think any bike can be used for pretty short commutes at least for a while. The only bike we had until recently was a garage sale buy my wife made decades ago for a 10-speed 27" road bike that is too big for any of us and only a few gears work right even after trying to adjust it, but I have ridden it to church and the PO. I even rode my youngest son's 20" a mile and back from the Scout Shop!

The used market is pathetic here. I had to drive over an hour to Indy to pick up the GT Backwoods I just got myself. Got the shifters working well enough but need to replace the cables and eventually the gears as some teeth are pretty worn/bent. FYI, the only LBS carries Trek.