Hello all. Sorry in advance for the question asked by countless others before me.
I'm 38 years old (rounding up, less than 3 weeks to my birthday) and pretty novice to bicycling as an adult. I've rode here and there over the last 20 years or so, but nothing consistent.
Last summer I purchased a mountain bike. Not really because I expected to do any serious trail riding, just picked a mountain bike because I didn't know what else to buy. My logic was that it would be good enough for street riding and would work well enough at the forest preserve by my house. I did a small amount of research and decided that I would try to avoid Walmart and went with Farm and Fleet (probably not much better, but figured anything would probably be better than the 'mart). I went with something like this:
Schwinn Men's 27.5" High Timber Mountain Bike at Blain's Farm & Fleet
High Timber from Schwinn. I rode it last year some, but really decided that this year I would take it more seriously. I picked up a cheap indoor trainer (magnetic) and spent from January - March riding indoors. Once the weather got slightly better (I live in Illinois, it's only so good this time of year) I've taken to riding at least 2-3 times per week (sometimes even daily). My goal is fitness and weight loss. I don't love cardio (elliptical, treadmill, etc.) but find that I actually enjoy a good bike ride.
I started out at 280 and I'm down to 245lbs now. I'm 5'9". I have a few places I would primarily ride:
1. The bike path by my house. I'm lucky enough to have a bike path near my house. All paved.
2. Gravel / Loose trail.
https://www.traillink.com/trail-revi...dge-trail.aspx I live about 10 minutes (on bike) from this trail. It's fantastic for riding. I believe it's a good 30 miles one way if you decide to ride the entire distance.
3. I have a forest preserve near my home. There are riding trails there. Nothing overly difficult, but plenty of grass, rough riding to be had there.
My go-to with no doubt be stone-bridge. Scenic, nice ride.
That being said, the difficulties I'm having with the current bike and the reason I want to upgrade.
1. I'm not sure if it's my fitness level or if it's the bike - but anything with even a minor uphill is a huge pain.
2. Related to
#1 - slooow. I feel like it's quite a bit of effort to move on this thing. I've tried different gears, etc. and it's just painfully slow.
3. I don't know very much about bikes so I don't know how to maintain them myself. However, this bike is only a year old or so and it shifts badly (I change gears and it takes several seconds to "catch" which I find annoying). It's also starting to squeak (assume need to oil the chain, etc.). The bike shop I was looking at actually offers free tune-ups for life if you purchase the bike from them. That's actually pretty tempting in itself.
4. Wrist pain. Riding for a any amount of time (30 minutes or more) results in wrist pain for me. It would be nice to be able to switch positions occasionally (going to neutral grip, etc.).
5. Knee pain. I have a knee that has been bothering me on the bike. Could easily be my position on the bike.
This is the bike shop I'm looking at:
Rockford Bicycles - Loves Park, Illinois Trek, Gary Fisher, MirraCo, Haro, Redline (they are almost exclusively trek it appears).
First - what kind of bike should I be looking at? I was leaning toward a hybrid but would welcome any suggestions.
Second - Would I actually be able to find something in the 500-600 range that would be significantly better than my 139.00 Farm and Fleet Schwinn or am I just paying for a name with basically the same components?
Suggestions on bike size? Type? Suggestions to alleviate physical symptoms?
I welcome and appreciate all feedback!