Originally Posted by
SethB
Take EVERYONE's advice here. I was about to buy a cheap-o mountain bike for commuting and fun. I posted two on here that sucked and was yelled at a lot. They were right though. I was in the 500 price range, but waited longer and saved more money. I got to the 750 price range and picked myself up a beautiful 2014 Trek Fuel Ex 5 29 that is in mint condition. I love the thing to death. My current house mate wanted a cheap bike for going to classes and such, he bought a 60 dollar used manga target brand buy and hates the living crap out of it. And I do too cause he keeps asking me to fix it lol.
The guys on this forum know their ****. I love them all.
The only bikes I have that cost over $750 are tandems. Of the single bikes only one is over $500 and one of them was $30 from a garage sale. You can buy a lot of (new) bike for $500 and if it makes you happy that you waited. Fine. But please don't imagine that someone else is riding inferior merchandise because they got off at the $500 floor. Actually, $750 is far from the most money someone could spend on a road bike... far from it. And? What I wonder does the owner of a $3k Scott or Trek or Cannondale get from the transaction with respect to
Commuting?! I saw some sad "Stolen: Carbon Scott Roadbike" pasted around town recently. So there is that. Everything is a trade-off.