Ok, so I will be buying a new bike soon.
I am currently thinking of getting the Mongoose bikes.
These are the two I am leaning towards:
I plan on using this bike for getting to school (stop going to school on car), and to go to where my summer internship is. My internship is located about 7 miles away from my house and Its about a 1400 feet incline. Going to school, well, is no problem I know for sure, as its paved flat roads. Going to where my internship is, is however a bit tougher. I am sort of going up a gigantic hill if you want to put it that way. Oh yea, going uphill is on a paved road. That is my planned usage of the bike. Occasionally, I may go light off roading a bit, but maybe not. I live in such an urban area that I do not even know the nearest off road place to go to.
So my question is, are the two bikes I am leaning towards (Im more towards the Sector) pretty good for my intentions of usage? Since I am buying it from Dick's, would you call that a pretty good place to buy a new bike? Do they provide pretty good service? Do they service your bike? Tell me what you think of the service at Dick's. I had never been inside Dick's, even though a couple of their stores are relatively close to where I live. How long do you think the bike will last?
I also looked at Walmart. I know that, like everyone else, everything from Walmart are made from cheap stuff and break easily. I looked at the bikes from Mongoose there. The Mongoose bikes are similar to the ones from Dick's and other places, even though they have different names. Here are the links...
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=4698937
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=2513014
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3610588
Should I get these Walmart bikes instead?
I want my bike to last at least a while, since going to my internship round trip is around 14 miles, and I will be going there a couple times a week. The roads are paved, but not the best conditions. The roads from around here are in a 7.3 rating on a 1-10 scale.
As you can tell, I am a pretty big newbie on bikes. My previous bike was a 20"-24"(i dont remember size) Trek Mountain Lion Kids bike. I used that bike just for fun, but have now both outgrown it, but am putting the new bike to a new use.
If anyone can provide any recommendations, my budget is up to $200, but if I have to, I can spend up to $300. I don't want to spend way too much because I have a limit I can spend during the summer, and I have $500 max. The money I am not spending on the bike will be for some home projects and some accessorizing to the bike and stuff, and oh yea, food for me to eat. Some people recommend that I get a used bike, but I don't really have a positive view on them. I tend to think of them as dirty, grimy bikes that don't even look halfway decent. This view is from my cousin....adding to that, his brakes were broken and didn't work.
Im new to this, in addition to this forum, so go ahead and flame me if I said something wrong.