I ride in street clothes (khakis, button-down shirts) and have a bike I purchased used for $75. I've used that bike to ride 60-100 mi/wk for the past four years, and have never had any problems with it. (Of course, I make sure I maintain it.) You don't need to spend a lot of money to have a usable bike, as long as you don't care about image too much If you do care about image a lot, well, you're doomed anyway; you might as well just go ahead and buy a BMW and hire a personal trainer.