Originally Posted by JGun86

Hi,

Just wanna throw out a quick introduction. I am a student at RIT and I am looking at commuting to from my house (7 miles each way) in my pursuit of better fitness, healthier lifestyle and reduce my footprint on both the earth and my wallet.

I am currently overwhelmed by the plethora of information regarding all bicycles that can be commuted with and which ones I should actually use. Having no real bicycling background I been trying very hard to cram as much knowledge into my brain as possible.

I am dead set on getting a used bike, not only for price, but because I just don't see the point of having a wonderfully nice shiny expensive bicycle wasted on someone who has not even ridden a crappy bicycle. This is where my dilemma begins.

For the mileage I would be attempting most people seem to say a road bike is a good idea. The roads I believe are not that crowed but are suburban and I believe they are well cared for, minus one train track I know that slams my car. When I go and read all these posts on which bike is best and which accessories I buy, I write them down on my list only to wonder...better than what? I have nothing to compare anything to (accept when I went to the LBS and they had me ride around a Six 13 which was quite nice...I think)!

My question to you all then is, where do I begin? I was looking at an OCR 2, but what do I know? Are the older road bikes that gather on the craigslist pages adequate? For someone has ridden nothing I probably won't even know what the downfalls to any of the bikes are. What do I look for? Should I go with a higher end / newer bike like the OCR 2 or just pick up a random road bike?

To sum up, Im just having a hard time getting started. I want to make the right decision and not end up hating cycling because I rushed. I need all your guidance to point my in the right direction, please!

Thanks so much for your help! I'll continue trolling now!