Originally Posted by mikesixty4

Hello all,

I am 5'11'' and to say I am overweight would probably be an understatement. Now I have used every excuse in the book as to why I don't currently exercise and why I don't need to but I decided to buy a scale after I received an email from my father stating how concerned he was about my weight. I was completely shocked to see that I weighed 300 pounds. I decided that there are no more excuses and I need to start exercising so I started walking each morning for an hour and now lift 3 times a week.

2 months later, I now weigh 287 pounds and have been feeling great but I am quickly getting bored of walking and never really liked it to begin with. Now as a kid one of my favorite pastimes was just riding my bike. So I figure what better way to exercise then to buy a bike. I love the outdoors and nature so most likely I will eventually want to buy a mountain bike as I see that being what I will really want to do.

For now though I think the best thing for me is to buy a hybrid bike of some sort for just daily exercise. and hitting the easy gravel-dirt trails on the weekend. Have been searching the forums for the past few days and I think I might have gotten my decision down between the Giant Cypress DX or the Giant Sedona DX. I was wondering what people think about these two mikes that have either owned or rode one of them?

Also, I currently live in Owings Mills, MD and was wondering if anyone knew of a good shop that I would be able to goto that would love to help out a beginner? Also for anyone who lives in the area, Are there any really good trails in the area to ride on? I am not looking for anything advanced...I know about the NCR Trail and that will most likely be something I will start doing on the weekend but I am looking for something a little more close to where I live where I can ride in the morning.

Thanks for any help that you can give I really appreciate it and sorry for the long post.