I've been reading the site on and off since Saturday, trying to learn what I can about bikes, what my goals really are, what I should be looking for in a bike, etc. I had knee surgery last year that went badly, and have a lot of residual issues with my knee from it. I have been running and doing other exercise, and dropped 40 pounds so far. However, the running has been really rough on the bad knee, where spinning class made it feel much better. I figured the next logical step was to get a bike and get moving outdoors.

I got lost when it came to finding what to ride. I intend to do paved roads/paved trails, and have ambition to get up to 30 miles in a ride with some conditioning. Racing sounds fun, but right now is a more distant thought. I have a limited budget of $200-$250, and haven't had any kind of bike in over 10 years. I'm 6'4" and currently 230 pounds looking to get to 210 (down from an all-time high of 285 in Dec. 2006).

I went to a couple of lbs (took me a whole day to figure that acronym out), and they showed me a Specialized Sirrus and a Trek "comfort" bike as a good starter bike options. I'm frankly so confused on styles and makers that I have no idea what I am looking for or really need at this point other than to say that used seems the way to go.

Anyway, advice is always appreciated but I posted to introduce myself and so I could interject questions on the many threads I have been and will be reading. It's a great forum, so much advice and commentary, so thanks for having it. Back to the faq lesson threads I go...

Alex