BigRedNole

I am 240 lbs and have high cholesterol. I had started to workout early last year and blew my left knee out falling off a waterfall. Then, while healing the left knee, I tore the meniscus on my right knee. Needless-to-say, I put on 20 more lbs (220 + 20). I need to get back down to 200Lbs.

Riding is to complement my current workout program and to provide confidence to my daughter to stay healthy. I want to start riding with her in the neighborhood and a greenway.

My biggest issue right now is finding the right bike. My LBS tried getting me into a $3000 bike. I laughed and left. I told them I could use that to have Lyposuction instead.

My riding will mostly be sidewalks and the greenway. The greenway is paved and has wooden bridges but runs through the woods. Therefore, there will be debris and stuff that the bike will need to handle.

I only have a budget of around $500 give or take. I no I will not have a Mercedes or Audi of bikes, but a Honda can get me there just as well.

Any recommendations would be appreciated. I am looking at these models for example at the moment.


Trek Bodega
Trek 4300 Disc
Trek Marlin SS
Motobecane
Dawes

CraigB

I can't comment on the others from your list, but I've had a Marlin for about 5 years now (bought back when it was a Fisher) and it's been a fine, sturdy and perfectly decent ride. I realized right away I wasn't going to be going off-road much at all, so I got some skinnier tires for less rolling resistance on roads and MUPs. (I actually got a second set of wheels for the skinnier tires, so I could switch between them more easily.)

Here it is (on the right):

Ninja Geoff

Of the ones you posted, I like the Trek 4300 best. I wouldn't get the Motobecane or Dawes due to the full suspension. Unnecessary wait for a bike thats going to be used on pavement. Or really, for a bike thats not going to be hitting anything seriously rough. Have you looked at the Trek FX line of bikes? Laid back geometry and still fairly fast. From what I can find, the rims that are on that 4300 are 18mm wide, so you *should* be able to get away with as skinny as a 28mm wide tires on there. Continental makes a 26x1.3 that should work fine for your needs.

BigRedNole

I went to a LBS this afternoon. I had my daughter with me, so it didn't go so well. I did get a lot more info. I was guided towards much more reasonably priced bikes. I was definitely steered towards Hybrids. They told me why they opened the store where they did. It is within 2-4 miles of a hub for the greenway I will be riding. They said the Hybrids are all the recommend of neighborhood and greenway riding. There are several options and I will go over them in more detail tomorrow when I can go in alone. I will be going to 2-3 other stores as well over the weekend. Hopefully I can make an informed decision on the best bet whether it is used, at a LBS, or dare I say online somewhere like Bikesdirect.

TrojanHorse

Have you tried craig's list yet? There are zillions of nice bikes on the one near me. Well, maybe hundreds.

IBOHUNT

Welcome BigRedNole

If this is your first bike in a while or don't know how to maintain one I'd think you need to resort to a LBS. They will help you maintain the bike and be able to help you when you need.
While shopping for a bike ride as many as you can, go back and ride it again before buying. Knowing what I know now I would include cyclocross. Give one a ride, you might like a road bike set of bars.

Not sure of the terrain you have down there. From the topo maps I quickly looked at there isn't too much climbing involved. If you can take one on a hill nearby and see what it's like to ride up it and keep the info about which crankset/chain rings and cassette are on it.

I did see on the Trek Website that you linked to there is a Trek 7.2FX in the close-out section.

BigRedNole

Thx for the info. The terrain I will be riding on has minimal grade to it. There is some, but nothing like riding up a hill or anything. It is all paved except for the wooden bridges.

I did see the 7.2FX on sale. I am heading to that LBS after work tomorrow. Unfortunately, it will be raining like crazy. I will at least be able to test in the store and get information without my daughter begging for the attention.

Juan Foote

Here is my take on your situation.

Being on the pathway there, you will, as others have mentioned, want to stick with something with wider tires. Smooth or lightly treaded should be fine, and a set of 28's will do fine on a manicured and well packed bike path. You will probably be steered towards a flat bar bike. They are typically in the range you are looking price wise, and they are so "traditional" that you have at one point or another likely ridden something like it.
For the type of riding you are talking about doing, the flatbar bike is going to work fine. However, I would like to sort of forewarn you about one trap with flatbar bikes. Since you are already looking at riding in the neighborhood roads, and start deciding to ride more mileage there, having a bike with drop bars offers a lot more comfort by way of hand positioning. If you think you could become a "roadie" then it may be worth taking a look at the cyclocross or touring/relaxed geometry road bikes.

edit-This by no means is meant to suggest that you cannot ride many miles on the road with a flat bar, hybrid (etc) type bike. Just a suggestion that you might consider looking.

Neil_B

Here is a Trek 7.5 fx that's been all over.....

Pymatuning, PA and Pymatuning, OH....



Fort Frederick, MD....



From Pittsburgh, PA to Washington, DC, three times....



Nearly 50 miles of soggy Ohio....



And at home. The fx series are well designed bikes.

goldfinch

A friend of mine just bought an FX7.3. If you can afford it, the 7.3 seems to have much better components than the 7.2. Not that the 7.2 is bad.

I have the Cannondale version of the FX, a Quick. Like the FX it comes in different component levels. You might check those out too. After fussing a bit with drivetrain issues, I now love the bike and I ride it as much or more than my road bike.

Other big companies have similar hybrids, like Specialized.

Smaller companies also put out nice hybrids at reasonable prices. The issue is whether you can find them to try in your area. For example, Kona has nice hybrids in your price range: https://www.konaworld.com/asphalt_com...fm?content=dew
Marin is another example: https://www.marinbikes.com/2012/bike_...2207&Muirwoods

rec3036

As a TREK 4300 disc owner, I highly recommend this ride... Definitely go with skinnier tires makes a huge difference in the ride, I just put my knobby tires on for the winter to do some trail riding and still ride with my kids on the bike path and don't care for the ride of the knobby tires on asphalt bike path.