I'm looking to buy my first commuter bike and I'd like to spend under $500 for it. Something for use in Washington DC for about a 3 mile per day commute, plus any additional fitness or commuting miles after work or on weekends.

What do you all recommend? I can do either new or look on CL for used!

I'd recommend going to a local bike shop that has a good reputation. You should be able to get a decent bike for somewhere around that. There are so many kinds of bikes, just about any of which would "do" for a 3-mile commute, that you could probably benefit from being able to try a cross-section of bike styles and talk with someone who could help you sort out your priorities. Then, when you decide on the kind of bike you want, you'll need help getting a good fit, both in frame size and handlebar/seat height and angle adjustments. Especially when you are just embarking on a new venture like this, it's worth getting the guidance of someone with both experience and inventory. FWIW

Thanks for the reply. I actually did go to a shop and they said to get a Trek 7.2FX. I wanted to come here and get recommendations from a wide variety of people who have less incentive to sell me something just in case that's the driving factor.

I have ridden a 7.2 and it is a compact bike. I have a longer than normal abdomen and short legs. I felt stuffed up on it and immediately wanted something longer. It may be a great bike for you but definitely one you need to but some time on to get a feeling for.

I currently commute 3ish miles from Stadium Armory area to Metro center and ride a cyclocross bike. For me personally it depends on what your end goals are. If its strictly commuting/errand running then a flat bar road bike/hybrid style bike will work fine and every major manufacturer will make one (Trek 7.2, Specialized Sirrus, Giant Escape), but if you think you will be using it for exercise/recreation on the weekends I may suggest taking a look at a road bike or cyclocross bike. Forgive the massive read below.

I have been cycling a while but my girlfriend is the poster child for biking progression. She started out on Capital Bike share for the occasional eastern market run or the grocery trip and realized that its much nicer having your own bike. The next step was an old 10spd road bike.The plus side is it was cheap and there are a million on CL, downside is she didn't know anything about maintenance which old bikes require as well as finding one that truely fits you may not be as easy (she also hated the feeling of the old narrow road bars that came on bikes back then, less stable). Now it not to say you cant find one that fits, you can, or that you cant find one that will require less maintenance, you can, or one that you cant change parts out to fix fit issues, once again you can. Its just in her case she want something that just worked. So she moved on to a Specialized Sirrus Sport. This bike is considered a flat bar road bike. It comes with 28mm tires stock, usually a triple crankset for making hills easy (even Congressional Hill) and a little bit more aggressive fit and feel then your typical hybrid. Now if all you are doing is commuting and errands I'd stop here. She biked many happy miles on this bike and did a triathlon, and it was the bike that she felt confident on and made her love cycling, but it wasn't long until she started noticing some things.

She started noticing on our group rides how much more effort she felt like she was doing to stay up with us. She started to want for more hand positions on the bike, the ability to move down into the drops to get out of the wind, keep hands from getting tingly etc. So she made the jump into a relaxed geometry road bike (Trek Lexa 105 group) and has been incredibly happy. It had the drop bars and sti shifters she was looking for, it was relaxed geometry so it was comfortable for long rides, it had eyelets for fenders and a rear rack, it was significantly lighter (not race bike light but still light), and it was in her words "more fun to ride".

TLR on this: Really think about what you want to do with the bike and choose accordingly. A flat bar road bike is incredibly utilitarian while the right road/cyclocross can also be but is more fun on the weekends but the absolute most important lesson I learned from the above story is to buy the bike you feel comfortable on and will actually ride. My girlfriend almost stopped ridding after she got the old 10 spd because it was very much the wrong bike. Thankfully the flat bar bike reversed that mentality.

A fantastic shop that I can't suggest enough if you are looking for a used bike is The Old Bike Shop in Arlington. This shop is run by a guy named Larry who truly just wants to see people get out and ride. I have taken many people here with limited budgets to get a bike and he has even gone as far as discouraging my friend from buy a more expensive bike in leui of a cheaper one.

Hopefully this helped.

Forgot to mention above the money factor as that is important.

-Bike Share: $75ish a year member ship?
-Old ten speed: $250 used*
-Specialized Sirrus: $599 new*
-Lexa; $1,000 new*

-You can find used flat bar road bikes or even MTB on CL for $175-500
-You can find used road bikes on CL for $450-800
-The old bike shop will have various bikes in this range. $200-500
-New road bikes that you may be interested in proably $799-1,200

This Cyclocross sounds interesting. What are some good choices in that category?

My personal favorite for commuting is a cyclocross bike. I use my 2013 CAADX for commuting, light touring, and it has been my bike for 3 triathlons.
It is more aggressive in geometry, aka racey, then the other type of bikes below, but thats more up to personal preference.

A few cyclocross bikes to look at in no order are:

-Cannondale CAADX
-Specialized Crux
-Jamis Renegade
-Trek Crossrip

All of these come in various trim packages that can run from about $1000 to $Car

Another kind of bike that may strike your fancy is what is referred to as a "Touring" or "Endurance" road bike. It tends to be a little more relaxed in its geometry, aka comfortable, but still gives you the versatility that you are looking for. With the adoption of disc brakes these bikes are able to handle wider tires for comfort, mounting for racks and fenders, and can still be use for more spirited riding. If you haven't riden a bike in a while it is a very good way to get back into cycling.

A few in no order are:

-Surley Straggler, Crosscheck, Long Haul Trucker (very popular, you will see a lot of these around the city, Captial Bikes, City Bikes, and a few others sell these)
-Trek 720 or 520
-Specialized Diverge

Honestly this list goes on and on.

I think the first thing to do is sit down and really figure out what it is you want to do with the bike. Once you have that the next step is to ride. Ride as many of that type of bike as you can. Once you find one that fits your needs and is comfortable you can then either find a trim package that fits your budget or look around online or in store for last years model of that bike (I saved $500 on mine doing this).

Another budget way is to check out Bikes Direct. They sell their own house brand bikes for all of the bike categories listed in this thread. Some may say they arent as nice, but I personally have friends who are doing their 5th year of riding on them.

Check out this FB group, if you're comfortable shopping used bikes:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dcus...lemarketplace/

If you plan to do a lot of long rides on weekends (10 miles or more), you'll probably want a road bike, because the drop bars will give you a variety of hand positions. Unfortunately, most decent road bikes cost more than $500 new, as do all the cyclocross bikes mentioned so far. I thought the Trek FX 7.2 was decent when I tried it, but watch out for the mountain bike fanboys once they see this thread, lol.

One idea would be to get the Capital Bikeshare membership for one year, and use that one year to save up for a road or cyclocross bike if you want to buy a new one; as well as try a bunch of bikes. Sometimes bike nonprofits like Gearin Up (https://www.facebook.com/GearinUpBicycles) have yard-sale type events - of course shopping those is just like shopping used bikes in general. I appreciate the selection of bike shops we have in the DC/NOVA area more, after reading complaints about bike shops in these forums - we have a bunch of good ones here.

$500 is a tiny budget for a new bike but a huge budget on Craigslist... You can ride nearly any bike for 3 miles, it will take ~15 minutes.

Remember to budget / plan for...
a lock and a place to lock it
a way to see and be seen at night. The days are getting shorter!
a way to carry your stuff - plenty of options
a way to stay warm and dry. Could be layers and fenders, could be a bus pass
a way to fix flats and maybe worse - at 3 miles I might walk it!