Cheap commuting bike
 

Cheap commuter bike

Price:

I am looking for a commuter bike that is around $300 - $400. I know this price point is very low, but I can only keep this bike for a year and a half after which I need to give it away. Where I live, not many people buy nice bikes.

My experience:

Up to this point, I've only ever owned a $50 Walart special mountain bike. I've ridden my $50 walmart mountain bike hard, through snow, rain, ice, mud, sand and rain which froze in the mechanics and after all of that it still works fine albeit with a squeak. So it doesn't seem impossible that a ~$400 bike to do the same if not better. Now, however, I'm looking more for a commuting bike with higher quality. Due to my living situation I don't (and can't) own many tools or lubricants and I've never oiled my chain. I don't, however, have any problem with doing bike work or buying a small cheap tool or two, but I have to leave it all behind after a year and a half. The reason is that I go to school very far from home and everything I take needs to fit into suitcases which are already full.

My requirements:

It rains moderately where I live and I NEED a bike with fenders. Up to this point, every time it rains I wind up with a dirt covered back. I also would like (but could possibly live without) a bike rack becuase I will need to use the bike to go grocery shopping. While I know you can buy them separately, I don't have the knowledge to attach them. I could possibly get access to a place which has a lot of tools for one time attachment if the right bike doesn't have them. Any link to a guide on how to do this for complete newbies would be appreciated. Other than that, I'm not picky on weight or quality (though it should last me at least a year and a half). I have looked at several bikes by Giant, Trek, Special, and Kona but they're all very nice and expensive. I don't need that sort of expensive quality. I couldn't even find a Trek bike under $500. I really like the idea of a hybrid bike though and would like to have high pressure road tires for low rolling resistance. The bike should be about $300 without fenders or a rack and around $400 with both. The idea being, that with everything I don't want to spend over $400.

What it will be used for:

The bike will be used for commuting about 5 miles per day. It will need to jump a few curbs daily, but I'm usually gentle when I do it. It will be left outside so it should hold up well under adverse (mostly just rainy) weather.

Thank you for any help.

I picked up the Giant Cypress DX, it was around $400 and I have been very happy with it. I picked up a rack and installed it myself with a screw driver and allen wrench. Then I attached a shopping bag pannier. I have not yet picked up fenders, but that may wait till fall for me. The fenders and racks etc all just screw in, it is really easy to do it yourself and you don't need a fleet of tools to do it.

The only thing I had to watch for was to buy a rack that would accommodate disk breaks and 700c tires. Once you get the right size, it is cake after that. The LBS offered a free 90 day tune up of the bike and I did that a few weeks ago and the bike is like riding butter it is so smooth now.

My new Kona Smoke cost me $360 and it came with fenders.

Here is your next Bike:
http://www.performancebike.com/produ...6-BLU-SIDE.jpg

On sale now at Performance. Schwinn World Avenue One Commuter Bike. $399, with EVERYTHING you need in a commuter bike.

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...estore_ID=1586

I hope he's going to school here in the midwest. I'd be happy to take that Scwninn off his hands when he has to go back home. Even if I do loathe Pacific Bicycles' products...

The World Avenue One looks like a good fit. If I had it shipped to me, how hard would it be to put together? Would it require a lot of tools? Would it come with them? There isn't a Performance Bicycle shop near me so I guess I'd have to have it shipped to me.

Good how-to from the same guys who write for BikeCommuters.com:
http://www.mtnbikeriders.com/2008/03...il-order-bike/

And a similar one from the sister site of CommuteByBike.com:
http://bluecollarmtb.com/2007/11/12/...ut-of-the-box/

If you are looking for a cheap commuter bike and speed is not the most important factory, I just got a Raleigh Venture. My commute each way is 6 miles, mine cost about $ 280 after added fenders and a rack. I have been very happy with the bike, and so far it has been very reliable.

Craigslist.org.

You get a lot more bike for your money buying a lightly used bike from there most of the time, especially if you are looking at mountain bikes or hybrids. $200 can get you a bike that has been ridden twice and stored in garage and cost the original owner $400+ a couple years back.

Attaching fenders and/or racks is a fairly straight forward process and can be accomplished with a cheap cycling multi-tool. Some bike shops will put the items your bike for you when you make the purchase if you have trouble.

The schwinn looks good. I have a Giant Cypress with 13000 miles on it and I'm perfectly happy with it so that'd be good but with fenders and racks it'd be > $400.

That's actually a fantastic price, a hell of bargain compare to what the LBS offer locally.

Thanks for the links on assembling the bikes. It mentions that I need to grease things like the seat and the peddles, but would the bike come with grease or would I need my own? I need to know what I need to assemble it in advance since I don't have any tools lying around, not even a screw driver. Easy things like a screw driver are doable, but I would have no idea what kind of grease to get or where to get it.

I went to my local bike shop today and rode Giant Cypress LX though which was very nice. Didn't care for the disc brakes too much as they were highly non-linear and touchy (and expensive). I noticed on Giant's site they make a heavier steel version named the Giant Cypress ST. Is that any good? I really liked the ride, seat and upright position of the Cypress. It's also possible for my local bike shop to order bikes from big names like Giant, Schwinn and Trek. Unfortunately they said they couldn't do anything like order a Kona Smoke.

Also, I live in a college town with few people. I did check craiglist but in the last 2 months there were all of 5 bikes for sale. In my area at least, craigslist wont work. Half of them were 600+ road bikes. The others were like "we bought this crappy Huffy from Walmart 6 years ago and our son never rode it. Give us your best offer" And then the ones were someone dug a bike out of their grandparents garage which is rusted over from the 70s and just has "Working Bike" as the title.

As far as tools:
Get a Crank Brothers m17 multitool.
That will have almost everything you need for basic maintenance.
Also buy a leatherman knockoff multitool, or at least a $3 pair of pliers.

You could also get a Trek 7000 for about $300, plus $30-40 for fenders and $30-40 for a rack; you would need to install the fenders and the rack yourself.

Consider the Schwinn mentioned here. It has everything you'd need except lights.

Where will you be riding? Road conditions, hills, what part of the country, and if you'll tell us, what city?

The problem is that with all of the tools you mention, the above Schwinn is effectively $450 after buying all of the tools and paying for shipping. This is fine if I was going to keep the tools and use them in the future, but I really can't. The tools you mention may be nice, but that Crank Bros tools is ~$25 at least. Besides that, the Schwinn IS a nice bike, no doubt but it's at the very high end of what I would want to spend.

Especially after looking at Giant site, they say the Giant Cypress ST retails for $275. THAT is very much along the lines of what I need. It may be heavier and it wont come with fenders or a rack, but even +$70 with fender and rack put it at $345.

It seems I'm kind of stuck between buying a bike online and saving money but needing to buy tools as well verses paying overprice at my LBS with sales tax to have it all assembled for me. I'm also far more confident in my LBS than my abilities at assembling a bike. I might see if my LBS will order the Cypress ST for $275 and they install fenders and rack for free if you buy it through them (~$70) so in total it would be about $365 and I wouldn't have to assemble it. That seems like a good situation. The only thing I'm worried about is if they jack up the price of the ST and say it's something like $330 instead of the suggested $275 for Giant.

It's much cheaper to own tools and lubricant and learn to do the basic maintenance work yourself than to get a bike store to do it for you. I can do almost everything on my older beaters with my Topeak hex tool (which includes a flat and cross/Phillips screwdriver, tire levers, chain tool and spoke wrench) and a 6" crescent wrench (adjustable spanner). Occasionally I use pliers to hold the brake cable if I need to adjust it There is some standardization of bike parts so usually a rack will come with screws that fit the eyelets on your bike and it won't be hard to figure it out. Get a pump as well.

Have you looked into simply oiling the Walmart bike and adding clip on fenders? You could get a seatpost-mounted rear fender, and there's probably something you could do for the front wheel too. My kid has a splashguard under the downtube that catches the spray from the front wheel.

Most of what I'll be traversing is flat road. The roads aren't well kept, though, so there are plenty of cracks and potholes around. I don't think I'd go for skinny road bike type tires, but of course I want road tires. The gearing isn't too important but I would want something that covers a decent range. I was looking at the folding bikes but I don't need the portability at all so I don't see the need to pay more for it.

Cooker, I also thought of fixing up my Walmart beat up bike. I did at one point have a clip on splash guard. It was really annoying as well and always getting in the way and moving in all directions even after locking it down hard. Unfortunately that got stolen fairly quickly. I also need to attach a rear rack for transporting groceries. I could get these things for that bike, but I'd wind up spending more on it than it's worth. It doesn't even have a major gear changer anymore, so it's effectively a 6-speed bike. Besides that I have the budget for a $400 bike. I also test rode a $600 "low-end" road bike which was just blazing fast. It made me realize though, that even though my bike is complete crap, it's not bad for what it has been through and what it costs. If it had a suspension and it rode smooth I'd be tempted to keep it. Right now it grinds and squeaks and the the only thing saving my efficiency is keeping my tire at ~70 psi even though it's rated for 55 psi. Without having any sort of suspension, that causes the ride to be unpleasant.

I'd recommend against suspension. It just slows you down and serves very little purpose. If you are about to go over an unavoidable pothole, stand up and even spring slightly on the pedals to help the bike to float over it. You should also assist the wheels riding up a curb by doing a small wheely to get the front up and then sort of bouncing on the pedals just as your rear wheel hits it to so it rides up without your weight crushing it. Suspension is helpful on very rough trails but not of much benefit on pavement.

I have an unrelated question: The reason I want fenders so much is that every time I ride in the rain I wind up with a ton of dirty water all over the back of my shirt. I ride a mountain bike though. Would a road bike's skinny and flat (not nubby) tires prevent it from kicking up dirty water? If that's the case, I might be tempted to go for a road bike. I tested a "low-end" $600 road bike today which was blazing fast. While I wouldn't buy a road bike costing that much, I think any road bike would be fast.

I'd go for something non Schwinn, mongoose or other now-a-day walmart bike. However at the same time I almost picked up one of these for short trips:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=8399245

Looked at this and I like it except for the telescoping seatpost and cheap forks. it even has a Sturney Archer internal geared hub.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=8399249

No you still need fenders.

Wow I completely forgot that Walmart carried some of that stuff on its website for cheap. In my situation at least, that Mongoose is very tempting. For $109 it's made out aluminum and already has a rack attached. Putting on a rack is at least $30 so take that away and it's basically a $70 bike with road tires. May not last long but I don't need it to. In the time that I need it, I could basically by 3 of them for the price of one $400 bike. The Schwinn looked OK, but it only has 3 gears. I guess that could be livable, but it's $250. For $25 more I could basically get the Giant Cypress ST (albeit without fenders and a rack). The Mongoose seems to be fairly light as well. The only thing I worry about is having to adjust it as I had to do to my MTB since they never do the brakes right, they're always lopsided as well as the fact that it doesn't have a chain guard. At that price though, it seems hard to beat. I think I'll take a look around and see if anyone has anything specific to say about it besides the typical "Any bike at that price is going to be crap /illadjusted/whatever" without knowing anything about it.

Here's a conversation about this very subject, and that very bike:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=398976
Can you find someone at school who knows bikes to help you get it set up for you? I know I would do that for someone, and in fact I started a cycling club at my school in part to help get students onto bikes and out of cars.

For your situation that Mongoose sounds like a winner. And I also recommend learning to do some of the simple stuff yourself. Adjusting and tweaking the brakes and cleaning and lubing the chain is not a hard process at all and not even all that time consuming. Sure your first venture at it may take longer than it would for a bike mechanic or a skilled hobbyist but you'll soon learn what you need to know. And it'll save you paying a bicycle shop to do the job for you.