Originally Posted by rickabobaloey

Well I'm new to riding bikes. Well not really new, I used to ride bikes all the time when I was kid, but hadn't been on one in years. Since before I was 18 and I'm now 24. So it's been a while.

I purchased a Schwinn Sidewinder from WalMart. And before I hear all the horrible things about purchasing the bike (I did read reviews on it before I bought it), I wasn't about to drop more than $200 bucks on something unless I was going to use it frequently.

I've had it for about a month now and this is only my second ride. The first ride was the day I got it and was only about a mile down the road and back, just to test it out. So today I took it down the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail in central Michigan about 4.5 miles there and back. Of course, that is just a rough estimate, as I've no devices to measure distance, although I am looking into purchasing one. I could have gone farther but I realized I was pretty thirst and hadn't put a bottle and rack on the bike yet. So I went to the nearest bike shop and got one for $6 bucks and put it on. Next ride I'll go farther since I now have a means of taking water with me.

I'm currently 330 lbs. I was 375 lbs. when I started eating right and working out (weight lifting) about a year and a half ago. I first thought of getting back into biking as a means for exercise in addition to working out, and plus, unlike the stationary bikes at the gym, this gets me outside and enjoying fresh air.

So any tips, recommendations on possible gear I might be interested in picking up is all greatly appreciated.