OK here's the deal: my wife and I are looking for some bicycles. We are not looking for anything professional or something with a million gears and gadgets. We just want something comfortable that we can ride in town and on bike paths, nothing off-road.

Can anyone make a suggestion?

Thanks!
Bentley

Get a Hybrid....They are made for comfort and fun. Giant is a good brand for that sort of thing. You are just wanting a comfortable ride right? No offorading or anything?

Hey,

My husband wanted the same thing and I just recently bought one for his birthday. I got it off ebay and here is a link to one that is listed now...

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2007-Full-Suspensi...3QQcmdZViewItem

According to my husband the price is a super deal - almost half of what it would normally cost. But I didn't check up on that.

Anyway, I went for a ride on it yesterday and loved it. I think I'm going to get one for myself. It is awesome. It has amazing shocks that make the ride so smooth.

I know everything and more about bmx bikes. Humm.. I can say this. You get what you pay for when it comes to bikes. Are you looking to get more of a MTB bike style or a road bike style? What is your budget? There is a lot to choose from out there. I would recommend going into a MORE THAN ONE bike shops and seeing what they have to offer.

I hope that this is able to help.

Here are some links:

Specialized Bikes

Felt bikes

Kona Bikes

Yeah, just strictly on-road. I'll check into that brand...thanks!



Thanks....we don't plan on riding enough to justify a whole lot of money....maybe $300-$500 apiece. Can I get something for that?

Bentley,

I worked my way through college in a bike shop (www.waltsbikeshop.com). and would love to offer a coupe pieces of advice.

My top piece of advice is two fold. First, go through a bike shop. Buying off Ebay can get you good deals, but if you ar enot familiar with bikes, you won;t know what you like until ride them which leads me to my next piece of advice: Ride as many as you can. It's like buying a pair of jeans, you have to try them on. The first couple you ride, you probably won't see much difference. Once you hop on #3, you will start to notice the small differences between them.

Most bikes through a shop start around the mid $200s. You will be fine with what you want to spend.

back to the Bike Shop thing. I recommend buying through a shop for many reasons, nto the least of which is safety. A bike built in a shop will be built, generally, better and safer than a Discount box store built bike. A friend was always razzing me for recommending buyign through a shop so we went to WalMart one day and I told him to pick out a bike. He found the one he wanted and told me he was willing to take it home right then and ride it. He rolled it over to me and with little effort the brake levers were easily pivoted onthe handlebar, the seat could spin 360 degrees and the handlebars themselves could be rotated indendently of the front wheel. Most shops refer to this at catastrophic failure. Very dangerous.

Shops also sell what I feel are among the best of the brands with full price ranges. Trek, Canondale, Gary Fisher, Klein, Specialized...are jsut a few of the most reputable brands.

If you have any specific questions, please let me know. I regularly accompany friends to shops to help them make sure they are makign a good purchase for their needs.

~Matt

Oh yeah, WEAR A HELMET!

If you are sitting on the seat of a bike and are of average height and pick up your feet and fall over sideways, your head will hit the ground in excess of 16mph.

Wow...thanks so much, Matt! I would definately buy from a bike shop. Never had much luck with anything from Wal-Mart. Right now I'm just trying to gain as much information as I can before going to a shop. I live in a small town and the nearest bike shop is about an hour away.

Anyway, do you know anything about the Electra bikes? A friend recommended this brand, and they look pretty good.

Thanks!

The last Electra I saw was a while ago, but I can give you some input about the components.

The website says it is made from Steel, but does not note what type which leads me to believe the frame is High tensile Steel (high tin), the base type of steel. the step up steel is chromo (chrmoly) and is stronger and usually double butted (thicker at the ends of the tubes for more strength, but lighter than a tube the same thickness throughout.

The hub is Shimano (industry leader, and yes, the same Shimano that makes reels for fly fishing) Nexus, their internally geared hub. Shimano is good stuff, and you will find it on the best, and worst, bikes available. It has all the gearing inside it so you don't have to worry about bending or damaging the deraileur. It is a commonhub on a bike liek the Elektra which is made for casual "beach cruising". Cruisers are great for flat ground and casual rides. If you are going up any hills thoguh, they can be a bit of a bear because of the frame geometry not allowing much leverage. Again, this goes back to my first message, ride a few styles before deciding on one.

Smart move doing research before hand. I always told my customers, this goes for photography as well, an informed consumer is the most satisfied consumer.

Thanks again Matt. That's exactly why I'm in the market. We're going to the beach for a couple of weeks in July, and we wanted to take some bikes down there to ride with the kids. It's all pretty flat down there with some good bike paths. Then I also need something to ride to back and forth from home to studio. I only live about a mile away I thought it would be a good idea while the weather is nice.

Bentley

I did a bunch of research a couple years ago and decided on an Electra Townie.

The Townie is much different from their other cruisers. For one thing, it's aluminum -- not steel. Something like 7005 tig welded (I have no idea what that means).

It's called (by some) a semi-recumbent. The pedals are offset from the downtube (I think that's what it's called). Most bikes have the pedals right at the bottom of the same tube the seat goes into at the top. The Townie's are a little closer to the front wheel. This does two things. It puts your weight more to the rear of the bike so you don't have as much weight on your hands. It also let you have proper leg extension while pedalling while at the same time being able to put your feet flat on the ground when you're stopped.

The one I got is an eight speed with the internal gears. They have models with regular deraileurs up to 24 speeds, too. The regular deraileur ones are much less expensive -- about $100 if I recall correctly. So if you don't want an internal geared hub, don't pay the extra for it.

Now, the reason I got one. I had a hand/thumb/wrist injury a few years ago that made it impossible to do much with my right hand (I'm right-handed). I couldn't ride my custom-built touring bike because of the weight on my hand. I also couldn't squeeze my right hand very tightly, so the brakes were killer, too. Fortunately, it was a Japanese bike with the rear brake on the left. I still couldn't last more than 10 minutes without being in too much pain to go on.

I had looked at full recumbents -- there are lots of different styles, some that you steer with your hands at your sides right in front of your rear, some with the handlebars up higher. These would have worked, but it still didn't address squeezing the brakes.

Enter the Townie. With the pedals forward, all my weight is on the seat. I can let go and ride no-handed without moving my body position. Solved the weight-on-the-hand issue. The eight-speed internal hub has a coaster brake. That solved the squeezing. I am a happy camper and can once again ride bikes with my kids.

Of course, the Townies with regular deraileurs have regular hand brakes. The gear ratios are also much wider so you have a bigger range. Basically, if you don't need or want a coaster brake, you're better off with a cheaper Townie that'll work better. The internal gears are no-maintenance and they're sealed. That's why they're so popular for beach rentals. Sand won't get in and muck things up.

Besides, they look really cool. I get comments all the time when I'm out riding.

Great input Adam. Recumbents and Semi-recumbents are also great if you have back problems. One of my bikes is a Gary Fisher "Klunker" and it is similar to a classic Cruiser. It is a blast to ride.