From the mailbag (actually from the comments on the post):
Jacob Can you tell me what type of bike you have/price range? I’m shopping for a bike and hope to use it for errands and at least 3 days a week for work. I am a 45 year old female in good/fair physical condition. All the dealers I spoke to recommend different brands. It wasn’t helpful. Thanks JL
Although I already gave an answer, I thought about it a bit more, so here’s an expanded answer. It depends on several things. For example, I ride a road bike and I like to drive fast. I practically treat my commute like a race (it’s all within traffic laws – yes, I’m the guy who will stand and wait at a red light at 3am when no one’s there). When I stop at intersections, I race cars to the other side (and usually win) and when I see another cyclist, I think “his/her ass is mine” instead of “well, that’s nice, fellow cyclist.” Enjoy the ride/passengers save fuel/…” . I also do interval training on the bike, and since I started I’ve added inches to my legs, lost 5 pounds, and lowered my resting heart rate from 55 to 45. My bike has no room for the fenders and no welds for the racks.
I bought it new from the local bike shop and paid $1300 + taxes. They spent an hour installing it for me adjusting the height, length and angle of the saddle and handlebars. When I got a loose crank somewhat later, they tightened it for free.
Now, you may think that’s a lot of money to buy a bike, but how much did you spend on your car? Given that this is my primary mode of transportation, I thought I could pay a little extra for the quality. The good thing about bikes is that it is much easier to buy relatively high-end equipment
. So, while I would never pay $25,000 for a mid-range car because I don’t enjoy driving, I would definitely pay $1,300 for a mid-range bike.
There are many other areas, where it is possible to buy the best of the best (or nearly so) without being extremely wealthy. You just have to change your goal a little. Instead of buying high-end sports cars, you can buy high-end “sport” bikes. Instead of collecting rare plates, she collects custom, handcrafted knives. Instead of buying store brand soft drinks, you buy Coca-Cola, by the way, I prefer Sam-Cola (Walmart brand) to Coca-Cola.
I got my previous commuter bike for $35. This was a $70 mountain bike from Walmart purchased used from a professor who was leaving campus. Was this a cheap or frugal purchase? Well, it was certainly cheap, and the bike was bad too. The front brake was broken so I eventually had to stop up front because the brake was about 20 yards long (my ride was mostly off road and flat so it wasn’t much of a risk). I got a gel saddle for 25 cents at a yard sale. This saddle was later stolen. Realizing that I was surrounded by young, seemingly upstanding students (I was at a fairly well-known university known for its moral values), I figured I could get rid of the bike by parking it open when the crank eventually broke. Sure enough, less than a day later someone stole it. Good riddance, problem solved. Was he frugal? Consider this. The walk took 30 minutes, and previously walking was my main mode of transportation. The bike ride took 10 minutes, but I could cover the distance in 15 minutes. Since the bike had no fenders, riding wasn’t an option when it rained (which it often did). From that perspective, the bike was frugal as it saved me 10-40 minutes a day from time to time and the only use for the bike was off-road commuting where drivers in that area seemed to get points for hitting cyclists. Therefore, choosing the right bike depends largely on the conditions you will be using it for. Will you use it daily? Will there be exceptions such as rain or snow? Have you ever gone off the road? Do you need to carry anything like clothes or groceries? How fast do you want to go? How far do you need to go? Are you planning to do something else with the bike? Now I’m older and wiser and also uh.. better looking, er.. Would I buy a road bike again? No, I’d sacrifice a few pounds (my bike weighs 18-19 pounds, which is only a few pounds more than $15,000 Tour de France bikes, and a cheap steel bike probably weighs about 25-30 pounds) for more strength, and the ability to use fatter tires And taking it off road (my current bike has a spoke count of 16 front and 24 read..if I hit a big rock (or go off the curb, the wheel will go out of alignment). Today I’d get a touring bike because it’s almost as fast as a road bike (for me), but it comes with the ability to load cargo and has added flexibility (higher spoke count, less fancy gearing, more bosses for more water bottles). This will also be useful for my commute and better for long distance events. I’m thinking something like Grouchy long distance truck driver (about $1000 with cheap components, I’ll probably upgrade to at least 105, because Tiagra adapters just annoy me) or
Rivendell and Homer Hilson
(about $3000).
Another thing you should consider when purchasing a bike is that riding will likely change you. An untrained person will be completely uncomfortable riding a bike on the road. The saddle is too hard, the handlebars are too far down which is a pain in the butt, neck, etc. After several months, this will change. If you buy a more ‘comfortable’ bike, unless you are a ‘comfortable’ rider, sluggish shifting, low gearing (oversteer) and lack of aerodynamics will start to bother you as you get fitter.
One idea might be to look at the car you prefer to drive. If you could drive whatever you wanted (remember, price is not as much of a barrier for a bike as it is for a car), what kind would you drive? Sports car? SUV? Pocket? a truck? Sedan? Consider the distance you will travel during your commute and multiply it by 7. This is the comfort level. For example, if your commute is 5 miles, imagine riding 35 miles in a Jeep with knobby wheels (mountain bike), would that be fun? Probably not, unless you like Jeeps. To derive the price level, take the price level of your fictitious car and divide it by 25. This is the amount you would spend on a bike of similar level, or thereabouts.
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