Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hey all,

I'm looking at buying a new bike to ride to work, to the gym and back home everyday. Also to to ride around the place... generally on footpaths and the road.

For this purpose what sort of bike would you reccommend and why type of helmet would you recommend?

Cheers

How far?

If it's over 20km, you'll need a good quality bike and preferably something road orientated. If it's a shorter route, you can get by with anything.

How fit are you and how fit do you plan to get?

If you're 200kg, you'll need something fairly upright until the weight comes down. If you're hyper fit and aggressive, you probably wouldn't want a hybrid or comfort bike.

Let's assume though, that you have a ride of a reasonable distance, that you are or can quickly become reasonably fit by non-sporting standards and that the extra weight you're carrying isn't excessive ie, a pretty generic sort of Australian male (it's now you point out that you are a French woman athlete out here on holiday )

Mate, just start going to shops and see where your heart leads you. You do NOT need a racing bike, but if speed is your go and you don't mind wearing a backpack, they will feed that passion. If you are just likely to potter around without fussing about speed at all, you may prefer one of the hybrid or comfort bikes. Go to lots of shops and listen as they try to sell you stuff and you'll soon find that as you go into a shop, you'll be drawn to a partitucular style of bike - and yes, it's okay to make the choice based on emotions. People who make purely rational decisions usually wind up buying another bike fairly quickly. Even an mtb will commute quite long distances if you fit slick tyres and have a desire to test the mud tracks from time to time.

Price? You get what you pay for. Pay nothing and you will get a bike that will wear out quickly and will probably not work too well. As you pay more, you get better components and a better frame. However, buy from one of the 'name' brands such as Trek, Giant, Avanti, etc, and you'll be getting a good bike. But look at how much you want to spend, how much you can spend and don't forget that you'll need accessories - pumps, clothing (especially if riding for more than an hour), helmet, puncture repair kit, drink bottles, etc.

Richard

Thanks Richard!

Well to travel to work would be no more than 10km. I weight about 78kgs, and I do work out at the gym everyday, kiteboard, wakeboard, box abit, and trying to build my fitness up but not enough time in the day to do it. So i thought riding to work instead of driving would help me out here.

Well if this changes any of what you said previously please let me know.

Cheers,

Daveo

Mate, just look at lots and lots of shops (partly to sharpen your bulldust detector), then buy the bike you fall in love with. You can do that trip with anything you flamin' well feel like, so get what tugs at your heart and you never know, you may wind up like some of us other nutters, riding it all over the place.

Richard

Hey Davo, welcome to the forum.

The short answer is 10k isn't very far, any bike will do, unless you have special requirements.

Where do you live? Between where and where will you be riding?

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G'Day Dave, nice to meet you.

Work out what type of bike best suits all your planned use, it's very easy to start out small, just commuting every day, then find yourself planning an epic or two IMO with your sporting history, a hybrid or comfort bike would not feed your needs. If it's mostly pave, get a roadie. If those offroad distractions tug at you get an MTB. Just sticking with those options leaves you with about 2000 bikes in each category to consider

The hunt and the buy can be a whole lotta fun if you let it, don't get pressured into what they think is right, the right wheels are out there, go get 'em

Good luck

Shaun

How much do you want to spend?

$400 is good quality entry level MTB territory (Giant Boulder, Trek 3700), or a hybrid bike, or a bit more for flat bar road bikes.

$1000 is good quality entry level drop bar Road bike territory (Giant OCR 3, Trek 1000). Also hub geared commuter bikes sit around this price point.

$1500 is about the price of a good steel framed touring bike, which is like a road bike with wide gearing and space for hauling stuff around, such as the Surly Long Haul Trucker.

$2000+ you can have full suspension MTBs with high end components, or you can have an all carbon fibre light weight road bike with high end components, or anything else you can dream of.