All these bikes to choose from?
Related Articles: How to pick the best bicycle for you!
What kind of bike to get depends on what you're going to do with it. At first glance they all look pretty much alike, just as do cars and trucks, but their intended purpose and suitability for your needs varies wildly, based on design. Mountain bikes are just awful on the road and most road bikes are pretty useless deep in the woods. If you ride a lot, you know this and choose your bike based on what you want it to do, it's appeal to you and cost.
If you're just getting into riding, or maybe getting your first good bike since you were a kid, buying a bike can be pretty intimidating, especially given the endless number of choices to be made.
Before you go looking at new bikes ask yourself a few questions and be as honest as you can with the answers.
Where do you intend to ride?
The answer to that not only makes all the difference in the world as to what type of bike to get, it also narrows your choices down. Most bikes come with either wider, skinny wheels (700c) or shorter, stouter wheels (26"). Bikes with 700c wheels are generally better suited for road riding and those with 26" wheels usually work best off road. There's umpteen variations and degrees of overlap between the two, but the wheel size pretty much sets the general tone of things.
So first things first, visualize where you are planning on doing most of your riding and then we can move on.
Why do you want to ride?
Fun & fitness? Commute to work, school or shopping? Casual or all out competition? All of the above?
Speed, rough terrain handling and comfort don't exactly go hand in hand, favoring one compromises the other and it's up to you to decide how to balance the mix.
How often do you expect to ride?
A bike that you ride every day may require different components & characteristics than one you ride once a week. A bike that is comfortable for a short ride may get uncomfortable on a long ride and while it may seem strange, a bike that's comfortable for hours on end may not be comfortable at all for a short ride around the block. You can pound a relatively inexpensive mountain bike occaisionally and expect it to hold up well but if you're going to do it every weekend and expect it to last, you'll want to reanalyze your choices.
The experienced employees at Holmes will listen to your answers to these questions, ask you a bunch more and give you knowledgeable and realistic advice about which bikes will do what you want, which ones won't and why, and what compromises you might want to consider to meet your budget.
It's not so much a question of how much do you have to spend to get a good bike as it is one of how much does it take to get one that will do what you need it to do. Spending too much doesn't guarantee that you'll get what you're looking for, spending too little almost always guarantees that you won't.
The best way to chose a bike is to test ride different bikes and ask enough questions to get a feel for the differences in function and fit.
Generally speaking, most bikes fall into a just a few basic categories-with endless variations in each. Choosing one becomes a whole lot easier once you've decided on a category and your choices are limited to function, features and price. Be realistic about how and where you intend to ride and ask enough questions to be sure you get the one that will do what you want it to.
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