Category Archives: New to Cycling

Where Should You Buy Your Bike?

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This one’s easy.  A good bike shop.  You will probably pay a bit more for your bike from a good bike shop but the other benefits you will gain are worth much, much more than the extra money you might pay for the bike.

People work at places like Wal-Mart because it’s a job; people work at bike shops because they love bikes.  This makes a big difference if you’re thinking about buying a bike and you don’t know very much about it.  In a bike shop there’s a good chance you will be talking to someone who knows a great deal about bikes and about cycling; at Wal-Mart you will be talking to someone who knows what time his shift ends.  At the bike shop you are much more likely to get answers to your questions that are based on long experience, deep knowledge and a love of cycling.  There is no substitute for that.

How well you are fit to a new bike is one of the most important factors affecting how much you will enjoy the bike.  Most bicycle manufacturers make bicycle frames in a range of standard sizes and the first step in getting a proper bike fit is buying a frame that is the right size for your body.  But that’s just the beginning.  Once you have the proper frame, adjustments have to be made to things like the the height and angle of the seat and how far forward or back it sits atop the seat tube, the height and angle of the handlebars and the distance between the handelbars and the seat.  Very small differences in these adjustments can make very large differences in the comfort of the ride to the point where a badly fit bike can produce both pain and injury.  This is especially important if you have physical limitations like back, knee, hip or ankle problems or carpel tunnel syndrome.  Moreover, as you adjust to riding the bike, your position on the bike is likely to change and the fit will have to be adjusted accordingly.  Bike shops usually have people who know how to fit a bike to the rider and understand how important fit is so they make sure it is done correctly.

As you ride your bike it will develop creaks and clicks that you will probably want fixed.  It will also have to have regular tune ups.  No matter how much you ride it’s always a good idea to have a good bike mechanic check it out and tune it up once a year.  Brand new bikes usually need a tune up after the first 50 or 100 miles.  Many bike shops will give you free tune ups if you buy the bike from them.  As time goes on and the miles add up, components on the bike will wear out and have to be replaced and you want able mechanics who know your bike and know how important it is to you to do the work.  Cultivating a good relationship with a good bike shop is one of the most important things you can do to insure months and years of enjoyable cycling.

Big-box retail stores like Wal-Mart lie at the other end of the buying spectrum.  You will be able to buy a bike there for less money, sometimes a lot less money, than at a bike shop.  You’ll get what you pay for.  Cheap bikes are made from cheap materials and cheap components.  They will fall apart more quickly and may be harder to repair because the manufacturers don’t make replacement parts.  They might fail while you’re riding which could be a disaster.  Many of these cheap bikes are manufactured to look like good bikes but are so shoddily made that they hardly qualify as bikes at all.  An experienced cyclist can spot the difference but the new rider may not be able to do so.  You won’t be able to get reliable, trustworthy information from the salesperson because the odds are very good he knows nothing about bikes or cycling.  You won’t get fitted to the bike.  You won’t be able to bring the bike back for tune ups or repairs.  The only reason to buy a bike from a place like this is cost and you would be much better off spending the money you’d spend for a cheap, crappy bike at Wal-Mart on a used bike from a good bike shop. 

In some locations there’s a middle option.  We live in the Washington DC area and around here there are several REI stores that are big-box retailers specializing in gear and clothing for camping and outdoor sports.  The stores near us sell bikes and also have in-house bike mechanics.  On the one hand, I have heard many good things about the mechanics at REI, on the other, I’ve listened several times as a salesperson at REI gave bad advice to a customer who was new to cycling.  It wasn’t that the salesperson didn’t care or was trying to sell the customer something that the store needed to get off the shelves.  They were genuinely trying to be helpful but they didn’t really know all that much about cycling. 

The less you know, the more you must depend on the knowledge and integrity of the salesperson and there’s no guarantee about the kind of salesperson you’ll get in any kind of store.  The odds are best that you’ll get more and better help in a bike shop.

If you decide to check out a local bike shop keep in mind that they may be very busy when you get there.  This is especially likely to be the case on Saturday mornings in the spring because some people can only get to the shop on the weekend and many people are getting their bikes ready for a summer’s worth of riding in the spring.  People in the shop will be able to spend more time with you if you can go when they aren’t so busy.  On the other hand, you can learn a lot about a shop by just watching and listening when there’s a lot going on.  Is the atmosphere relaxed and friendly?  Do they treat customers who are relatively inexperienced with interest and respect, or are they only friendly with the experienced riders who stop by?  Good bike shops are pleasant places and if you feel comfortable there, you’ve probably found a shop that’s worth your time and maybe your money.

What Kind Of Cyclist Do You Want To Be?

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The quick hot fire of initial enthusiasm can be easily doused.  However, if that fire is laid properly it can ignite into the powerful and long burning flame of passion.  My wife and I are avid and experienced road cyclists.  Many times we have seen people decide to start cycling with great enthusiasm and little knowledge of bikes or riding beyond what they remember from childhood.  With great intentions and expectations they Laura and I with a tour group atop Hoosier Pass in Colorado on a trip from Albuquerque to Denverrush out and buy a bike that more or less suits their cycling visions only to find that their initial enthusiasm is quickly dulled.  The bike ends up out on the balcony or in the garage gathering dust, the flame of passion extinguished before it ever had a chance to take hold.  As often as not the reasons lie in the would-be cyclist not thinking clearly about what kind of bike rider they would likely be and buying the wrong kind of bike as a result.  Riding a bike that is not suited to the type of cycling you’re doing is taking the fast lane to unhappiness and discomfort on the bike.  It turns an activity that can be a joy into something that is no fun at all.  This is the first in a series of posts designed to help the beginning cyclist roll out with their foot on the right pedal.

When you go to buy your first bike you’re often hit with a barrage of questions.  What kind of riding do you do? Racing, recreational, off-road?  What kind of bike do you want?  A road bike, a hybrid, a mountain bike?  What kind of frame do you want?  Carbon fiber, steel, aluminum, titanium, composit?  You don’t know the answer to any of these questions.  You don’t even know what half the choices you’re being offered mean.  Where do you start when you don’t know anything?

If you are thinking about getting a bike but don’t know much about bikes or cycling it makes sense to go to a place that sells bikes and ask questions to get the information you need.  This works really well if you happen to go to a place where they know a lot about bikes, will take the time to answer your questions, and won’t try and sell you something just to make the sale.  I think it’s a good idea to spend some time thinking about how you’d like to ride your bike before you buy anything and before you go to a place where someone might take advantage of your enthusiasm and ignorance to sell you something that doesn’t suit your needs.  Think about what it is about riding a bike that intrigues you or appeals to you while keeping an open mind about what kind of bike you would like to have.  People who are new to cycling sometimes make the mistake of being committed to buying a bike that looks a certain way or is associated with a particular image of the cyclist they find appealing when in fact that type of bike is all wrong for the type of riding they want to do. 

What do you want to do on your bike?  Win the Tour de France?  Careen down forested mountain slopes catching big air over small cliffs?  Toodle around the neighborhood with your baby in a carrier on the back?  Tour around the country with a tent and some camping gear?  Commute to work?  Get in shape?  All these things?  If you’re thinking about riding where there’s no pavement and maybe even no path, if you want to ride through woods and fields and streams without being limited by having to go where the roads go, then some type of mountain bike is probably what you want.  If light recreational riding around the neighborhood or on the local bike paths intrigues you, or if you want to commute to work or use your bike for basic transportation, then you should probably be considering some type of hybrid (a hybrid combines some of the characteristics of road and mountain bikes).  Depending on the condition you’re in now, any kind of riding will help get you in shape but if getting in shape or using the bike as an exercise or athletic outlet is what you find appealing, or if you are enthralled with a vision of yourself using a bike instead of an RV to travel and see the world, then you’re probably going to be looking at some kind of road bike.

Did you have a bike as a kid?  Did you like it?  What did you like about it?  Did you like to go fast?  Feel the wind in your face?  Think about a road bike.  Did you like being able to get around town on your bike?  Like the way the bike expanded the range of places you could go and people you could see?  Think about a hybrid.  Did you like being able to cut across the fields, the parks, the neighboors yard, go through the woods, ride in the streams?  Sounds like you’re a mountain bike kind of person.

How athletic have you been throughout your life?  Be honest with yourself about this.  Most people who decide to take up cycling want to lose weight or get in shape.  Any kind of cycling can help but real conditioning or real weight loss takes exertion and effort.  If you realistically calibrate your expectations and desires to the kind of riding you are most likely to do and keep doing, that effort can also be a lot of fun.  Have you enjoyed playing sports at different times in your life?  Do you find yourself going through periods of time, maybe months or years long, when you’re regularly engaged in physical or athletic activity like running or regular gym workouts and periods when you get almost no exercise?  Have you always shied away from physical exertion?  Are you out of shape or never been in shape?  Road and mountain biking tend to provide the most exercise, the types of riding best suited to a hybrid the least.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t get as intense a workout as you might want on a hybrid, you can.  However, a hybrid is not as well suited for exercise and conditioning as the other types of bikes.  If you think you are likely to really get into the bike for exercise, weight loss and cardiovascular conditioning, you’re probably going to end up on a road bike.

Don’t be concerned if your answers to some of these questions point to one type of bike and your answers to others point to a different kind of bike.  The goal here is to get you thinking along certain lines and to help you begin to think about different kinds of bikes in terms of what kind of cycling you’d like to do.  At the extremes a specific kind of bike is the one you will need.  You have to have a mountain bike if you are going to go all-out cross country where there are no roads and no bike paths; you want to have a road bike if you are going to ride really fast or ride for long distances; you really want a hybrid if you are going to commute long distances to work come rain or shine, winter and summer.  But you’re not at the extremes, you’re just starting out.  Any kind of bike can be used in many ways.  At this point you want to start thinking about the kind of bike that is going to be best suited to the way you want to ride. 

What kind of cyclist would you like to be?  You can be any kind you want.