Road Bicycle

[Sandman]

Hey guys. I'm looking for some help on picking out a road bicycle. I know next to nothing about bicycles. I'm 6'0 and about 250. I'm doing it to lose some weight as I've picked up jogging/running. Any recommendations?

[Guest MTBryan]

I am a road biker. I put in 5500 miles last year.

The first thing you need to do is come up with your budget. That's the first question a bike shop will ask. Not necessarily to take your money. But a road bike can range in price from a $200 piece of junk to a $12000 race machine.

I have always given the advice to not start too expensive. If you don't ride you can usually get some money back, especially on a decent cheaper bike. But you also don't want junk.

A good name brand like Specialized, Trek, etc will give you roughly the same quality and components for the same price range.

$1500 - $2000 will get you a great starter bike that can last a long time and be upgradable. But if that's too much, you need to decide up front.

Then, go to a local shop and ask questions.

They will not only ask your budget, but will ask how much per week you will ride, what type of terrain, how fast, etc.

I am a proponent of buying local and supporting a local shop, but that's just me.

When you buy from a local shop, it may cost a little more. But the fit, adjustments and warranty issue hassles over come that cost difference pretty quickly in my opinion.

Good luck!

[Lumber_Jack]

I'll echo comments above. An improper fit can make ridding painful and unemployable. If you find the frame size you need, you can often find a decent used bike on Craigslist, but you need to know what size can be adjusted to your height. Probably a 56cm frame but maybe bigger or smaller due to your leg length and torso ratio.

I can recommend West Bicycle, Cedar Bluff Cycle, the Bike Zoo, in Knoxville. I would take your time and visit several shops and compare advice.

If you find a used bike and need some advice on components, price, and fit, just shoot me a message or txt ( if you still have my number).

[sigrug17]

I worked as a bike mechanic and sales before I came to TN. You'll want to set a budget, but you'll also want to decide on what your going to use the road bike for (just weight loss, exercise, recreational or later on getting into tri's or road racing. ) Reason: if its just for weight loss and exercise you might want to consider a touring/ hybrid bike, or flat bar (like a mtn bike type) handlebars. If your even considering any competitions later on..I'd stick with a pure roadbike. For your weight and size, I'd stay away from a pure aluminum frame bike, as they tend to be Not so comfortable as they don't really absorb the terrain very well, though they are very responsive, and one of the lighter materials. I'd recommend something with a carbon fork, and if possible carbon seatstays. Most people don't stick with the stock seat, so that is something worth the investment to find a proper one. I'd also recommend dedicated cycling shorts too, as they are very important and a very wise investment in enjoying cycling. And like the other's responses, get a proper fit. (and "yes" I still ride... but not the thousands of miles yearly anymore.)

Just my two cents

Edited July 4, 2012 by sigrug17

[Guest MTBryan]

Great advice!

[JReedEsq]

I'm an avid cyclist. I rode 45 miles after work today with a group from Cedar Bluff Cycles. The absolute most important part is bike fit. A proper fit makes a huge difference in comfort, injury prevention (think neck, back, & knees), and even plays an important role in how much power your body can produce. I would spend th money to buy from a reputable shop that will include a proper bike fit. I have been very happy with Jon Magnusson at Harper's and I also like Gerry Harms, one of the owners of CBC. I raced for 10 years and it took me a long time to learn that proper fit makes so much more difference than what your weighs or what the frame material is. I sold bikes in college and I could go on and on my the touch screen on my phone is driving me nuts. Feel free to shoot me an email at joshuastephenreed@Yahoo if you have any more cycling questions. If you appreciate quality and don't like to send your money to China, Google Lynskey bike Chattanooga. I've had a lot of bikes and I love my Lynskey.

Edited July 4, 2012 by JReedEsq

[sigmtnman]

... If you appreciate quality and don't like to send your money to China, Google Lynskey bike Chattanooga. I've had a lot of bikes and I love my Lynskey.

Thanks for posting about Lynskey. I wondered what happened to Litespeed.

[Trekbike]

I agree with the above comments but wanted to throw more change into the pot. You mentioned wanting to lose some weight and started running. Just some general questions to think about before my comments on the bike. Just out curiosity what made you interested in road bicycling? I mainly ask this to gauge your interest level. Many people have an interest, go out and drop a lot of money on a bike, ride it a couple of times and then it gets put in the corner. One thought is a number of local shops have rental road bikes and you might want to rent for a couple of days to help you determine if it's something you want to do long term. (If you do make sure the LBS sets you up with a proper fitting bike.) As Lumber Jack mentioned checking out Craigslist or a LBS bulletin board can be a good option as long as you know the frame size you need. Do your homework on frames, components, and get advice from a cyclist friend. Here is a link to help you determine a proper frame size. You start the calculator on the bottom right side of the page. http://www.competiti...ALCULATOR_INTRO

I got my bike off a LBS board and it worked out great for me since I got almost three times the bike for my money, YMMV. So buying used is a good way to get a lot more bike for the money but since you said you don't know anything about bikes, find a friend that does or have a LBS check it out prior to the purchase. If you want new, the work with a LBS rather than purchasing online. As others have said fit is extremely important since you usually end up riding for hours at a time. Get a bike that doesn't fit and it will end up in the corner of the garage.

Do you have friends that currently ride or know a local club you can hook up with? Hooking up with a group is the best way to ensure you will keep riding and keep your motivation high. Road cycling is much more of a social sport than most people think. Riding by yourself is boring.

Do you live in a bike friendly area for riding or will you have to drive your bike to get to a good area? Obviously if you can ride off directly from your house the more likely you will ride.

On the bike, buy as much bike as you can afford but don't overspend as you might lose interest. Bikes don't hold resale value very well so you will take a bath if you decide to sell. Don't forget about gear when setting your budget. Helmet, gloves, shoes, clothes, pump, maintenance items, bike carrier if you don't have a suitable vehicle to carry it, etc. blah, blah, blah. The component group (derailleurs, crank, cassettes, brakes, shifters) the bike has is very important and is the one thing that greatly affects the price of the bike. You go with a cheap group and you'll regret it greatly.

That's about all I've got at the moment. One thing that you will find is cyclists are a very helpful group of folks and are more than willing to help you because most of us were helped by someone else when we started. Good luck.

[Tuffus]

Lots of good advice so far. I've been riding since the seventies and am a good sized fellow too. A nice chromoly steel bike with some 36 spoke wheels would serve you well although carbon and titanium are great too but more expensive. Get a good used bike to start, you can get most of your money back if you don't stay with it. Don't try to ride too far in the beginning and add about 10% more miles from week to week. You can be the judge as you go. Don't make yourself miserable riding to far, it's supposed to be fun. It's a great low impact sport and as you see improvement you'll get excited about doing more and more. It becomes addicting, kind of like firearms.

[Guest db99wj]

Lots of great advice except for the whole road bike stuff! Get a mountain bike!!! Just kidding. Fit is, in my opinion, the most important thing. Fit will make it more comfortable, along with a pair of padded shorts that feel weird walking around ,but do a lot on the bike, until your body gets use to the seat. My old mountain bike, I couldn't stand riding, changed seats, etc, never could make it comfortable, so I didn't ride for years. I grew up on a bike, BMX/street stuff, so my love for bikes was there, just couldn't get into it due to hurting the next day. Decided to get a new bike, wanted to do some duathlons and work my way up to some triathlons. Got the right bike that fits and I can go for hours without any problem, and really without the padded shorts, although they still do help a little bit. My point, even though I'm not a roadie, is that fit is where it is important, if it doesn't fit well and you are uncomfortable, you won't stick with it and you have basically just paid full price for a good deal for the person who buys it from you.

[greyofk]

I use my bike as everyday transportation from March till October.

The name "road bike" is misleading. Concrete road of East Tennessee are too ra for the real road bike

I recommend to try and compare several road bikes, hybrids and cruisers at Bike Zoo in Knoxville at Kingston pike. You can take a test ride(s) before you buy. They have impressive selection. They also know ho to adjust and tune a bike to fit. They can even build a bike for you.

[mav]

Since nobody has mentioned this, I will just through my $0.02 in. While exercise is an important component for any weight loss program, the key (and the hardest) component is diet. If you exercise a lot, but you eat like crap and take in too many calories, you won't see the weight loss you desire.

If the sole reason you are thinking about buying a bike is to lose weight, I don't think I would spend the money on a bike. Save your money. Running, good weight training, and proper diet are more than sufficient to lose weight. However, if you are wanting to get into biking, I would first decide what type of riding you want to do and how much you want to spend. Once you have that established, I would go to your local bike shop and ride a bunch of different bikes to see what you like. Sometimes your bike shop will have demo bikes, and that is a great way to save some money. I saved almost $1200 on my last bike. I won't say anythng about being fitted since everyone else has said how important it is.

I know you asked about a road bike, but I would also consider a mountain bike since we are talking weight loss and general fitness. Ever since I got my mountain bike several months ago, my road bike doesn't see much use. No, it is not for sale . To me, trail riding is so much more fun than riding on the road. I have so much fun riding the trails at Enterprise South that I don't realize that I am getting a good workout while riding.

If you do get a road bike, I would recommend buying a good set of rollers. They are hard to use at first, but they will improve your balance and bike handling skills.

[Daniel]

Man, I didn't realize how much I missed riding until I came home on leave and got on my road bike. Just feels so right. I will get back in the fall and it will be prime weather. Off topic but the thread has me missing it. Trekbike is right about it being boring solo.

[Guest FiddleDog]

Fit is a huge thing with a bike. a 6'0, I'm guessing that you have somewhere around a 32 inseam. You could go with a 54 or a 56 as far as size is concerned the 54 will give you the appropriate stand over distance (on most bike geometries but slightly tight on the top tube length. a 56 may cut it a little close on stand over, but the tope tube will be pretty comfortable. I'm an avid cycler, and have both a 54 and 56 (I'm 6ft tall with a 32 inch inseam) The 56 is definitely more fun, the 54 is a little more agile for me.

I highly recommend a single speed. Something like a Raleigh Rush Hour or a Specialized Langster. If you go used, I'd suggest looking at a full aluminum frame. Carbon fiber is light and the inserts are all the rage, but I've noticed that they age pretty quickly.

Also the Trek 7.x series is a good all around bike to consider. You'll get the road bike performance (up to a point) with the 700cc wheels out of it, but it comes with a straight handlebar (a little easier to approach than the drop bars). Off road tires are available, so you can switch out the tires and hit the trails, as well.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Can't offer advice, dunno nothin. Years ago I liked relatively flat land riding but never liked hills even when I was in not-bad shape. A couple of times long ago had a big time down at Jekyl Island, could at that time circumnavigate almost the entire island on the beach, only a couple of miles on roads, and a little "swamp path" that was a raised 3 foot wide asphalt trail that goes thru nasty looking salt swamp you almost expect a dinosaur to poke his head up, and dragonflies the size of model airplanes. That trip wasn't exhausting but took a good bit of the day. Maybe 20 miles, can't recall. On the beach ride the hard sand near the water line.

Used to like riding out at the Fort Oglethorpe battlefield on weekends with the kids because it was relatively flat, ride a few hours, not a huge workout but more exercise than sitting at home in the easychair. It just seemed kinda silly to drive 15 miles to ride a bike.

For awhile in early 1970's would commute about 5 miles to work in chatt on bike, but for one thing got paranoid of getting run over by a car, and for another thing the trip had some steep hills. It seemed kinda silly gearing down so low to be pedaling as fast as I could go with the bike traveling slower than normal walking speed, just to "prove a point" that you are riding up the hill rather than walking the bike up the hill. Finally it got so silly I'd just walk the stupid bike up the hills and arrive at work faster than "riding" it up the hills.

So anyway maybe it is cheating, but if I ever get another bike to ride in the hilly chatt vicinity, was looking at the electric assisted bikes. Some of them have dynamic braking so going downhill recharges the battery. Some of them are setup so the electric motor responds to how hard you pedal. There isn't any hand trottle or anything. The motor just kicks in when you start pedalling harder than a certain threshold, and you can adjust the threshold where the electric motor kicks in. The motors nowadays are built-in part of the wheels, rather than some weird addon rube goldberg belt or friction drive from 1950's Mechanix Illustrated "electric bike kit" ads.

Just sayin, it sounds like a good way to get a "controlled amount" of exercise without an old guy giving himself a heart attack. Set the motor threshold about as high as is comfortable. Run flats or slight hills under yer own power, but if you hit a hill you keep pedaling with exactly the same effort and the motor kicks in and you maintain speed up the hill. Sounds pretty good in theory. That's probably a "wimp's way out" but even as a young man it seemed kinda nutty to be pedalling like mad to creep up a hill so slow.

[kieefer]

Might pm Mustang Dave, I think he also works for a bike shop.

Edited July 6, 2012 by kieefer

[Sandman]

I'm gonna head out to Bike zoo tomorrow and get sized. Then probably peruse the classifieds for a used one. Thanks for all the advice, I may even check out the hybrid.

[Sandman]

56 for me it looks like. I tried different styles and think for what I want is a pure road bike. If anyone comes across one let me know...I would like to buy used and under $1000. Thanks for the advice!