“Which entry level bike should I get?”

This is a common question on every bike forum on the global interweb. Generally the poster is a bike newbie and is looking to buy something for 100-200 euros. I know because I was one of these noobs just two short year’ ago. Ok, well this might well help get you started – here’s some tips for the decisions you have to make.

1. Get a realistic budget (or go 2nd hand)

If your budget of 200 quid is not realistic, unless it’s pounds Sterling we’re talking about. If you really have a hard limit then 200 quid will buy you a very decent 2nd-hand bike, or a piece-of-sh!t from Argos and plenty of change. I strongly recommend going the 2nd-hand route if you do have to stick to your small budget. One option is to go to a police bike auction. In Dublin it’s held around twice a year, and although this October’s one wasn’t great, there were a couple of good bargains to be found. Otherwise try your local adverts website or Craigslist.
Once you’ve done some research it’s obvious that to buy a new bike you’ll need to up your budget to at least 300eur (~$350). It helps to remember that you’re spending money on a well engineered machine that will help your fitness and can substitute for your car.

Did you factor the accessories into your budget? I’m talking at least 35eur for helmet and 20eur for lights, 20eur for a lock and that’s the basic models. It depends on yourself and your local laws but if you cycle in the dark without lights you’re dumb and if you go without a helmet, well, it’s your choice and hopefully you won’t fall and hit your head.

2. Decide what type of bike

Now that you have a realistic budget you need to decide the type of bike you want. This choice is dependent on what you will definitely be using the bike for, and what you think you may use the bike for. You might want to lose weight, or commute to work, cycle with your kids on the weekend or get into road racing or triathlons. Three months after buying it you might suddenly decide you want to go on a bike tour to France. It helps to be a little prescient 🙂

The main type of bikes you’ll be looking at in the entry level arena will be mountain bikes and hybrids. Proper road bikes (aka “racers”) are way out of your budget – you’re looking at 700 euros for a Trek 1000, the de facto standard of entry level (this, like all things, is debatable – post a comment). Also out of budget are well spec’d touring bikes like the Trek 520 (nope, I’m not on commission from Trek, it is the de facto standard for entry level tourers – at least until they go AL this year). So back to what is in budget, the mountain bikes and the hybrids. (If you really do want a road bike post a comment or follow one of the forum links on the right.)

Why buy a mountain bike? If you’re a heavy rider -weight or style- or maybe you will be travelling on bad road surfaces, perhaps you think you’d like to try some trail riding, or want to be able to treat your bike mean and have it come back for more.

Mountain bikes are made to take a hit more than your average road bike, though don’t try full-on DH or 12 foot drops on your new Specialized Rockhopper. Entry level mountain bikes are generally suited to XC or cross-country style riding. Although they’re not rigged for it mountain bikes can make great commuters if you put some slick tyres like the Continental Sports Contact 26×1.3s on, and either lock out the suspension fork or replace it altogether with a rigid fork.

If you do want to hit the trails keep the standard tyres and the entry-level suspension will keep you going for your first couple of months until the upgrade-bug kicks in. Good suspension is expensive, entry level is crap. Do not buy a full suspension bike mountain bike – get a hardtail first off. If you can get a rigid fork and some cash off the sale that’s even better – you can buy a decent fork for 200-1000 quid later when you need it.

On the flip side you should get a hybrid if you’re going to be exclusively on road and want a faster and smoother ride. Hybrids come geared and with better tyres for road riding. Hybrids range from aggressive “road bike with flat bars style” Claud Butler Levante to the more relaxed and upright Ridgeback Velocity. They generally come set up as commuters or light touring bikes. How to be uncool: if you’re ever going to be commuting in the rain put mudguards (fenders) on there. Yep, they look very uncool, but first time it rains you’ll be very glad you did. You won’t look cool with a black stripe down your back. If you really want to look cool on the sunny days buy some of the plastic clip-on ones and you can leave ’em at home (and pray that’s not a thunderstorm you spot in the distance).

If you’re still not sure what type of bike you want then ask online – post on the relevant forum on bikeforums or on the boards.ie Cycling forum or simply post a comment here and I’ll help you best I can.

3. Test ride potential bikes

It’s really important, particularly for your first bike, that you try it out at the bike shop. Fitting your bike correctly is important because the capacity for injury or strain is there due to the repetitive nature of the exercise. You’ll learn some important things from trying out a bike at the shop – you’ll find out if you get on with the staff, you’ll find out what size bike you need, and you’ll get an impression of the different types of ride available. This should help you decide what you’re buying.

4. Call around for quotes

I called 5 shops asking for quotes for my Trek 4300. The first guy said “370 euros, and it’s the best you’ll get. Call around and find out”. Good advice, and he was dead right – I was quoted from 420 to 480 at all the other shops.

Guess who got the 370eur plus the 170eur on accessories plus the Ridgeback Velocity I bought there with my girlfriend, plus the Ridgeback Velocity I bought there with my housemate, plus the Trek 3900 I bought there with my cow-orker plus the Ultegra-spec’d Surly Cross Check he’s building up for me right now. Quick calculation shows I’ve spent or influenced the spending of more than 3000 euros in that shop to date. I guess he made his 50 quid’s worth back since then, eh? 🙂

5. Buy the bike, negotiate on everything

Your first time buying you’re better off buying at a shop. If you’re going to get accessories like lights, lock, helmet, gloves, mudguards, rack, panniers then now is the best time to get them. When you buy the bike be ready to ask them to do some work on it there and then e.g. fit the rack/mudguards/lights/rigid fork/slick tyres that you want. This should be free. Ask if they do 1 year/2 year/lifetime service for free. 99% of shops will give you a free 1st service 1-3 months after you buy the bike.

You can negotiate on the accessories, they should offer you a discount anyway, but in case they don’t then ask for one. They’ll either say yay or nay. One of my favourites is to calculate the total cost, and then say to the guy “ok, so that all comes to about [insert 85-90% of actual cost], right?”, he’ll pull out his calculator and figure out how much I’m taking him for and agree and we’re all happy. It’s a fun game to play, and like I mentioned above, the guy knows he’ll get his money’s worth. I think he’s gonna throw in a free pump with my new bike 😉

Ok, well that’s the end of my tips, this is such a vast subject that I could write for hours and hours. In fact I’m definitely unhappy that there’s plenty I’ve skimmed over and others I’ve ignored altogether. Yet it’s good enough info to point most people in the right direction. I’ll be revisiting this one. If there’s something you disagree with, you spot something that’s patently false, or you have any questions or suggestions then please leave a comment.

Update: some potential candiate bikes for you.

Mountain bikes 300-400 euro: Trek 3500 (cos it’s rigid fork and very cheap), 3900, 4100, 4200, 4300 (best bang for your buck). Giant Boulder. Specialized Hardrock (very similar to 4300).

Hybrids: Ridgeback Velocity (more relaxed geometry). Claud Butler Levante (aggressive road-like hybrid)

Road bike: Giant SCR 3. Trek 1000. (if you’re getting a road bike do a lot more research)

I recently ordered my 2nd “real bike “, a Surly Cross-Check built up for commuting and touring. I like the Cross-Check because it’s the “Swiss Army knife of bikes”: it’s capable of doing so much – single track/cyclocross, singlespeed/fixed-gear, touring, commuting – due to certain features of the frameset , namely clearance and the horizontal dropouts. To quote Surly: “Think of the Cross-Check like an army jeep: tough as nails and used for everything”.

When I was considering the Cross-Check a lot of the cycling forums guys said “save up more money and get a custom frame”. The difference in cost is huge, however. If I get a custom frame built I’d be looking at ballpark 1,000 euros for the frame, because I wouldn’t accept half-measures. Paying 400 euros for the Swiss Army knife of bikes, I will accept half-measures. I know the TIG-welded 4130 Cro-moly tubing is heavier and uglier than 853 Reyolds with beautiful silver lugs (yes, I know lugs miss the point of air hardening the 853).

To me the beauty of the Cross-Check is that a couple of years down the line when I decide to upgrade my commuting/touring bike to something special custom built for me (like the King of Mercia) then I can reuse the Cross-Check frame. My current plan is a fun single-trail capable fixed-gear bike, but maybe at that stage I’ll want a fixed commuter and keep the King for long haul – who knows?

This driver won’t forget this incident too soon… originally from Nanfangdaily via Zoneuropa:

At around 8:50am on October 20, 2006, on the road from the Zhaoyang East bridge towards the Blue Island Building, a funny episode occurred: a foreigner acted as traffic police and made a small sedan which had gone into the bicycle lane move back out into the car lane.

By the time that I got there, a foreigner had stopped and held her bicycle in the bicycle lane in front of a silver car (license plate number HL ****). She was smiling and saying something to the driver while making gestures. At first I went past and I did not take any photographs. Then I saw the foreigner go past the car and stopped her bicycle in front of the car. So she was trying to get the car to go back into the car lane instead of being in the bicycle lane. This went on for a few minutes. The driver got mad and got out of the car to curse the foreigner. He even picked up the bicycle and hook it. Even so, the foreigner would not budge and she insisted that the car get back on the car lane.

Finally, the car turned back into the car lane. The foreigner then blocked the next car (a white Santana), which quickly retreated and went into the car lane.

The whole incident occurred in under 10 minutes and drew quite a few spectators. After the foreigner left, the spectators commented: “The Chinese really need to be educated this way!” Dear brother and sister readers, what do you think?

Our heroine.

Most regular sports and commuter cyclists are very safety conscious. Some of us spend serious amounts of cash on lighting systems, reflective clothing and other types of high visibility gear.

But sometimes there’s just nothing you can do – if it’s your day, it’s your day. Here’s a message for all of us cyclists from a grieving mother in California. My condolences to Mary Ann and the Peckams. Thanks for the reality check.

John Peckham was my son. He’s the one that was killed in the tragedy in the Los Altos Hills in Northern California on Sept. 8, 2006. John Peckham was doing nothing wrong. Nothing as in nothing.

He was wearing a helmet, he was not wearing earbuds, he was on a training ride on a road that had no traffic ever. Along comes the guy from hell. I can’t talk as much as I’d like here because I really don’t want to hurt my son’s case in the courts but I know for sure the guy was freaked out on Meth. Hit my kid going upwards of 80 mph while my kid was following all the rules of the road.

What I’m trying to say here is that I got some vibe that some of you all think that you can be safer if you try. You can’t. You’re on a bike you’re going to meet up with Mr. Methamphetamine. And my son got him this time. You were all spared for the moment. Nothing is going to make cycling safe. Nothing. You’ve got someone with nothing except Spandex and a Carbon Fiber bike going head on with a guy on Meth with a Buick from the 70’s. Who’s gonna win?

Are you going to quit riding? No, of course you are not going to quit. My son, John, would rather die than quit riding and that’s what he did. He died. Bottom line is be as careful and as safe as you can but nothing, not even a guardian angel (which I think is virtually useless in times such as these) can help you. Just be as safe as you can be.

That’s a mother’s lecture. I’m not saying to stop riding. That would not do. What I’m saying is that you can’t figure out what’s going to happen.

Here’s the thread on bikeforums.net

Summary: 9/10 Superb shoes for the price, especially for tourists or commuters

Pros: look great, just like normal shoes off the bike, great value especially considering long lifetime

Cons: sole may not be stiff enough for some

When I got these shoes first, they looked something like what’s in that box to the left there. I used these shoes as my “everyday” shoes for about 2 years, but note that’s wearing them 4-6 days a week solid. I didn’t swap them out while at work (we have a relaxed dress code) and had no problems with the recessed cleat. I could tap it by choice on the ground, but normally I didn’t notice it when walking.

The pedals I used with this are double-sided cheap SPD clone WellGos, which worked just great. My plan was to wear out either the shoes or the pedals first, then upgrade both. It was a close call, but the shoes went first, just. The stitching/glue went between the leather upper and the bottom of the air vent section along the outside of the right shoe. I lived with a rip along there for 2-3 months, but eventually I started seeing a problem where the platform section of the shoe was coming apart from the sole rubber (yeah I really wore these to the limit).

I swapped the pedals out for Egg Beaters, and after chucking a $40 pair of Decathlon Rockrider cr@ppy shoes, I splashed out real money on some sh!t hot Specialized Comp Carbon MTB 06’s based on the performace of the Rockhoppers.

A couple of things I loved about the Rockhoppers… they were great touring, I only needed 1 pair of shoes because they were fine to walk in with a bit of flex in the sole. They were great for commuting because they look just like a set of standard runners (or sneakers or running-shoes or whatever they’re called in your locale).

If I was a more hard core rider I’d be concerned with the lack of stiffness, that’s about the only negative. For my purposes they just kicked ass. I haven’t had normal shoes that lasted this long, so value for money is excellent. I’ll give them a 9/10 rating.

Since I stole their picture (tut tut), here’s a link to a merchant on ebay with some of these shoes in stock for USD $60. (Nope, unfortunately I don’t get commision!)