We are thinking about buying a pair of bikes.  We do not know much about
bicycles, especially with the various types.  Our use will be general and we
want good versatile units.  Does anyone have any advice?  What type of bike
is best?  How do you select a make, once you have a style?  Quality will be
a prime consideration. 

Thanks in advance.

8 responses total.

My advice is to go to a few bike shops in your area.  Talk with the sales
people about your needs and wants and they will help you select a good
model and the proper frame size.  Go to the shop prepared to ride the
bikes.  If they won't let you ride it, move on to the next shop on your
list.  You'll have trouble buying real junk at a decent bike shop.  Junk
bikes are too dificult to put together and adjust so they work.  Setup
time cost the dealer money and markup on bikes is only about 30%.  For this
reason most dealers can't afford to sell junk. (Discount stores can because
your the one who has to put it together and make it work.)

I was assistant manager, mechanic and sales person for about 5 years for
a couple bike shops in A^2 back in the mid to late 70's.  I've been keeping
my foot in the door since then ;-)  Happy bike shopping!

I have a Fuji S-10-S I bought in 1973 for $220.  I've ridden it all
over New England, the streets of New York City, and now southeast
Michigan, and the bearings are still so good that I will beat *any*
bicycle in a free-fall downhill race, including some $3,000+ graphite
showpieces of my neighbors.  "Your bike isn't very good exercise,"
my daughter recently observed, "because you never have to pedal it."
After 22 years of looking and comparing, I'm convinced that the three
most important things in a bike are bearings, bearings and bearings,
in that order.  Turn a prospective bike on its back and spin the
pedals, cranks and wheels.  If they don't spin as freely as if they
had melting ice inside, don't buy.  You should actually get bored
waiting for the wheels to stop spinning.

Bearings have little to do how well a bike coast down a hill.  It has a
lot more to do with total mass and aerodynamics of rider / bike.  Wheel,
bottom bracket, headset and pedal bearings are all adjustable and how
well they were adjusted depends on how the machine was adjusted.  I was
wearing out cheap bottom brackets and rear hubs every 5,000 to 8,000
miles.  Switching to Campy or one of the other top-end gizmos solved the
wearing out problem and ground race surfaces made adjustment a bit eaiser.
Also, a very light wheel on the finest bearings in the world will stop
spinning sooner than a massive wheel with poor bearings if both a started
spinning at the same RPM.  The light wheel has less total energy input
while the windage drag for both systems is about the same.
 
The most important thing is that you buy something that you like to ride.

So in other words, the fatter I get the longer I coast.  I knew it!

Thanks guys - I'll be a lot smarter about it tomorrow.  If I learn anything
i'll report back.  

If bearings are moving too freely, I'd worry about it.  Properly packed
bearings have enough grease in them to make them feel kind of mushy (that's
not a very good description, but I'm having trouble describing it.  The grease
is there to protect the bearing assemblys, and without it they won't last
long.

As far as buying a bike goes, finding the right store can make a real
difference.  The best bike shop in Ann Arbor is Cycle Cellar, at 220 Felch,
right across the street from the North end of Ashley.  If you go there and
tell the sales people what sort of thing you're looking for, and what price
range you're looking for, they'll probably be able to make better
recommendations than anybody on Grex can, since they'll not only know a lot
about bikes, but will also be familiar with the current product line.  The
people at Cycle Cellar tend to know a lot about bikes, and also to be quite
honest and trustworthy.  They also have a pretty wide variety of different
comapnies' products.

Disclaimer:  Cycle Cellar is one of the main sponsors of my cycling team, and
I've signed a contract saying that I will recommend them.  That doesn't really
matter, though, since I'd be cecommending them anyway and I really do believe
that they are the best shop around.

I looked at Great Lakes Cycle and Chelsea Bike & Sports.  We bought a Trek
810 and a Trek 800.  We tried out several and they all seemed similar. 
Chelsea had an awesome sale on a 95 Giant Accolade for $234 which seemed like
a really low price, but I ended up with the Trek 810 as mine.  I probably
would have bought the Giant, but the back wheel was not a "quick removal" type
and I think that, plus some other features may be worth the difference. 

By the way, the paint jobs on these are incredible.  Mine is a sky-blue fade
to purple metallic, and Nancy's is an electric purple/plum matte finish.  It
resembles that anodized titanium jewelry.  

Hopefully today we can pick them up & try them out.

Good!  I hope you enjoyed the experiance and are happy with your bikes.
Happy cycling.

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