Bicycling Suggestions

I realize that this is a scuba board and not a bike board, but one of the reasons I am looking into buying a bike is to get in shape for scuba. Hopefully this is on topic enough. However, I honestly have not rode a bike in like 10-15 years, and I'm sure there has been a great deal of innovation in bikes. I don't have any idea what I should be looking for.

I am not planning any harsh off road terrain riding, so pavement, and trails (both paved and crushed gravel) will be the riding style. I am assuming there is something better (not as heavy, smoother tires) than a mountain bike that is not just a straight road bike (which i assume isn't great for crushed gravel).

I'm looking for either specific bikes that you have experience with or just companies reputed to have good reputations. I'm also open to what to NOT look for in a bike.

As far as price goes, I'm really looking for an entry level bike, one hopefully not over 200-300.

Thanks for all your help!

A flat handlebar road bike might be the way to go then. It's mostly a road bike with mountain bike style handlebars and slightly wider tires with minimal tread. Sort of what used to be called a hybrid bike years ago.

http://giant-bicycles.com/en-US/bikes/road/4/28245/

Trek makes this type of bike as well. And entry level mountain bike would work as well.

http://giant-bicycles.com/en-US/bikes/mountain/10/28402/

I'm preferential to Giant bikes, but get the hence to your local bike shop and tell them what your budget is and what kind of riding you want to do. Just my 2psi.

-Frank

OK - if your using for exercise and not just milling around the retirement park to play shuffle board, you need to shift your financial considerations up a little bit. The lower end bikes are not meant for anything more than tooling around on, though they do it much more comfortably than the K-mart or Wal-Mart specials.

For what you describe, Trek and Giant make excellent hybrid bikes that would suit both light trail and path type riding.

Go to the bike shop and get fitted for the bike. That is an important part of being comfortable. Adult bikes properly fitted go by frame size not wheel size. Some other considerations will be taken into account by the local shop such as handle bar alignment, saddle height and angle, etc... simple things people dont think about but at 4 miles into a 20 mile ride, if your wrists hurt, your knee's are aching, and it feels like your sitting on a brick, your uncomfortable and want to stop.

Peddles are important for fitness.. while you can get away with open flat peddles on BMX bikes, your not out hopping curbs and playing dirt track racer.. your looking for comfort. Comfort comes from being positioned right. There are peddles with toe clips on them.. they are generally pretty easy to step in and out of and keep the ball of your foot over the axle on the peddle. They also allow for the true cyclic motion that comes from correct for (push down on the front, pull up on the back - not stomping along). Open peddle riders often take on the look one or both heels stomping along like a bum on a beach cruiser. Bad.. your knees and feet will hate you for it. The best is a step in system, but that also takes different shoes.. overall cycling comfort though.. lets just say it was one of those early things I figured out and it made a world of difference!

Depending on your build, a longer/shorter stem for the handlebars may be needed so your not scrunched up or splayed out on the bike. A different saddle may come into play as well, but you won't know that till you ride a while. And don't make fun of the road saddles, they aren't as uncomfortable as they look.. especially after 20 miles and your inner legs aren't chaffed...

Outside of that a nice set of Gel gloves is nice and comfy, padded shorts unless you don't mind body parts going numb, and your brain bucket... its saved my life 3 times now.

Ahhh.. and if you ride more than one night a week, by strange cycling law you have to shave your legs.

Oh.. er.. my cycling background is that I'm an ex-bikeshop geek with almost a decade working on them.. my current rides are a simple Trek 820 hybrid for neighborhood tooling around and a Bianchi mid-level competitve bike for working out and distance rides.

I've ridden every style bike on the market and some that were just weird one off jobbies that a carnie should have ridden but instead I did.. (fun for parades).

I swapped the tires on my bike for the the smoother "hybrid" tires since I ride on fine gravel trails and don't need the knobbies. It makes a for a smoother, faster, and quieter ride on paved surfaces.

All in all, I think that biking is a great way to improve diving fitness- especially SAC rate.

However, I honestly have not rode a bike in like 10-15 years,

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I was in the same boat. It sure is a painless way to exercise.

There's bike lanes everywhere here in Santa Barbara, CA, so during my three months of not diving (no one wanted to dive, water was really cold), it was my only exercise. I found that I had no trouble getting back into diving afterwards, so biking is a good way to stay in shape.

As a bike, I only used a beach cruiser. A hybrid would be a nice bike to work out on too, I think, but my beach cruiser works. It's also what I used to get to and from class here at the university. Pretty useful for a one gear bike

A hybrid would be a good idea, perhaps spend another $100.00 to get a decent one. I live in the sticks on a dirt road high in the mountains. I have to have a real mountain bike, though I keep a road bike for riding the road climbs I love. They are very different experiences kinesthetically.

I was in the same boat. It sure is a painless way to exercise.

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Meet me on the Big Island and we will ride Mauna Kea a few days in a row Pain will come along as a third.

While bicycling can be low impact on the joints, there is nothing magic about it. One has to ride awfully hard to make up the same workout as a short run.

catherine96821:

It sure is a painless way to exercise.

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You're not going hard enough, then.

You want a flatbar road bike or a hybrid. I think your price point of 2-3 hundred should step up just a little. At that price point you really only have much choice with mountain bikes, very little in flatbar road bikes or hybrids. Giant, Trek are both good, Specialized is my favourite brand, and if you can get them down there, Norco has a wicked selection of Flatbar and hybrid bikes. As for my background in cycling, I've been racing since 1996, not very seriously anymore, and working in a bike store since 2000, about to graduate with a mechanical engineering degree and have already started applying to bike companies.

Jim