What bike to get?

bakemaster
Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:01:09 +0000

The OP asked what bikes last the longest. Bikes in the $100-200 range definitely do not last the longest. Yes, they’ll get you around campus for a while. If you never ride them anywhere else, you don’t ride hard at all, and you know how to tune up your own bike and take care of it, a bike in that price range can last through four years of school. But no-one who is inexperienced enough to have to ask the sorts of questions asked in the OP is at all likely to be capable of doing the necessary maintenance themselves, and if you can afford the extra cost of professional tunes and repairs on a low-quality bike, why not buy a higher quality bike in the first place?

These cheaper bikes are best suited for kids and casual riders who only use their bikes occasionally. People who commute regularly on their bikes tend to just pick them up and zip off to where they need to go; they don’t check the tire pressures as often as they should, they don’t wipe the bike down after riding through bad weather to prevent buildup of dirt, grit and corrosive materials, they don’t know how to adjust their seat and handlebars, they don’t lubricate their chain, and so on. For a bicycle to stand up to this kind of wear long-term, it should have parts of a certain degree of quality. At the extreme low end (sub-$200), the manufacturer is very limited in what materials and parts are affordable while still being able to turn a profit.

Common points of failure or damage on cheap bicycles are rusting or warping over time of the rims and spokes; low-quality derailleurs going out of alignment, which is annoying at first and will start causing thrown chains if not dealt with; reflectors held on not by hardware but by a weak adhesive, and eventually falling off. If you ride hard, lots of hopping and curb-jumping, you can break the pedal right off of a cheap bicycle.

The final nail in the coffin for these bikes, as far as I’m concerned, is the availability of so many high-quality used bikes on Craigslist and eBay in the exact same price range. With just a little patience, you can find used bikes for $150-250 used that sold for $600-800 new, and the difference in quality is huge. Road bikes in this range tend to be lighter; hybrids tend to be much more comfortable and better-geared; mountain bikes tend to have better suspension. In any style, you’ll find nicer features in this range, like more comfortable grips on the handlebars, indexed shifters, better seat design. A used bike may already have accessories installed such as fenders, racks, lights, extra reflectors, bottle cages, and so on. And because these bikes are made with higher-quality materials, they can be (and often are) ridden for decades. But when people sell them used, they often are no more than five years old, and may have seen only occasional use. When in good condition, that’s just so much more bike for your money.

It’s not wrong to buy a cheap bike from Wal-Mart, and if you think you’ll be able to afford something nicer in a year or two, maybe you’d rather have a warranty in the meantime than buy something used. Just don’t expect it to stand up to daily use on and off campus for four years. Repairs will always become more expensive in the long run than high quality materials and proper care.