budget buyer

[markeykj]

Student on limited budget looking to buy "first" bike for future touring.  
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[FredHiltz]

Hi Markey,

Try asking the next serious-looking cyclist you see about local bike shops that cater to serious cyclists (not just kiddie bikes). Many such LBS will stock or know about good used bikes. A quality frame, studied for components that need replacing, can total about 1/3 the price of new. You do need to invest more time, though.

Fred

[boonebikeguy]

My question is how much are you willing to spend.Normally I would suggest going to a local bike shop first, tell the owner or mech what you are looking for and how much you have to spend. Secondly I would also ask about local bike club members, usually you can find a cheap yet quality ride  within your  own local community. IF all of those options fail you which is slim, then I would go online to places like Bike Nashbar, or e-bay. BUt I cannot stress enough the primary choice of shopping locally first.A good entry level touring bike may be as low as 400$-600$ used that's a good comftorable frame and worthy componenets. Anything less and you're riding a Wal-Mart bike and they generally suck.Nothing blows more than a crappy bike. You get a crappy experience and I can tell you that I have seen more than one story about people who wanted to start cycling but were turned off forever because they chose to ride a crappy Wal-Mart bike. A really GOOD consideration would be to buy a Mountain Bike and fit it with Slicks. Most tourists I have met normally ride older unsuspended Mountain Bikes and they love em. Infact the two guys that rode around the world recently, one of them rode and anchient mountain bike..and he loved it.
What you do not want to do is rush out and buy the cheapest bike you can find...it will be self-evident as to why if you choose to go that route.

"Love is a river where crazy people drown"--Kyrgyz proverb

This message was edited by boonebikeguy on 5-21-07 @ 6:41 AM

[bkrbll]

Like the others have said, check out the local bike shops.
If you are in a University town, you can usually find a decent shop close by that has used bikes.

Consider how loaded or unloaded you plan to tour then look for the bike that will fit your needs.  

Take a look at Ken Kifer's Bike Pages. Many older road bikes can be reborn into a touring bike.  

Sadly, Ken was killed by a drunk driver but his pages live on and contain lots of good information.

Also do a search for Sheldon Brown.  He is a wealth of information on bikes and is very helpful through      e-mail.