On Jul 11, 10:16*am, "OughtFour" wrote:
"Katuzo" wrote in message

...

Doctor told me to get a bike. Consumers Reports say.... When I went to the
LBS....,
When I talked to the people at
work, they ....

Never mind all that.

Test ride some bikes and see what you like.

Go to a couple of bike stores and try different machines. Including, but not
limited to, what they recommend. Tell them you don;t know what you like and
are there to find out.

After a short while you'll be able to say things like, This one was very
comfortable but hard to ride uphill, and learn from the LBS what the
tradeoffs are.

Your experience is the best teacher.

This makes sense to me.

A couple years ago, I advised on exactly the same question for an
acquaintance (who's now a very good friend of mine). He's an
electrical engineer, and he had done what he thought of as
"considerable research" online, which was mostly visiting manufacturer
websites and reading an article here or there.

He was all set to get a bouncy comfort bike - suspension fork,
suspension seatpost, soft saddle, high handlebars - until I told him
some of the tradeoffs. He and I went shopping together.

After trying the bikes he had in mind, he ended up with a different
one entirely: a good quality, brand name, bike shop mountain bike, but
with smooth tires and no springs anywhere. It was so much better
riding that it was no contest.

Keep in mind that hopping curbs, riding even fairly rough dirt paths,
carrying loads, etc. is something that anything but the most delicate
road racing bike will handle easily. I do all that and more with my
standard road bikes.

(P.S. My friend has now moved to an old drop-bar road bike he got for
free, and he likes it even better, since its rolling resistance is
less.)

- Frank Krygowski