REI Transfer - competition?

I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
college. The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. It's an upright
commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires, v-
brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack, shimano
dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. What other models
should I be looking at?

JG

On Jun 8, 10:19 am, JG wrote:
I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
college. The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. It's an upright
commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires, v-
brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack, shimano
dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. What other models
should I be looking at?

JG

What does your son like to ride?

JG wrote:
I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
college. The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. It's an upright
commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires, v-
brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack, shimano
dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. What other models
should I be looking at?

What college? At my college, bike theft was so rampant that I'd never
have an expensive bicycle on campus.

Look at the Schwinn World Avenue 1. I've seen it on sale for as little
as $300 when combined with a Performance coupon and a Team Peformance
10% rebate.

"http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=24141"

Also, note that at REI you should get an REI Visa card that gives you 5%
back in addition to the 10% dividend (usually it's 10%) that REI members
get on all non-sale items.

On Jun 8, 12:19*pm, JG wrote:
I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
college. *The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. *It's an upright
commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires, v-
brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack, shimano
dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. *What other models
should I be looking at?

Depends--the Transfer is near perfect and the price is right, but
bikes don't last long at college if they ain't locked right. If he's
committed to using a good lock right--put it on the short list along
with something like Jamis Commuter:

http://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/bikes/...ommuter3.html#

Internal gears are a must for anything that gets locked outside a lot.
Put a rust buster chain on it as well.

Now, if he's the sloppy type, and the bike's just gonna be a campus
scoot--get him a beach cruiser from Craigslist for $50 and a cable
lock--seriously, campus bikes get ripped off at a stupid high rate, no
reason to put a donation on the block.

"JG" wrote in message
...
| I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
| college. The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. It's an upright
| commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires, v-
| brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack, shimano
| dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. What other models
| should I be looking at?
|
| JG

For commuting bikes, I'm beginning to come around to the idea of disc
brakes. I thought they were silly at first; I was wrong. The big advantage
is that your brakes work, no matter how banged up your wheel is. Plus,
because the rim is designed to hold a tire in place rather than be a brake
surface as well, it can be made stronger for a given weight.

I'm selling boatloads of the Trek SU 2.0 for commuters and college kids. It
doesn't have a generator light, but inexpensive battery-operated lights with
long life & bright beams are pretty easy to find these days. Same for racks,
fenders & kickstands.
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes...rt_urban/su20/

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

In article
,
JG wrote:

I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
college. The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. It's an upright
commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires, v-
brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack, shimano
dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. What other models
should I be looking at?

A shop local to the university selling reconditioned
bicycles from the 70's and 80's and a good lock.
Rack and drop in pannier for lugging books.

--
Michael Press

someone wrote:

I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
college. The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. It's an upright
commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires,
v- brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack,
Shimano dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. What
other models should I be looking at?

Going to college? I suspect he should be essentially an adult by now
and ridden many miles. If he hasn't, that's where the choice of
bicycle got lost. Besides, if he hasn't ridden yet, commuting to
class will be only that so get a one speed balloon tired bicycle from
Goodwill and let him pay for it.

By the time most young men get to high school, they either know what
sort of bicycle they want to ride or they don't want to ride. How
long are you going to hold his hand, or better yet, let his mother do
so? What did he do for summer work, where a young people earn their
own money for such stuff?

I guess mom takes him to Nordstrom's or Neiman Marcus to oversee his
wardrobe. What kind of BMW did he get for high school graduation?
"Poor" kid!

Jobst Brandt

On Jun 8, 5:39 pm, wrote:
someone wrote:
I'm looking to buy a commuter bike for my son as he is off to
college. The REI Transfer looks like a knock-out. It's an upright
commuting bike with Shimano seven speed internal gears, 26' tires,
v- brakes, all fairly hassle-free, _and_ it's sold with a rack,
Shimano dynamo front hub, fenders, and kickstand for $600. What
other models should I be looking at?

Going to college? I suspect he should be essentially an adult by now
and ridden many miles. If he hasn't, that's where the choice of
bicycle got lost. Besides, if he hasn't ridden yet, commuting to
class will be only that so get a one speed balloon tired bicycle from
Goodwill and let him pay for it.

By the time most young men get to high school, they either know what
sort of bicycle they want to ride or they don't want to ride. How
long are you going to hold his hand, or better yet, let his mother do
so? What did he do for summer work, where a young people earn their
own money for such stuff?

I guess mom takes him to Nordstrom's or Neiman Marcus to oversee his
wardrobe. What kind of BMW did he get for high school graduation?
"Poor" kid!

It's too bad you didn't bother to use a shred of logic when you wrote
this post.

Nice emotional rant, however....

E.P.

It's too bad you didn't bother to use a shred of logic when you wrote
this post.

Nice emotional rant, however....

E.P.

Yeah, that was weird! Sounded like the OP hit a sore nerve in Jobst's own
family tree.

wrote:

By the time most young men get to high school, they either know what
sort of bicycle they want to ride or they don't want to ride. How
long are you going to hold his hand, or better yet, let his mother do
so? What did he do for summer work, where a young people earn their
own money for such stuff?

I guess it's possible that the individual in question did not grow up in
an area where he gained any bicycling experience, and now is off to a
college where cycling is how you get around. I was shocked when I had
someone visit me from NYC when I was about 10, and he didn't know how to
ride a bike.

But you do have a point. Most college age kids should be able to buy a
bicycle on their own, with their own money, though there is nothing
wrong with getting some advice from the parents.

My first college bicycle was a $55 ten speed from Lionel Play World.
When that got stolen, I bought a 3 speed Columbia from Woolco
(Woolworth's foray into discount department stores) for $45. I think
that it's a bad idea to be buying a $600 bicycle for campus use, no
matter who's paying for it.

You might like this article (it's also now a book):

"http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20041112-000010.html"