Just want an inexpensive bike for short trips

I'm not looking at really biking for heavy exercise just yet. I want to
buy a bike that I can use comfortably. I do not want a suspension (to
much to worry about) since I am doing city riding. I would like about 3
speeds so I can deal with slight differences in road grade.

I have been reading on here a lot about what bikes are good and not
good. I can see that most of the problems are with bikes that have more
things that can go wrong, so simple is better in my case.

I found (don't laugh) a wal-mart bike that I think fits my needs at
this time. It is the Next Monterey.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3596787

My question is, how hard is the gear system to take care of in this
case? it is 3 speed internal gear system. My parents had a similar
system on their ancient 3 speed bikes and they never seemed to have a
problem with it.

what do you all think? good buy for my needs? Will I have a problem
getting fenders and a stand on it?

Thanks all.

Jeremy

P.S. If I do get into biking for exercise sake, I will definitely use a
LBS... Hopefully I can convince my wife to let me spend a 400 or so on
a OK bike.

If I were in your position, I would look for a used mountain bike (no
suspension) or road bike. I have not seen anything at WalMart that
would get me excited. If you don't make a mistake, you might be able to
always get your money out of it. This may not be what you want to hear,
but you asked for advice. This what I did and worked for me. You
should buy a bike that is road worthy enough to last you a while if you
decide you want to get serious about riding. There are a lot of good
used bikes out there if you start looking.

Jeremy wrote:

I have been reading on here a lot about what bikes are good and not
good. I can see that most of the problems are with bikes that have more
things that can go wrong, so simple is better in my case.

Not necessarily. The Walmart bikes are the absolute lowest quality, and
more importantly, are seldom assembled and adjusted properly. I'd be
concerned about the durability of the wheels, and how well the brakes
other important components were adjusted. If you know how to work on
bikes, you may be able to get reasonable performance if you're willing
to spend a few hours tweaking it. But don't expect it to be road worthy
when you leave Walmart.

Yes, you'd have to pay at least twice as much for a bike at an LBS, but
I think that would be a better value. See the links below for bikes
that mght fit your requirements:

http://brandscycle.com/itemdetails.c...gId=39&id=5154

http://brandscycle.com/itemdetails.c...gId=39&id=5028

Art Harris

wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm not looking at really biking for heavy exercise just yet. I want to
buy a bike that I can use comfortably. I do not want a suspension (to
much to worry about) since I am doing city riding. I would like about 3
speeds so I can deal with slight differences in road grade.


I bought a cheap bike on EBAY, it was about a 4 year old Hybrid (flat bar
700c wheels etc). It was not ridden much and has served me well so far. From
what I can see of the bike you are interested in it "might" serve you well
for a while but I am less enthusiastic when you talk of adding fenders ,
although I call them mudguards here in Australia. If you actually want to
protect yourself from road gunk etc then you are not talking about cheap and
nasty decorative snap-on bits of plastic. Also if you are interested in
fenders then you don't sound like a fair weather rider.

So I recommend buying someone elses exercise ambitions gone south or at
least go to your LBS and see what is at the bottom end of their stock.You'll
could get a much better bike for your money and you will at least get the
extras fitted properly for you, and maybe at some discount.Personally i
wouldn't bother with a stand but I would get a lock. Get a good one so at
least if you do get the Walmart bike noone will steal your lock.

Department store bikes are usually heavier and have the cheapest components
like pedals and cranks, hubs, brakes and tyres. These are the things that
wear out. You don't get quick release hubs which means extra tools. Better
bikes use allen key bolts, the tools for which can be light and easily
carried.

The internal geared hub is usually very low maintenance but deraileur gears
are more suited to slight differences in road grade, 3 speeds are too widely
spaced for anything but coarsly adapting pedaling effort to the terrain.


Regards Wilfred

wrote:
I'm not looking at really biking for heavy exercise just yet. I want to
buy a bike that I can use comfortably. I do not want a suspension (to
much to worry about) since I am doing city riding. I would like about 3
speeds so I can deal with slight differences in road grade.

I have been reading on here a lot about what bikes are good and not
good. I can see that most of the problems are with bikes that have more
things that can go wrong, so simple is better in my case.

I found (don't laugh) a wal-mart bike that I think fits my needs at
this time. It is the Next Monterey.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3596787

My question is, how hard is the gear system to take care of in this
case? it is 3 speed internal gear system. My parents had a similar
system on their ancient 3 speed bikes and they never seemed to have a
problem with it.

what do you all think? good buy for my needs? Will I have a problem
getting fenders and a stand on it?

Thanks all.

Jeremy

P.S. If I do get into biking for exercise sake, I will definitely use a
LBS... Hopefully I can convince my wife to let me spend a 400 or so on
a OK bike.


I say go for it and report back in a month or two. $100 is a trivial
amount to risk -- a lot of people here spend that much on tires.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm not looking at really biking for heavy exercise just yet. I want to
buy a bike that I can use comfortably. I do not want a suspension (to
much to worry about) since I am doing city riding. I would like about 3
speeds so I can deal with slight differences in road grade.

I have been reading on here a lot about what bikes are good and not
good. I can see that most of the problems are with bikes that have more
things that can go wrong, so simple is better in my case.

I found (don't laugh) a wal-mart bike that I think fits my needs at
this time. It is the Next Monterey.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3596787

My question is, how hard is the gear system to take care of in this
case? it is 3 speed internal gear system. My parents had a similar
system on their ancient 3 speed bikes and they never seemed to have a
problem with it.

what do you all think? good buy for my needs? Will I have a problem
getting fenders and a stand on it?

Thanks all.

Jeremy

P.S. If I do get into biking for exercise sake, I will definitely use a
LBS... Hopefully I can convince my wife to let me spend a 400 or so on
a OK bike.


There isn't anything really wrong with the bike. It should work OK for what
you want to do, based on what you said.
It appears to have mounting points for fenders and a rack.
Do check it over carefully to ensure everything is properly tightened and
working OK though. I wouldn't trust the store personel too much on this.
The bike is cheap, not exactly high quality, so one shouldn't expect
thoroughbred performance out of it.
It does work Ok though.
The internal 3-speed is pretty much the same thing your parents used way
back when. So that should not be a problem.
I usually suggest that people to get an Electra Townie myself, but they cost
a little bit more.
http://www.electrabike.com

Check garage sales, rummage sales, etc for an old Raleigh, Herculese,
Schwinn, etc for anything with a Sturmy-Archer hub. There are lots of
them around, and I doubt that you'll pay anywhere close to $100. Any
good bike shop will work on those (they will NOT work on a Wal-Mart bike
around here!), and they're pretty bomb-proof.

One thing about old Schwinns, though - it's may be a royal pain to find
and mount tires on those.

wrote:
I'm not looking at really biking for heavy exercise just yet. I want to
buy a bike that I can use comfortably. I do not want a suspension (to
much to worry about) since I am doing city riding. I would like about 3
speeds so I can deal with slight differences in road grade.

I have been reading on here a lot about what bikes are good and not
good. I can see that most of the problems are with bikes that have more
things that can go wrong, so simple is better in my case.

I found (don't laugh) a wal-mart bike that I think fits my needs at
this time. It is the Next Monterey.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3596787

My question is, how hard is the gear system to take care of in this
case? it is 3 speed internal gear system. My parents had a similar
system on their ancient 3 speed bikes and they never seemed to have a
problem with it.

what do you all think? good buy for my needs? Will I have a problem
getting fenders and a stand on it?

Thanks all.

Jeremy

P.S. If I do get into biking for exercise sake, I will definitely use a
LBS... Hopefully I can convince my wife to let me spend a 400 or so on
a OK bike.

richard wrote:
Check garage sales, rummage sales, etc for an old Raleigh, Herculese,
Schwinn, etc for anything with a Sturmy-Archer hub. There are lots of
them around, and I doubt that you'll pay anywhere close to $100. Any
good bike shop will work on those (they will NOT work on a Wal-Mart bike
around here!), and they're pretty bomb-proof.

One thing about old Schwinns, though - it's may be a royal pain to find
and mount tires on those.

wrote:
I'm not looking at really biking for heavy exercise just yet. I want to
buy a bike that I can use comfortably. I do not want a suspension (to
much to worry about) since I am doing city riding. I would like about 3
speeds so I can deal with slight differences in road grade.

I have been reading on here a lot about what bikes are good and not
good. I can see that most of the problems are with bikes that have more
things that can go wrong, so simple is better in my case.

I found (don't laugh) a wal-mart bike that I think fits my needs at
this time. It is the Next Monterey.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3596787

My question is, how hard is the gear system to take care of in this
case? it is 3 speed internal gear system. My parents had a similar
system on their ancient 3 speed bikes and they never seemed to have a
problem with it.

what do you all think? good buy for my needs? Will I have a problem
getting fenders and a stand on it?

Thanks all.

Jeremy

P.S. If I do get into biking for exercise sake, I will definitely use a
LBS... Hopefully I can convince my wife to let me spend a 400 or so on
a OK bike.

YOU'LL BE SORRY!!!! A Walmart, Kmart or Target bike is fine for a few months, and then the bicycle bug will bite you in the butt! Then you 'll be sorry that you didn't start off right to begin with and you'd be stuck with an inexpensive used bike that you'd practically have to give away. You can get a decent mountain bike at an LBS for $200-300. Don't use the shifting if you don't care to. Just enjoy it. Buy a litle seat bag, a few critical tools, and when the bug bites, the first thing you'll want to do is learn all about bikes, how to use them properly, how to tune them, fix them, care for them. If you're anything like me, the bug will become an obsession and your bike will beome more imortant than your wife.....well almost! Venture out....buy a good one! You never know how long you'll be on this earth so make the best of it now! Mike G

Wilfred Kazoks wrote:

I am less enthusiastic when you talk of adding fenders ,
although I call them mudguards here in Australia. If you actually want to
protect yourself from road gunk etc then you are not talking about cheap and
nasty decorative snap-on bits of plastic. Also if you are interested in
fenders then you don't sound like a fair weather rider.

What's wrong with plastic fenders? I have a few bikes equipped with ~$15
plastic fenders, they work fine. Most fenders need to be extended with
mudflaps -- again, "cheap" plastic works fine, I use pieces cut from
plastic jugs.

You've come the wrong place to ask about getting a dept.
store bike. Too many bike snobs here @ r.b.t.

The bike in question looks nice visually, but in my experience
cheap department store bike are seldom assembled properly
and they just don't last. A bike takes a lot of abuse 'JRA' (just
riding along) and you *do* get what you pay for.

I would recommend the used bike route (pardon bad pun). I've
owned many used bikes and they've all been good. Lots of
people will purchase decent bicycles, never use them, and then
sell them - cheap. Get a good bike from a reputable manufacturer.
I would either check out Ebay, or ideally a local bike shop that
sells used. You can also gets lots of free advice and repair help
from a LBS that you'll never get from walmart.

The Walmart bike does look nice, but I still wouldn't get it.

Eric