Bicycle for low end use

<[email hidden]> wrote: (clip) an inexpensive (<$100) bike
(clip) Any other tips for buying 'off the rack'?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
USED. Garage sales, flea markets, used bike stores, classified ads.

Leo Lichtman said:

<[email hidden]> wrote: (clip) an inexpensive (<$100) bike
(clip) Any other tips for buying 'off the rack'?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
USED. Garage sales, flea markets, used bike stores, classified ads.

I agree, but best to bring someone along who knows bikes. There are
some nice used bikes to be had cheaply, but there is a lot of cruft
out there too.

Hi, The Schwinn's, Huffy's, etc at Wally World (Wal-Mart) don't look to
be all that bad, and many are under $100.00 Give them a look.
Sometimes better to buy new, rather than buy someone eles's no longer
wanted beat up headaches.
Mark

Leo Lichtman said:

<[email hidden]> wrote: (clip) an inexpensive (<$100) bike
(clip) Any other tips for buying 'off the rack'?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
USED. Garage sales, flea markets, used bike stores, classified ads.

Obviously good suggestion. Also if you're near a university, the students
often have a 'want-ads' newsgroups, though you might have to know a student
or have access to their bulletin boards to read them.

What I wonder is how often people pop into rec.photography and ask which
disposable camera is the best. <g> Of course that's not a fair comparison,
because those cameras will take actual photographs, where as the devices at
the Wally world are merely BSOs.

The other thing I wonder is if you're getting a gift for someone who might
not ride the bike very often, why get a gift that -assures- they won't ride
the heavy, often badly assembled bike-shaped-object very much?

jj

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 15:39:37 GMT,
<[email hidden]>, [email hidden]

Quoted message said:

Can anyone suggest a model or manufacturer to look for? Any other
tips for buying 'off the rack'?

For that price, try to find a bike without any suspension components.
--
zk

[email hidden] wrote in news:426bbb7c.8851488
@news.east.earthlink.net:

Quoted message said:

I'm looking for a bicycle recomendation for someone who is looking for
an inexpensive (<$100) bike

www.craiglist.org

A number of folks responded: USED. Which is certainly the way I would
go. It's hard to imagine what a $100 would buy. Seats or pedals cost
more than that. Would you trust a $100 bike going down hill at 20 or 25
mph?

In addition to newspaper ads, flea markets, and garage sales, most
cities/towns have police impoundments where stolen, misplaced,
abandoned cycles end up. Sometimes good things are to be found.

www.craigslist.com

pick your city, there's a bikes category

Mark D said:

Hi, The Schwinn's, Huffy's, etc at Wally World (Wal-Mart) don't look to
be all that bad, and many are under $100.00 Give them a look.
Sometimes better to buy new, rather than buy someone eles's no longer
wanted beat up headaches.
Mark

My advice on that is still the same, look at the cranks. One piece are
the bottom of the bottom. Detachable cranks are a step up and the rest
of the bike should have better quality too. I am not even going to try
to suggest anything else, since there are more opinions than days in the
month.
Bill Baka

You cannot buy a new, decent bike for trail riding for under $100.
You can buy quite serviceable used bikes for that much.

A bike of any sort will require a certain amount of maintenance.
Unless your friend is prepared to shell out money to a local bike shop
every time he/she gets a flat tire, they better read up on maintaining
a bike and think about getting a couple basic tools.

mcase said:

I'm looking for a bicycle recomendation for someone who is looking

for

Quoted message said:

an inexpensive (<$100) bike that would work reasonably well for light
off-road riding (ie park trails). Since I don't expect her to use it
too often, it certainly sounds like she is looking for something from
a general retail store instead of the local bike shop. (The price
suggests this as well.)

Can anyone suggest a model or manufacturer to look for? Any other
tips for buying 'off the rack'?

Others are saying "go used." My City auction special is now worth about
$60 because I've assembled about $30 worth of parts for it.

HTH

--Karen M.
Saline bike show! Matching grips, 25 cents!!!

If you want your "end" to be low, ride a recumbent.

(Sorry for the delay; I've been sick.)

In article <[email hidden]>,

bbaka said:

Mark D said:

Hi, The Schwinn's, Huffy's, etc at Wally World (Wal-Mart) don't look to
be all that bad, and many are under $100.00 Give them a look.
Sometimes better to buy new, rather than buy someone eles's no longer
wanted beat up headaches.
Mark

My advice on that is still the same, look at the cranks. One piece are
the bottom of the bottom. Detachable cranks are a step up and the rest
of the bike should have better quality too.

Some of the Del Sol beach-bombers have one-piece cranks, and they
don't seem to be too bad. In fact I'm quite taken with the good
looks of their red Shoreliner model (hey maxo: take note and have
a gander at www.ilovemybike.com for Del Sol bikes, if yer innerested.
I've been seeing lots of their SPFs around town -- usually,
apparently used by people who want to be seen to have ridden a bike
to the trendy coffee place/bistro, and parked it nearby. I think
the wide handlebars are kind of stoopid, but otherwise they seem
like an okay casual bike. Lotsa chix look good on 'em, anyways.

If you're into indicators of cheap/poor quality, I'd suggest looking
out for those one-piece, steel stem + handlebar welded-together
thingies, painted black. I've seen a lot of rusted & busted ones
tossed into dumpsters. I see nothing wrong w/ one-piece cranks if
the metallurgy is good and the machining is true.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

bbaka said:

Mark D said:

Hi, The Schwinn's, Huffy's, etc at Wally World (Wal-Mart) don't look to
be all that bad, and many are under $100.00 Give them a look.
Sometimes better to buy new, rather than buy someone eles's no longer
wanted beat up headaches.
Mark

My advice on that is still the same, look at the cranks. One piece are
the bottom of the bottom. Detachable cranks are a step up and the rest
of the bike should have better quality too.

Some of the Del Sol beach-bombers have one-piece cranks, and they
don't seem to be too bad. In fact I'm quite taken with the good
looks of their red Shoreliner model (hey maxo: take note and have
a gander at www.ilovemybike.com for Del Sol bikes, if yer innerested.
I've been seeing lots of their SPFs around town -- usually,
apparently used by people who want to be seen to have ridden a bike
to the trendy coffee place/bistro, and parked it nearby. I think
the wide handlebars are kind of stoopid, but otherwise they seem
like an okay casual bike. Lotsa chix look good on 'em, anyways.

If you're into indicators of cheap/poor quality, I'd suggest looking
out for those one-piece, steel stem + handlebar welded-together
thingies, painted black. I've seen a lot of rusted & busted ones
tossed into dumpsters. I see nothing wrong w/ one-piece cranks if
the metallurgy is good and the machining is true.

cheers,
Tom

Maybe it's me, but I like something I can work on and change the chain
ring if I need to. The girls looking good on the beach cruisers is a
good thing but how many are serious cyclists?
Bill Baka

Tom Keats said:

(hey maxo: take note and have a gander at
www.ilovemybike.com for Del Sol bikes, if yer innerested. I've been seeing
lots of their SPFs around town -- usually, apparently used by people who
want to be seen to have ridden a bike to the trendy coffee place/bistro,
and parked it nearby. I think the wide handlebars are kind of stoopid,
but otherwise they seem like an okay casual bike. Lotsa chix look good on
'em, anyways.

You're right about the handlebars--yankee cruiser handlebars will always
remain goofy and uncomfortable.

Nice fenders and curvy bits though--thumbs up on the style. I'd much much
rather see somebody on one of those guys at the coffee shop than a low-end
knubbly double boinger.

Agree about the one piece cranks too--for a coffeehouse and beach bike--it
it's reasonable quality--who gives a [censored]--as long as the bb is packed and
adjusted well, just forget about it.

Just stay away from the double-doing for casual road use. My neighbor had
a nice rigid Univega mtb (early nineties) locked up to his fence, and
refused to ride it because it wasn't cool.(oh, the humanity, LoL) I
offered to tune it into a city bike for a hundred (parts and free labour)
since he's generous to us. Basically fresh skinnies, chain, saddle, cables
and chain, and perhaps make it a SS or tighten up the gearing (you don't
really need a 28x32 in this town). He said that it wasn't cool enough and
never would be. So his hip dreadlockedness bought a slightly used $1000
boinger with knobblies and now complains about how slow and unresponsive
it is on the road. He would have been better off on one of those Del
Sols for his <10 mile jaunts...

In article <[email hidden]>,

bbaka said:

Maybe it's me, but I like something I can work on and change the chain
ring if I need to.

Well, according to the Great Bicycle Guru, one-piecers are
"the easiest type to service."

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/opc.html

I'll agree a lot of low quality bikes have 'em, particularly
those little 12-incher kiddie BMX-type bikes. Those things
are practically disposable anyway, and seem to be made to be
treated contemptously. I don't think they do much toward
teaching kids to look after and value their bikes.

Quoted message said:

The girls looking good on the beach cruisers is a
good thing but how many are serious cyclists?

I don't care. The main thing is: they're there ;-)

cheers, & I almost got away with not pedantically saying 'ashtabula',
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

"Tom Keats" (clip) I'll agree a lot of low quality bikes have 'em,(clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I would rather have a one-piece crank than one of those POS types that use a
wedge and a nut to tighten the crank arms--once they start to get loose, no
amount of tightening will make them stay solid.

Leo Lichtman said:

"Tom Keats" (clip) I'll agree a lot of low quality bikes have 'em,(clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I would rather have a one-piece crank than one of those POS types that use a
wedge and a nut to tighten the crank arms--once they start to get loose, no
amount of tightening will make them stay solid.

I had that problem with one used bike that someone got for me and it was
because the bike had been fitted with worn cranks that wobbled under the
pressure of me pedaling hard, more than the original owner. New cranks
and no problems since. It did take me about a week of carrying around
some tools to tighten the cranks every 10 miles or so, and this bike had
the Allen type screw in rather than the shoulder nut which I had always
seen before.
Everything can be explained once it is figured out, but the figuring it
out part is sometimes more difficult than it should be.
Bill Baka