Quoted message said:I recently bought an inexpensive bike (a schwinn 26" mens sidewinder),
only to find that the frame is really small for my long legs (what
size is the frame?). I went to a bike shop and tested some other
bikes to find that a 22-inch frame is the size that I need, but all
the bikes there are all too expensive for what I would ever want or
even need.
My question: considering that I don't know anything about bikes, could
people tell me which bike (or bikes) I could get that's relatively
inexpensive (<$200 US) with a 21- or 22-inch frame?
As another poster pointed out, your best bet would probably be a used bike.
You're not going to find different size bikes at department stores; they
don't really expect people are going to use the bikes much, so what
difference does it make if they don't fit? And if you did happen to be just
the right size to fit one, you'll quite likely discover various other things
they've done to try and make a bike as cheaply as possible.
The most expensive bike you can buy is the one that sits in the garage,
never ridden. A far better buy would be to spend perhaps $50 more than your
stated price range and get something that's not only fit to you correctly
(which is more than just setting the seat height) but also assembled
properly and has a place to bring it back to if something's not quite right.
A $250 mountain bike from a decent bike shop is an absolute steal for the
consumer; in general, the break-even point for a high-quality shop is around
$500 (meaning that, when they account for the time spent to assemble the
bike, fit it, do the 30-day check & whatever warranty work might be needed,
a shop might actually lose money on every bike they sell below $500).
That's not to say that all shops put so much effort into such a bike, but
the better ones do. And it will pay off with many years fun riding.
(If you're wondering why a shop would sell product below the break-even
point, no, we're not altruistic. But if we don't sell product starting at a
moderate price point, we lose the lower end not just to department store
bikes, but all manner of other things people might spend their money on,
including video games. Get them hooked on a great starter bike, get them
coming back into the bike shop, and they start buying things you do make
money on, including more expensive bikes. We also don't want a situation
where the family buys its adult bikes from us and the kids bikes from a
department store. That's a bad precedent; we selfishly don't want to leave
room for department stores to muscle in to our bread-and-butter sales, and
if the parents rationalize that it's OK to buy their kids bikes at WalMart,
how much longer before they regard bikes as toys in general and start buying
their own there as well?).
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
