San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Sounds like you might be looking for a hybrid bike. I have a trek 7.5fx which is half mountain bike - half road bike and is great when it comes to climbing the hills which are common around my area.

I would say try and look for an aluminum frame and carbon fork combination for the frame.

I tough open question to dive into with lots of suggestions. Fortunately you live in one of the best areas in the world to bike - great weather and miles of paved surfaces.

As you as just getting back into it – would not recommend spending a great deal as your likes/needs may change as you start to put in a few miles. I have grown up bicycling and have gone thru several different phases and more bikes than I can count. Bikes these days are more specific nitch/environment orientated. Road bikes ranging from crits, time trial, triathlons, climbers, distance rides, touring bikes and everything in between. Mtn bikes have even more specific niches these days – downhill, all mtn, single track, race, jump/trick bikes, and endurance rides.

Bike frames and components are geared to match these niches. I would look at more of a touring bike, commuter, or even a nice townie – these will give a little more flexibility for different rides, are general more comfortable too ride, and you can add change wheels/racks for different purposes. Cost can jump significantly when you start getting into the nitch categories and the tech side – a top of the line racing wheel set (yes – just the wheels alone) can cost $4000-6000, and complete racing bikes can climb in excess of $10K … unless you have a set of legs like Lance and race for a living, once over the $2000-3000 range you are getting small increments in performance/feel and are getting more into wt issue where every once and wind/drag coefficent couts... bottom line - it still comes down to the motor and legs. Put Lance on a K-mart $200 bike and he will still drop most on a $ 10K racing rig. Start looking in the $800-1800 range - wheel sets and component group equates to increased price in this range ... if you really do plan on riding a few times a week - the difference from the < $800 group will be worth the money.

For your needs stay away from the carbon frames – look for a well made steel or alum bike with a carbon fork for comfort/smoothness. There are some gimmick type bikes out there so beware – mostly in the low end mtn bike group… looks cool but not really functional. Bike fit is most critical followed by wheels. Wheels/tires will have the greatness impact on ride quality and feel so sink your $$ into the wheels first. When comparing two complete built bikes – buy the one that fits the best followed by the one with the better wheel set. Visit several local bike stores – do not have the kid out front managing sales and the cash register make the final decision for you – get the mechanic out of the back to come out and fit you first to the bikes your are looking at.

All of the main manufactures make a touring/commuter/townie bike: Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, and many others … check some of the websites out such as Bicycling Magazine and bikereview.com. The Trek website is a good all-around starting place - look at either the Trek Portland or 520 for starters. Also check out Specialized's site and click on the “multiroad” section. After you have put some miles in and are ready to upgrade, move from the large company stock manufactures to the smaller independent U.S bike makers. In this last category you get what you pay for – such as the ultimate bikes made at “Moots” … they make touring and commuter bikes too but expect to pay more than most carbon racing bikes.

coolest bie company in the unverse;

www.rivbike.com

rivendell bicycles.

steel.

no carbon.

personally i bought my bike at a flea market in albqueruqe for 70 7 years ago. and im a bike but. i lvoe that bike.

steel japanese from the 80's is the cehapest best deal around. ebay.

fuji. nishiki. others..

I had a giant racing bike that was under $400 new, about 1986. The thing was great but I won't take the kind of risk associated with riding it on the road now. I was concerned with flat tires at high speed on those skinny little rims. Now I have a Haro mountain bike, about $750 plus some good slick tires for the road and trainer. I regret that it has a "soft tail". You lose a lot of energy on trails when the back end and front end spring are working.I can put a solid insert where the spring mechanism goes if I want.It seems to go out of tune-up easily not sure if that is normal for mountain bikes. You have to remember that some of the front and back gear combinations don't work properly due to travel limitations of the derailleur.

check on craigslist, get a used mountain bike, aluminum frame, no more than $500 (haggle! and if the price isn't right, walk away, there's always deals). look for a giant, specialized, trek, gt... balance/access... look for shimano deore, lx or xt drive trains or sram x7.

get a bike with a rigid frame and a front suspension fork. you probably wont get a great fork for the money, but should be ok from the past 3 years. look for manitou seven, scarab or black or rockshox reba (not likely).

with a mountain bike's design, you can put $10 road tires on it and go cruising through the city just fine. no need for "city" bikes and far more versatile than just getting a standard roadie. not to mention, the sitting and pedalling positions are more tip over resistant.

make sure you get a bike that is your size. don't buy too big and shove the seat down to accomodate, don't buy too small with the seat pulled too high. some bike frames have a sloping top tube design that may make the seat look too high, but it's not. the lower tubing makes for crotch friendliness.

check out rscycle.com, pricepoint.com, performancebike.com for price comparisons. check mtbr.com for their forums. of the san diego stores, performance, bicycle warehouse, adams avenue bicycle are ok. but go armed with info and don't let the sales people bully you.

the san diego bike swap is in october. some good deals can be had there. $1000 can build you a very nice bike with a mix of sale, used and overstock/older stock parts. might be cheaper now with the shitty economy and people dumping their toys. i'm getting sale and coupon emails constantly these days.

oh, if you can't adjust/fix shifters, you may consider a single speed. gear it for your needs (hills or flat?) and just pedal.

I have the same type of trek setup, my wife and I love it

aluminum is dumb. steel is real.

seriously, steel is better than aluminum which is way better than carbon.

steel fails very slowly.

alumnimum can fail quickly.

carbon can snap like a twig.

steel is the very best and there are steel bikes that last literally forever.

there will be no old carbon bikes around.

i dont trust aluminum. but it can be ok if the manufacturer is ok.

if bikes were mortgages, steel is a 20% down fixed rate.

aluminum is 3% down fha

carbon is a neg amortization loan

old steel "10 speed bikes" wichich can take 28c to 35c tires are the best bikes for best price.

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Thanks for the great info everyone. I did forget to mention another requirement - longevity - so it looks like steel is the way to go. What is the trade-off? Weight?

I used to have Specialized Expedition, it was a nice bike. I put a couple thousand miles on it. Serious brand name hybrid bike for less than $300.

Generally speaking, a hybrid can do city and mountain trails, but it won't be as comfortable in either setting as a dedicated road or mountain bike. It's very nice to have full suspension when you're off-road, and 20+ mile road trips are much more pleasant on a lightweight bike with low rolling resistance tires and road bike handlebars.

bike weightis meaningless!

the weight
that theoretically matters is your weight plus bikes weight.

a bike that is even 10 lbs heavier is still eprcentage wise justa bit heavier.

and makes no difference anyway because youre not ina race.

i love the way the enw masi bikes look. theyre pretty.

a flat front bar is nowehre near as comfortable as adrop bar. in mtn biking, flat ars are needed to brace against on downhills. no one needs a flat bar on normal roads. th reason its less comfortable is the natural wrist position. let yr hands fall to our sides. see where your wrists want to be. they are in drop bar position, not flat bar.

i love bicycles so much. buy nay bike! thenbuy another! spend a little, spend a lot, any bike is great! REALLY! i love all bikes. dont freak out ont he slection. if you turn out to be a biek nut then you will have a garage full of bieks anyway and it wont matter!

plus they're cheap relatively to toher crazy hobbies.

and you stay ins hape.

and can \save gas.

just buy one! and ride a lot!

except for carbon. dont buy any carbon parts, esp. forks. they are bad. i would rather ride no bike than a bike witha carbon fork. iam deathly afraid of carbon forks.

thats just the way i feel, but i am scaredycat

If I can ever get a job (I moved her in June thinking my wife and I might be employable), I'd like to get something like one of the bikes featured on this page:

http://sdelectricbike.com/

Then I would hook it up with a two-wheel light weight trailer designed for a longboard or with a surfboard bike rack.

put lance armstrong on a rusty chained garage sale special and he will beat everyone except maybe the worlds most elite riders regardless of how expensive a bike you put the remander of the athletic world, even the really strong dudes you may see on the hills of san diego -- for the title of armstrong's book is, after all, 'ITS NOT ABOUT THE BIKE". but he's a freak, he's not like you and me, and it's not about hard work, some peoplea re just physiologically different...

even lance armstrong's carbon bike broke a chainstay durign the tour de france. i will make this prediction; by 2019, there will be ZERO carbon bikes for sale on the market. they will ahve been sued out of existence ... or people will have realized theyre dumb. the main thing about bike longevity is not really to ahve the biek forever; if you're a bike fan, you'll probably trade it in or just keep it around -- the main thing is to avoid sudden failure because you could get hurt! good strong bicycle forks are very important because if they break suddenly it's bad. so, STEEL. there ar emodern fancy lightweight steels if youw ant a feathery bike by the way. i lvoe steel bicycles so much. i truly hate carbon plastic bikes. you really dont need to buya new bike. for sheer massive durabiluty a 1980's all steel heavy duty mountain bike witha big steel fork will last into the nexxt century and provide youw ith decades of bicycling pleasure. available now at a garage sale near you for 35 bucks. or less if youc na negotiate or it's late in the day

I have been looking at these electric bikes as an option if gas goes back up to $4 + a gallon.

I already bike the 15 mile trip to work about one a week. With that setup I could probably do it 4 times a week.

I actually saw one chained up near the NASCO shipbuilding terminal last week as I was driving down Harbor.

ignore the steel vs alu vs carbon nonsense. steel rusts, is hard to find quality steel frames and will be more expensive at this point (for new, used quality steel can still be found if you know what you're doing. i'm assuming you dont.). aluminum fatigues but for your first bike ridden on easy terrain will last longer than you'll keep it. alu is the standard these days so is cheap, built strong to compensate for fatigue and is still light. hell, you want longevity, get a quality titanium frame. no rust, bomb proof, tastes great, less filling.

i have a bike built with an electric kit bought online for $250. $80 for the bike (used 90's vintage trek true temper steel), 250 for the kit... too bad it came incorrectly wired and subsequently fried the moment i connected the battery. i got my money back with a cc charge dispute. i still haven't gotten around to testing the battery and motor controller for functionality... gas prices came down and the total weight is a lot. a bit inconvenient for climbing texas hill. or stairs.

it's not JUST about the bike.

However, if you put Lance on a garage-sale 40 lb hybrid with a rusty chain and MTB tires and make him compete against a random serious San Diego cyclist on a well-tuned 18 lb $600 road bike, I'd bet against Lance.

If you throw in some serious hills and put Lance on a single-speed bike, or even a bike with a messed-up derailleur, he'll be beat up so bad it won't even be funny.

if you bet against lance, you would lose.

everyone likes to pretend it's the bike.

kinda like when you put on your air jordans, you know, you could beat michael if he were wearing orthopedic shoes.

riiiiiiggghht.
mike would beat you if you duct taped his legs together.

steel rusts? barely. not if you dont leave it out.

titanium fails catastrophically.

aluminum fails catastrophically. check the internet for pictures of bikes failing.

steel.

Get this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Motorized-Bicycle-...

$900...Plus it comes with a small 50cc Honda motor...
That's the only kind of bike I'd ever ride for a long distance. Slap on a forced induction kit (turbo or supercharger), and you can push 50hp+ :)...

Yeah, I know. They don't call me flu for nothing.

50 HP?

Man, that would be quite a sleeper! LOL!!!! :)

I agree with drunkle, ignore the steel vs. aluminum nonsense, and don't bother screwing around with electric motors and the like. I also recommend against getting a mountain bike unless you're actually going to do some trail riding.

I went through this about 2 years ago, and I decided on a Giant FCR-3. This is a pretty decent commuter/hybrid bike. It has a fairly upright posture so it's comfortable to ride, it's fairly light, and it's fairly fast. I actually did the Tour de Palm Springs (100 miles) on mine in 2008. It's a very decent bike for the money.

Add a rack and a bag in the back, and you're set to go. I paid a little over $300 for mine at Bicycle Warehouse. I did look at the Treks, but bang-for-your-buck, it's pretty hard to beat Giant. I do recommend that you get some bar ends, as the straight bar gives you pretty limited hand positions which gets tiring on long rides. Also, be sure to invest in a good helmet, lights, bell, etc.

I've since purchased a Specialized carbon-frame road bike that I use for longer rides, but I still ride my Giant FCR-3 all the tine. It's great for anything up to about 40 miles.

Cycling is not basketball. Very little skill involved. Almost pure physics and anatomy. Lance is good not because he's some sort of a cycling genius. Lance is good because he was born with the right combination of efficient lungs and leg muscles that allow him to max out at a higher sustained energy output than your average cyclist.

We had a stage of Tour of California here today. The winner covered all eight stages in 31.28'21". The worst performance of all participants was 32.38'07". Which means that it took only 3.5% longer for the worst rider in the competition to finish all stages than for the fastest bicyclist on the planet. Which means that the worst rider in the competition averaged perhaps 8-10% lower energy output over the entire race than the best. That's assuming there were no breakdowns or accidents involved (I did not follow the race closely). A skilled rider without Lance's genetic predisposition to cycling might average 20-30% lower output. Lance would easily lose that on transmission losses and increased rolling resistance of a bad mountain bike. If, on top of that, Lance is unable to maintain his optimal cadence at all times because of a broken gear shifter ... forget about it.

the guys in the race are significantly stronger than strong dudes just riding in the hills; they're pros. i meant the average strong recreational wannabe fast rider in teh hills is not gonna beat lance. because lance's chain is rusty or he just has one speed (although hed have to get to pick the gear). it is not like basketball in the sense that it's primarily about power and ability to keep going. but he has a lot more power than the average dude buying a bike locally who shaves his legs and rides 100 miles a week in the hills..

aluminum's ok i guess. but because it's a lighter weight metal that fatigues they just end up making the tubes real fat and they weigh as much as steel anyway. the best advice probably is just to buy whatever excites you and motivates you. for me thats steel. maybe thats why im being this way. i dont think of a bike as apractical purchase like a computer or fridge wher eyou reserach and buy the best. it's more like love. or sex.

so ok. maybe i overstated the case. i admit it. maybe lance ona rusty old bike might get overtaken bya strong young dude under the right elevation conditions and if the bike is too rusty and messed up to actually roll.

but if you gave him a steel road bike with relatively fat tires from teh 1970's that is heavy (like, say 35 lbs, and pit him against any young dude on a carbon road bike from yesterday. no contest.

and for you, none of it matters except that the bike excites you.

paint is actually very important. and style...

for me, houses are more generic than bikes

I'm with scaredy.

I bought a 1986 steel-frame Panasonic touring frame off of e-bay 18 months ago and built it up with mostly new parts.

I've since put 4000 miles on it commuting to work.

Rivendell's are nice, but they are crazy expensive (of course, this seems not to be an issue for most piggs) and I'd worry I might chip the paint.

My other bike is a 1982 Colnago (steel lugged) piece of beauty with probably 15,000 miles on it.

Rust? Pushaw. You could leave it in the rain every night until your new mortgage is paid off and it won't rust enough to lose structural integrity. Today's aluminum frames won't be on e-bay in 20 years.

afx114,

I suggest used because you get the most bang for your $. However, since you're getting re-acquainted with cycling, I'd avoid the snake pit that is Craigslist or E-bay. I suggest you visit

Ye Olde Bicycle Shoppe
6792 University Avenue
(at 68th St)
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 582-4024

Tell Dave the proprietor what kind of riding you want to do. Make sure you mention that you want something that fits fatter tires and has braze on (threads) for fenders and racks. You may decide not to put any of this on but having them will make the bike much more useful. Stay away from anything with suspension. Unless you're looking high end because you're a serious single track rider, bicycle suspension is more of dead weight that is waiting to break than anything else. A set of fat tires that are inflated enough only to prevent pinch flats is all the suspension you'll need on mixed surfaces. You'll be much, much happier whenever you decide to "mash it" on the road.

If Dave put you on a Mountain bike, spend a few extra dollars to swap out the knobby mountain tires for smooth tires. Again, you'll suffer little in easy trail riding, but gain a lot in supple ride and responsiveness on the road.

It might take you more than one trip, as Dave has tons of bike stuff at his house and in storage, but I will not be surprised that you walk out with a quality bike in the $300.00 range.

Don't worry too much about steel vs aluminum at this point (Don't waste money on carbon yet). Yes aluminum fatigues more catastrophically, and unlike steel must be thrown away once bent. But guess what most bicycle components that you will use are made of? aluminum. You're no better off having your aluminum handle bar snap during a ride than the fork snap. You'll likely do neither with the riding you describe. In any event there are plenty of 20 year old aluminum race bikes being ridden hard. As for ride quality, I doubt you'll be able to tell much difference without getting seriously immersed in cycling.

Use this bike to figure out your optimal riding position(I suggest reading this online article http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm), what kind of handle bars, saddle is the most comfortable for you. Find out more about different types of bikes, then if you get the "bug" you're in a better position to decide what you really want.

I do recommend you go and read about Rivendell's cycling philosophy at rivbike.com. If you decide to get a new all around bike, you can't do much better in terms of function, asthetics, and thoughtful design than an Rivendell production, but a fully assembled bike will cost you ~$2100 USD and you have to trust the sizing philosophy as there are no San Diego dealers (I think there is at least one in LA area)

For right around a grand assembled you might want to consider the Surly Crosscheck http://www.surlybikes.com/crosscheck.html. Surly's are not that well known but very much appreciated by the bike shop mechanic crowd. It is not as pretty as a Riv but will also do everything you ask. Plus just about any bike shop, including REI can order you one.

Another mid priced bike I'd like to suggest is a Kogsell PR (http://kogswell.com/sitePRODUCTS.php). The frame set is about $150 more than a Surly but it comes with fenders, seatpost, and headset, so it is not that far off. You should be able to have a local bike shop build one up for you under $1500. The PR differs from the Riv and Surly in that it is designed to ride very steady with a moderate to heavy front load (think front basket with bags of grocery) at low speeds. The other two tend to be twitchy with either front or rear loads.

I wish you good luck and would love to hear about whatever you end up getting.

MadeInTaiwan

I don't know about that, take a look at how smoothly the pros turn the pedals, and than look at the weekend warrior. There is a huge difference. It is like saying there is not skill in swimming or sprinting.

While it is physics and anatomy, most people don't know where and how it is applied, let alone have the muscle memory to correctly apply them.

There are many examples where popular conception is far from accurate. Here are only a few...

On a flat course weight matters much much less than wind resistance, so your ability to stay in an aero tuck is much more important than if your bike weighs five or ten pounds more.

Many people fight themselves while pedaling by trying to pull on the upstroke when it is much more efficient to just un-weigh the up pedal. You end up expending less energy and going faster longer. In fact the wide adaption of clipless pedals probably contributes to this. The kids riding there Magma boat anchors with plastic platform pedals are probably spinning more efficiently.

Those rock hard tires are great for a glass smooth surface like velodrome track, but not so great on a pot hole filled surface roads. You'll likely go a bit faster with fatter/heavier and cushier tires, and you'll fatigue less as well. And much, much more.

MadeInTaiwan