{"id":2068,"date":"2013-07-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/?p=2068"},"modified":"2013-07-09T16:55:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-09T20:55:13","slug":"bike-buying-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/15\/bike-buying-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike Buying Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have seen a lot of people writing about wanting to buy a bike, so I thought I would tell you what I learned in my bike buying experience.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1.\u00a0 What kind of bike do you want?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Do you want a road bike, a mountain bike, or a hybrid or fitness bike?\u00a0 What do you plan to do with your bike?\u00a0 A lot of people end up with hybrid\/fitness bikes (these are similar, but slightly different, so I will discuss the hybrid bike).\u00a0 A mountain bike has wide, knobby tires.\u00a0 Awesome for gripping a rough path.\u00a0 You sit upright.\u00a0 This is what a lot of people think of when they think of a bike.\u00a0 A road bike is very different.\u00a0 It has narrow tires and curved handlebars.\u00a0 You are bent over more when you ride.\u00a0 A hybrid bike has slightly smaller tires, but you&#8217;re sitting upright, not bent over.<\/p>\n<p>Note that this is a dramatic oversimplification of the differences.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I went with a road bike.\u00a0 I wanted it for road racing, specifically triathlons.\u00a0 So I knew this sort of bike would be the best fit for me.\u00a0 I was a little afraid of the handlebars.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t be.\u00a0 They&#8217;re quite easy to get used ot.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2.\u00a0 Set a budget.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Once you know what kind of bike you want, how much do you want to spend?\u00a0 I did a quick survey of local bike shops and found some intro prices (if you&#8217;re buying new).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>mountain bike &#8211; $300<\/li>\n<li>hybrid bike &#8211; $450<\/li>\n<li>road bike &#8211; $700<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So there is a difference.\u00a0 I&#8217;m sure you will find cheaper bikes as well, but this gives you an idea of how the different types of bikes vary in price.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">3.\u00a0 How much should you spend?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, that&#8217;s a personal question.\u00a0 If you are rich, then buy whatever you want.\u00a0 But once you&#8217;ve figured out what you can spend, you can either decide to go cheap or to max out your budget.\u00a0 There are risks either way.<\/p>\n<p>You can go cheap and save money, but you risk wanting a new bike within a year.<\/p>\n<p>You can go high end, but you risk hating the sport.<\/p>\n<p>Middle of the road might be your best bet.<\/p>\n<p>And don&#8217;t forget that bike stores often sell used bikes.\u00a0 This will reduce your cost immensely.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">4.\u00a0 Can&#8217;t I just borrow a bike?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, you can&#8230; but when it comes to road bikes especially, you will be much happier on a bike that fits your body.\u00a0 A good bike shop will measure you and make sure that you have the right bike.\u00a0 Too big or too small and you just won&#8217;t be comfortable riding &#8211; and the ride will be more difficult as well.\u00a0 So you can borrow a bike, but make sure it fits you!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">5.\u00a0 Where should I buy? Should I buy right away?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Find a local bike shop or two or three (many carry different brands of bikes).\u00a0 Try a bunch of bikes.\u00a0 Then go home and think about it.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t buy right away.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t get lured in by sales tricks.\u00a0 A good bike shop won&#8217;t do this and will treat you incredibly well regardless of what type of bike you want to buy or how much you want to spend.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">6. At some point, you will just know.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It sounds ridiculous, but you will know your bike when you ride her.\u00a0 It&#8217;s hard to explain.\u00a0 The ride just feels right.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have seen a lot of people writing about wanting to buy a bike, so I thought I would tell you what I learned in my bike buying experience. 1.\u00a0 What kind of bike do you want? Do you want a road bike, a mountain bike, or a hybrid or fitness bike?\u00a0 What do you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bike Buying Tips - Elbowglitter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/15\/bike-buying-tips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bike Buying Tips - Elbowglitter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have seen a lot of people writing about wanting to buy a bike, so I thought I would tell you what I learned in my bike buying experience. 1.\u00a0 What kind of bike do you want? 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