Good over all bike
 

I decided to return the Walmart bike, after I rode it a few times I've been having issues with it, even after taking it to my lbs to get tuned.
A shop has a a Cannondale trail 5 used for 400$, some wear and tear.
Would this be a good buy for a beginner who mostly rides trails? (Paved gravel)

The other shop has a specialized but I'm not sure the model, it is red and flat bar, for 500.

May go look at both this weekend.

Any other suggestions for brands? Would like to keep it around 500$ if possible.

Probably the most important characteristic of a bike is one you enjoy riding because fits well. For short rides of 1/2 hour or an hour, the discomfort of a poor fit is endurable. It happens that when people enjoy riding, those rides get longer and in that case a well fitting and comfortable bike become more important.

Beyond the issue of comfort, suitability of purpose becomes important. If this is your first bike, then, in my opinion versatility becomes important. I got lucky in my bike because the bike shop put me on a just the right bike for my purposes. I go on speedier club rides but I can put a rack on the back to mount a trunk bag or saddle bags for errands around town such as shopping, post office or library runs. Since the bike is so useful, I use it a lot.

As previously stated, fit is important. Bikes come in sizes and you can look online to get an idea of the right size for you.

Avoid bikes made of steel like the one you probably bought in Walmart. Steel bikes are heavy and you'll feel the weight if your ride includes hills.

Consider a bike with front suspension. While suspension adds weight it will help on trails.

For $500 or less you should have no problem finding a bike that suits you well.

I'd use mine like you if available, but I'm not sure what kind of bike would be best for that. I can probably go around 70% of my city on sidewalks.,

The Trail 5 is geared for single track only, if you ask me. 30 teeth up front, I don't know if that's too small up front for the kind of gravel you're looking at. Definitely ride this bike around for a bit--that gearing would drive me nuts, but I'm not typical.

Hmm the one gravel trail isn't really packed well.

You might want that small crank then--I assumed you meant tightly-packed when you said "paved". No substitute for trying it out though. That bike would be pretty miserable for me on the road, but might be fun as heck in dirt.

Hope you get something good for you!

Most of them are paved. One is gravel. Although I don't often go down there.

you have to just start on the journey and find out what works for you , i wanted a carbon aero race bike so i went out and got one , i usually try to stick to a purpose , i didnt just go out and get a race bike to have one , i wanted a bike that could compete because my training bike wasn't that good , and now i have a race bike and training bike and a back up race bike that is not carbon , so i feel i covered all my bases and planned for the future , if my carbon bike does crack or get smashed up i can fall back on my other bikes , im happy with my purchases and my set ups and my time spent , it took time to figure it out and i know what i need and what i want , and i even built a time trial commuter bike instead of buying a full on 1000 plus dollar bike to do 2 time trails , now i just have to set up my cyclocross bike and im good for the season , go meeeeee !!!!!! lolol

if you want a trail commute bike go for that , if you want a bike that can do more id say get a cross bike or build a gravel bike from a rigid mountain bike , my over all advice i can give is to always build the bike from a frame because you can make a gravel trail flat bar bike for free if you have a recycle a bike shop in the area , and maybe jusr buy nice wheels and tires that can handle all the terrain

understanding the reality of a budget - but if a bike (or anything) isn't a pleasure to use, it won't be.

try as many bikes as possible before letting the $$$ be your deciding point.

LBSs don't usually push used bikes since their sponsors (read: bike distributors) want to see numbers to evaluate their credit program.

I would dig in to used bikes via CR (ugh!), newspaper ads, or the retired guy one town over that buys old bikes, tunes them, and flips them as his hobby.