The general advice to make sure you like cycling before outlaying lots of money is sound. I'm military and have access to free gyms. The gym exercise bikes just weren't doing it for me. Went to Germany for some training and we had the option to rent a bike for $100 for a month from MWR. It was some 3x7 low quality mountain bike but it was certainly sufficient to get me around. The sights in and around Garmisch, Germany were so nice the bike quality didn't really matter.
It was only after returning that I decided I really liked cycling and that's when I bought a bike. So my question at this point is for you to clarify what you mean by "new to cycling".