Maelochs

Don't even think about brands. And Certainly don't consider spending $1000-$1500 until you know what kind of bike you really want and how you really want to ride.

Brands---meh. I like Giant and Fuji for generally offering the same quality as the other manufacturers at a slightly lower price, but pretty much, every company makes equivalent bikes at each given price point and for each different style of riding, i.e. any bike manufacturer will offer an entry-level road bike, an entry level endurance-geometry bike, an entry-level, gravel bike, and an entry-level hard-tail MTB for about the same price and with almost exactly the same components as all the other manufacturers.

Buying a bike with a decent frame and upgrading can be Really expensive. manufacturers get parts at a huge discount due to volume. You do not. You can upgrade wear items, but you won't see big performance gains that way .... and it takes a lot of miles to wear out most components. Your best bet is to set your budget and look at everything in that range and buy as much as you can find up front. Most of the lower-end stuff nowadays is good enough that you won't need more --- I'd say get anything nine-speed and up and you will be getting gear you could ride for a decade or more without needing more .... for most riders.

I highly recommend checking out BikesDirect. BD makes generic bikes which are pretty much as good as the big names--usually they only lack the desirable manufacturer's decal, but have all the same parts--and if you don't care about impressing people at the local cafe, why spend more money to not get more bike? However, you would have to put the wheels on and adjust the brakes and shifters, or pay a shop $100 to do assembly and tune-up. might eb worth it, I have had good luck there. (http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...iberty_cxd.htm) (http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...avel-bikes.htm)

The Most Important Thing, is What kind of bike to buy.

if you need a pick-up, don't get a two-seat sports car. if you need a van to haul people or and SUV to haul people and gear and two a trailer, don't buy a sedan. if you need a jeep to go off-roading, don't buy an economy hatch-back.

@Random11 says,
This is actually wisdom---a rare find on Bike Forums.

There are who knows how many bikes in garages or sold for cheap at yard sales because people were sure they loved cycling--until they tried it, or people who were sure what kind of cycling they wanted to do, but were wrong.

When you say "trails" do you mean roots and ruts and rocks and really steep climbs and descents stretching for miles deep in the woods, or do you mean rails-to-trails paths of packed earth, or gravel over dirt, or what? A bike which can really work well on a serious trail will be a pig to ride on the road, and a bike which glides like a ghost over the pavement will shake your teeth out on a serious trail .... and then simply leave you stuck.

There is no "Do Everything:" bike because you can ride a bike everywhere from flat, paved roads to literally the top of mountains and back down. You can get a Corvette, a Camaro, a Camry, an SUV, or a full off-road 4x4 bike, and as with the cars, they won't all work as well in all settings.

You Really need to know what kind of riding you like to do---which might be very different than what you think now.

As a rule, I might recommend an endurance-geometry bike which can take 700C tires from 20-38 or 45 mm for general riding---you can sway to wide tires if you are riding on loose gravel or narrow tires f you plan to ride mostly on pavement. But if you really want to shred mountain bike trails, you will need suspension and that gets pricey, and it makes the bike heavy and inefficient for road use. So you really need to define where you think you want to ride----and you also need to figure out where you Really want to ride. (See the BikesDirect bikes I linked above---both are basically road bikes which will work on light-to-medium trails.)

You might find that you hate road-riding because you don't like sharing the road with cars, or you may think you want to ride trails but find that real MTB trails are more than you like and packed-earth rails-to-trails is as much as you enjoy. You might think you just want to ride a few miles around your local neighborhoods at a strolling pace after dinner, and then find that you like going fast and far.

Also---Most "hybrids" are compromise bikes, that aren't that good on roads or trails. However, "good" is a relative term. if you don't mind working hard and not going fast--or not working to o hard and really not going fast---then a hybrid---sort of an underbuilt MTB---might work for you. Most hybrids---I wouldn't expect them to last long if ridden really hard on trails, but do you plan to ride really hard on trails? Are you sure? And how much road-riding do you plan to do? A hybrid will work on the road, but for rides longer than about 20 miles you might not want flat bars and a heavy suspension fork which doesn't do much on pavement. If 20 miles on the road, and slow strolls over the trials, sounds right for you, a hybrid might work.

I'd spend As Little As Possible on a first bike. A $100 Walmart balloon-tire beach cruiser is enough to get you on the road and on smooth trails. I'd recommend buying used, if And Only If you have a friend who really knows bikes and can go with you to check out prospective purchases. nothing kills joy like buying a bike and finding out when you get it home that it needs work costing more than you paid for it to be ridable. Check out yard sales and get something that rolls and sort of fits for $25, if you can, maybe.

Buy just enough bike to see f you really ride a lot, and instead of selling your barley used $1500 bike a year from now for $600, you can sell your barely used $200 bike for $125. or ... you can spend a couple hundred, and in six months spend $1000-$1500 and get a bike you will ride a lot and really enjoy.