BassManNate

So, it's been a while. I started out as a MTB rider. Then, I moved and found myself without trails to ride on. My father-in-law let me borrow his old high tensile steel Miyata from the late 70's and I was hooked. Rode that for a couple years until life happened and I had kids and 2 jobs. Haven't rode with any consistency for probably 6-7 years and really want to get back into it especially now that my oldest is probably going to drop the training wheels this summer and want to be everywhere.


I'm not going for anything crazy. I'm pretty much just looking to be a casual rider but really find that drop bars are more comfortable than flat bars. I've been looking at some of the sub $400 bikes over at bikesdirect.com and like what I see for the level of riding I intend on doing. Been looking at the Wellington 3.0 and 4.0. Looks like the only difference on those is steel fork vs. carbon fork. The Motobecane Mirage S looks nice as well. Also like the SuperMirage S and SL although those look more like CX bikes but would be nice to have the option of wider tires if I did any gravel trails at all.

Edit: Forgot to mention that, yes I looked at the used market in my area. Looks like it's entirely vintage which 7-8 years ago I would have been all over. Just don't want to have to deal with any quirks of vintage any more. I have time to wrench but don't want to have to track down parts that will fit an older bike.

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about cheap carbon for the fork. I've never owned any bikes with carbon on them at all much less what has to be low end carbon at these price points. Any opinions there?


I have no problem wrenching and even enjoy it as I basically rebuilt the old Miyata when I rode it. I've even done some wheel building by learning from Sheldon Brown's web site. He was even kind enough to respond to some questions I had when Trying to rebuild a tacoed wheel with a new rim 15 years ago or so. Anyway, your help is much appreciated. Seems like the reviews I've read of most of these bikes is that they're a good deal if you're willing to work on them yourself. Otherwise, you're probably going to spend just as much if you have someone build it for you.