saveferris

Hopeful for some help here from the community. Just joined today! My wife and I were looking for something we can do together and decided on biking. We are going to buy bikes and any help from this community is appreciated. I've done some digging and researching and have come away maybe more confused. Our plan is to visit a couple nearby bike shops and tell them what's in this post and listen to their recommendations. I will still research what they suggest, that's just how I'm wired. Before that I wanted to get some info from the community.

tldr;
Looking for bikes for my wife and I. Budget is up to $1,500/bike but flexible. I'm on the bigger side at 6'2" 245#. We will ride mostly paved and crushed stone/gravel trails around the Chicago area, no roads at all planned at this point. Need some help on what type of bike and then what bike recommendations.

If I need to move this or cross post to another thread let me know, I didn't see a What Should I Buy section but could have missed that.

My wife is tall but otherwise normal, I'm 6'2" and 245 lbs. I'm in the gym 4-5 days a week strength training and will continue to do that. I mention it because while I don't know if there are weight limits on bikes some look pretty fragile, though I'm sure they are stronger than they look.

Let's start with the type of bike. We will ride paved or loose gravel (crushed stone) trails, maybe the occasional single track trail but that's going to be less than 5% of the time if at all. In the late 90's and early 2000's I used to ride a fair amount of mountain trails and took my wife once...exactly once and she swore I was trying to kill her so we never did that again. We don't anticipate any road riding at all.

We've been renting bikes from a local bike shop and started out with 8 mile rides and are now up to 20 miles over about 90 minutes. We've talked about getting to a point where we can go 50 and than 100 miles but that will be a ways off. We'd like the bikes we buy to be able to support that though unless it's hard to impossible to fit that into our budget. We have no intentions of racing, these are leisurely, smell the roses, see the sights, exploring kind of rides

I've seen gravel bikes may be a good fit but there is also Hybrid - not sure what that is...what about drop bar mountain bikes, that's a thing too I see. What's an Adventure bike - sounds cool, I'd like my bike rides to be an adventure to a degree, commuter bikes may be a good fit too. This is complicated not the least of which is the manufacturers aren't on the same page as to what the categories are. Basically the only category I've eliminated completely is road bikes

It seems groupsets heavily determine the cost of a bike, and the frame. One thing that is confusing to me is that a bike may not have all one groupset, it's a mix and match approach. I went in thinking a bike would have all the same groupset but that isn't the case in a lot of bikes I've looked at, in fact it's almost never the case - could be the price I'm looking in but not sure. Do I care if it's mixed. For example the Giant Toughroad SLR 2 (cannot post links yet) has Shimano Altus, Alivio, Acera pieces and yet different brakes...not sure I understand the groupsets well enough to know if that's normal or not, or a cost saving approach.

Is there a particular piece of the groupset that I should focus on for what we are going to be doing?

I think a steel bike will be best for me. From what I gather that is the strongest frame material and the weight penalty isn't going to be an issue for me. Anyone have thoughts on that?

I'm sure there may be additional info y'all need to help so ask away and I'll update this as needed.

Thanks for any help!

400E

You and I are "Clydesdales" -- not an insult but an accepted term to describe the over-200 lb cyclist. There is actually a Clydesdale forum on this site and may be worth checking out.

I am 6'8", 215 lbs. Back when I was 270+, I switched from my old Trek FX hybrid to a Surly Disc Trucker. I wanted drop bars and a strong steel frame. I like Surly bikes a lot. Solid and fits me well.

Mulberry20

Jamis has very nice bikes in that price range. Really hard to fault for the money. Steel will give you the nicest ride. I have ridden every frame material and while I really like carbon bikes I just cannot get motived to buy one. When the 2021 bikes start rolling in I will look at some dream carbon bikes like an S Works, Allied and Pinarello and see how it goes.

So often when people buy bikes they decide what is “comfortable” by looking at the bike, associating an upright position and the size and shape of the saddle with comfort. That is a completely incorrect way of evaluating a bike.

In the end comfort is determined by fit and your general physical condition.

One word about bikes in that price range, component quality may not be the best and longevity won’t be the longest but certainly for average use just fine. The frames generally are stout though.

Which groupset is best really depends on the mileage you intend to put on the bike. Trail and gravel riding doesn’t rack up the miles or entail the stress on components like road riding does so lower components should be ok.

Maelochs

Frame material is not so important. I am a mega-clyde and I have bikes made of steel, aluminum, and carbon fiber. They all hold my up fine.

Generally you can get the best price/performance combination from an aluminum bike with a carbon fork.

Getting two decent bikes for $750 apiece is not going to be easy. That's about the absolute lower limit for bikes you could use they way you describe.

I have had good luck buying through BikesDirect (https://www.bikesdirect.com/) These are no-name frames with decent components for decent prices. (The names on the frames were bought after the original companies went out of business ... )

Just an interesting option.

saveferris

Thanks for letting me know about the Clydesdales, been called many things but this is a first :-)

I will check out the section....

saveferris

Thanks. I will look at other materials too. Also to clarify $1,500 per bike or $3,000 total.

fietsbob

Have you found a favorite local bike shop, yet? what brand lines do they carry?

jon c. 

Test ride as many different types of bikes as you can to see what feels best to you. It's a very individual thing. Sales staff may tell you what they think is best for you, but only you can decide what really feels comfortable.

saveferris

Not yet. We've been to a few shops. We like the one we've been renting from but we're moving in a month and it won't be very convenient. They carry Cannondale, Specialized, Surly, Felt, Masi, Raleigh, and a few others.

We live in the western suburbs of Chicago so I think within a reasonable drive most bike brands are available. I've yet to find one that isn't in some curiosity searching though I'm sure there are some I won't be able to get locally.

Another shop a couple miles from our new place carries Cannondale, GT, Jamis, Kona, Orbea...

saveferris

Thanks for the advice. That makes sense. Anyone know if the test rides are like test driving a car, around the block or whatever - short rides or can I take it for 30 minutes. I'm thinking I may not understand if it's a good fit in 5 minutes when I plan to be on it for much longer each time I ride it...

livedarklions

Not sure what it's like where you live, but there's very little in the stores in my area right now.

Very tough time to find bikes.

fietsbob

Efficiency and concentration of sources has Taiwan leading as the go - to manufacturer of most bicycles many brands done by a handful of companies..

To some extent who you buy it from , your relationship with the shop, is the part to sort out ..
they will help you with finding the right bike.. It's a Service business..