Esb89

I'm currently in need of advice concerning which of these would be best suited for daily exercise/transportation.

Royce union rmy hybrid comfort bike 700c 21 speed

Kent thruster 700c fixie

A friend of mine has a couple of these fixies which left a good impression for the price point. They accelerated much faster and maintained speed much better than the poc next mountain bikes from my childhood lol. I'm a bit worried about the gears breaking on the 21 speed as well as the overall experience not measuring up to the kent. The 21 speed is on sale for 140 while the kent is priced at 150.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Leisesturm

This cannot possibly end well ...

tFUnK

For $150 I'd try to find something like this on my local Craigslist. I'm making assumptions about your optimal frame size but my point is neither of the bikes you mentioned seem like quality bikes and I would try to get lucky and find something else.

Herzlos

What's your commute like in terms of hills, traffic, distance and your fitness?

The fixie is going to be lighter, easier to maintain and have less to go wrong, but will suck if you're doing a lot of stop/start riding, hills, or longer distances.
The 21 speed (3x7?) will be heavier, you'll need to tune the gears occasionally but it'll be a much better all rounder.

Unless you've got a short flat commute or are in really good shape, I'd get the geared hybrid.

PeteHski

+1
I would go with the geared bike, but just make sure the drivetrain is in good condition, which it might well not be in that price range.

PhilFo 

As stated above, a used bike by a quality marque is going to serve you a lot better than either of the two listed. If you have hills, but not too much elevation change or incline, you could even get by with a British 3 speed and have a bike that will outlast you with a bare minimum amount of maintenance. OP: where are you located?

Iride01 

It mainly depends on you. And perhaps a large extent on the terrain you are going to be riding. Which do you think you'll enjoy riding more than the other. If one causes you to not want to ride for some reason, then you'll be using that as an excuse not to ride and therefore not get any exercise from cycling.

Perhaps you need two bikes. One for exercise and one for transportation. Consider if either of those bikes is really the correct bike for either use.

Welcome to BF.

squirtdad

both are super cheap bikes and will not be dependable avoid all costa

also fixie is, IMHO, not a good idea for commuting, unless you are super skilled. One speed can be great though (fixie = when wheel is moving crank and pedals are moving. single speed = only one gear, but you can coast without pedlaing) look for term like flip flop hub (allows bike to be fixie or single speed)

If the commute is flat a single speed can be a good option especially if your budget low

this retrospec single speed at $200 on sale is a better option https://retrospec.com/products/harpe...IaAvt3EALw_wcB

LarrySellerz

It’s hard to get more bang for your buck out of a bike than a $150 fixie

veganbikes

A fixed gear can be a great commuter for some. You can find decent quality ones for not a ton of money or you can build a super high end one that is closer in price to a mid-range road bike or less. However Kent and Royce Union, Huffy, Magna, Schwinn...any other similar brands from Wally-mart and other similar stores are about as low quality as one can get and there are/were tons of online bikes that build extremely not "custom" fixed gears which just give you the option for cheap colored parts and different handle bars in that same vein. They are called bicycle shaped objects (BSOs) because while they can look similar to a bicycle they perform like a potato and were built with the lowest grade parts by the lowest grade labor or even if the labor does have skill they are getting paid by the bike and places like Wally-mart could care less if the bike is safe and functional so they are in a race to put as many of these BSOs out on the floor as they can to maximize the money they make. Safety third is the best you might hope for on one of these builds and more likely safety isn't really on the list.

As others have said you can find used bikes and sometimes you can get a decent deal if you know what you are looking for and looking at and have the right seller. However you can easily get hosed there as well or worse buy a stolen bike.

If you want something decent-ish there is always the old pound sign:KiloTT not at all related to the Mercier company that made bicycles in France but they use the name to give some faux provenance but the bikes overall for the faux "on sale" price they give isn't terrible (if you just look at it as their actual normal retail price and understand you need to build the bike from the box) and the bike generally is decently well liked.

You can also run a fixed gear as a single speed with a freewheel and if you get a decent freewheel (or cog) and a decent front chainring you can have a pretty good drivetrain for not a ton of cash.

squirtdad

the bike listed is so cheap that there in no bang for the buck.....

veganbikes

It may go bang and buck you off the bike...?

EddyR

Split the difference and get a ten speed?

cegerer

Another vote for used off Craigslist or FB Marketplace. They are chock full of bargains on clean, quality bikes - particularly Trek. 2 examples just from a couple of minutes of searching locally. The carbon & aluminum Trek is $100 and the Marin is $165. The Cannondale is $75 and was only ridden a few miles.

Side Note: how in the heck do you ride that Marin with the handlebars in that position!