Iride01 

Your current bike can shift to the lowest gears can't it? If not, simply get that fixed and keep riding it and save money for a slightly better bike later.

Since you said your current bike has you walking up some grades, then make sure you know what the lowest ratio gear is you have on that bike. And what it's total weight is.

Your new bike needs to have a lower ratio gear to get you up those hills. A considerably lighter bike will also help so all the other hills don't wear you out before you get to the steeper hills.

Charlie Ky

Thanks, but my current bike is an old Schwinn cruiser. It's just a Schwinn Hollywood.

prj71

What type of riding do you plan to do? Up your budget a little and stop at local bike shop and get something decent...

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/sh...t:ss_price:asc

70sSanO

The standard Escape 3 is probably a good choice as you don’t want any suspension, fork or seatpost, on a bike like that. The only purpose it serves is added weight and no real benefit.

I don’t know if the Escape 3 uses a 7 speed freewheel or cassette. Might not be that important, but a cassette is preferred.

My only pet peeve with some new bikes is the lack of grease and proper adjustment of the hubs. If there is one area to pay extra attention is that the shop make sure they have checked the hubs.

Years ago I was less conscientious about this, but I won’t ride a cup/cone wheelset, new or used unless I’ve opened it up and re-greased, if necessary, and adjusted the cones. It is my ounce of protection that will allow even inexpensive hubs some longevity.

John

Iride01 

Schwinn Hollywood's were available for a very long time. And even back when Ignaz Schwinn owned the company and the brand name of Schwinn.

Some had IGH, internal gear hubs. Some didn't and were only single speed. But even so, you can figure out what that gear ratio is and guesstimate if the gearing on your next bike will be of any help to you getting up hills.

rumrunn6

https://louisville.craigslist.org/se...?query=trek+fx

can't go wrong with this
https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/bi...480976388.html

Charlie Ky

Mine doesn't have the original rear wheel though. Good info to know for future reference either way.

70sSanO

The only issue with the Trek 7.1 is buying a 4/5 year old bike that cost $500 new for $500 used.

For that, I would want nibs on the original tires and no paint wear on the chainrings.

John

cyclist2000

All you need to do is count the number of teeth on the crankset and the rear cog. The rest is simple math. Divide the number of teeth on the crankset by the number of teeth on the cog to get the gear ratio. This is how many revolution the rear wheel will rotate for one turn of the complete turn of the pedals

Gear inches would be more appropriate if you are comparing bikes with different wheel diameters.
Gear inches is the gear ratio times the circumference of the wheel.
This tells you how far your bike will move for one rotation of the pedals.

cyclist2000

If you are buying a used bike, the most important thing to know is what the correct size is for you. Then you can weed out all the bikes that won't fit comfortably. The other thing that is important is to have an idea about what type of riding you will want to do. Do you see yourself riding on single track mountain bike trails, riding the MUP, is the surface paved or gravel or crushed limestone.

Charlie Ky

I stopped by another small bike shop on the way to look at the Giants and they are a Specialized dealer. I took a Roll 2.0 For a spin. Shop is in a great area for a test ride as it has some fairly steep grades. I rode up as steep a grade as I will ever likely encounter and the bike handled it fine. The seat is super comfortable and I loved the height of the handlebars. Brakes were a treat. Very smooth.

Googled it and the shop had it priced as low as anyone else so I grabbed it. It just felt too nice to pass up.

308jerry

A friend of mine bought a Roll 3-4 years ago. I got to ride it some, very comfortable ride...

Charlie Ky

Thanks to all for the infomative replys. Especially the advice to go to a local bike shop. The time and fuel costs saved were worth the bump in my budget.

rumrunn6

good point. I see one can get a new one for $600 here

Ironfish653

[QUOTE=Ironfish653;22501431], (and suspension seatposts suck, period).
The cheap ones, to be sure, but pretty much all the telescoping style posts. "Maybe" on a cruiser or a very upright 'Comfort" bike, or if you really want one of those tractor-spring 'Granny' saddles, but still want the bike to look kinda 'sporty'
They encourage bad riding posture (full weight dead on your butt) and, frankly don't really work as well as they purport to ( countering forces from a rear-wheel impact actually move the saddle 'back' as much as down)

I wouldn't rule out a bike, just because it has one, but I wouldn't consider it a 'feature' to look for, either. (standard seatposts are inexpensive and easy to refit, anyhow)

If you have to have a suspension post, the linkage style, like the KINEKT or the classic 'ThudBuster' work far better.