Good Day to Buy a Bike
(note: this is a dated article that referred to a sale so the links stopped working. I updated them in April 2012, but they’ll surely change again someday)
Hello there.
I don’t really have an article for you today, but I stumbled across an interesting-looking sale at one of my preferred bike stores, Nashbar.com. They’ve got a free shipping deal on orders over $50, and some pretty sweet discounts on the end-of-summer ‘stash of bicycles. Looks like the sale only goes for about 2 days from the date of this article.
Here’s a link to their commuter bikes page, sorted from price low to high, in case you’re in the market.
Or if you want even easier advice, for a first-time bike owner who wants “just a good solid reliable bike for getting around the city and suburbs”, I’d recommend something like the GT Transeo.
I’ve bought 2 bikes from Nashbar in the past. They were both great – the only slight hitch is that they come to your house in a big box, and you have to put on the handlebars, wheels, and pedals to have it in riding shape. I found all the gears and brakes were already adjusted and working well.
I’ve also bought bikes from Craigslist – it is the more sociable and environmentally friendly way to go, and the bike will already be assembled. It just depends on your area. Here in the Boulder, Colorado area, high quality bikes and careful bicycle owners are very common – so the experience of buying used is very positive. In an area or state where biking is less popular, it might be frustrating to find a good used bike, or you might have to drive many miles to pick it up. In that case, ordering online and having it show up on your porch can be very nice.
Plus, with a new bike of reasonable quality, you generally get at least 2000 miles of luxurious trouble-free riding before anything even needs adjustment. My 2008 city bike from Nashbar (a K2 Astral 3.0 which cost me $299 during a similar sale) is still going strong and is in perfect shape, coming up on 2000 miles of city errands.
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Mr. Money Mustache is a family man living in the United States who retired from work, relatively wealthy, at about age 30. After several years of retirement, he noticed that his still-working peers were envious of his lifestyle. They were making more money than he ever had, yet they were somehow still broke. So he decided to write this blog to educate the world on how it is done.
20 years ago, Nasbar had a bike called the city/tour. It was a cheap, rugged mountain bike with drop handlebars. I toured and commuted many miles on that bike. It’s still in the family. A very practical bike!
Sadly, the City/Tour is no longer made. I don’t see anything quite this versitile for sale today. The rugged bikes all seem to have upright bars. They’re OK if your not going very far, but I like the drop bars.
Nasbar is a good company. I’ve always been happy with their service.
That is a happy bike tale. I actually like a flat handlebar better than a drop one for in-city riding or close inter-city trips (15 miles or less). Just because the braking and tight-quarters steering is better. Luckily it is easy to change out bars on a bike. On my K2, I flipped over the handlebar stem so it became level rather than upward-sloping, which lowered my bars about 2″, making me more streamlined and speedy without going to full road bike drop bars. It is nice that bikes can be fully modified and maintained with just a few hand tools, rather than a giant hydraulic garage staffed with $75/hour mechanics!
I highly recommend Nashbar as well as their parent company Performance Bike. I’ve ordered several bikes between the two and have always been very satisfied with their pricing. Last bike I got was an ’09 Diamondback Insight last year. It was around $500 to start with, but I caught an end of summer sale like this and got the bike and about $25 in accessories for $260 shipped.
I actually bought Nashbar Commuter Panniers and a rear rack during this sale. Before that I stored my clothes in my desk. This added a whole new dimension of bringing things to and from work. Its on my 1989 Trek 1200 I picked up at a Salvation Army in Dallas for $85. Sweet Deal! All it needed was a new chain and handle bar tape and I was ready to go. I made a few additional changes for cheap but still came way ahead of buying a new Trek Road bike. Plus it has Downtube shifters which don’t have the issues of brifters. Craigslist here in Phx is a great place to find a used bike!
The links to your recommended bicycles are broken. Could you repair them, or give them their own write up?
Thanks Wes! I fixed the links for now and added a note at the top. I think it would be wise to write a new article on bike shopping soon as well, since it’s spring and all.