New (Expensive) Hobby: Biking

I always wanted to buy a bicycle. Thing is, everytime I come up with the funds to buy one, I end up buying gadgets that have something to do with my “other” hobby, photography.

I’m not sure what really happened, but I was determined this time around to buy a bike when I acquired the funds. I realized there is a multitude of choices out there. In photography, you have more-or-less Canon or Nikon, then you’re done; not so with bicycles.

Good thing I knew that I wanted a “hybrid” bike–a bike that is mainly a road biking that can withstand a little bit of punishment off road…it would have been worse if I didn’t know what type of bike I would buy.

To make the long story short, it boiled down to two bikes: the Specialized CrossTail Expert vs. Trek 7.5FX. Based on paper, the CrossTrail is more of a true hybrid because of better suspension and disc brakes and I was leaning on buying this particular bike.

But, alas! I learned something as I started shopping for the bike last week: this time of year is either the best time or the worst time to buy a bike. The best time if you are somewhat flexible on what brand/model to buy…because the dealer would give you discounts on their current stock to get rid of them as the next year’s model arrives this time of year. Worst time if you’re adamant about getting a particular model.

Unfortunately, I wanted the CrossTrail, and the local bike shops are out of this particular model; they wanted to sell me the entry-level CrossTrail Sport, or the much more expensive top-of-the-line CrosTrail Pro…which I don’t want–the former for having cheap components, and the latter being just too expensive. Even if I decided to get the entry-level and upgrade the components, the stores only have floor models. I could have gotten a great deal if I started shopping earlier, and now with the next year’s models coming August, I will have to pay MSRP for the equivalent 2009 model! Worse, the 2009 model has cheaper components, which further turned me off.

So I ended up getting the 7.5FX. There was only one shop that had the color I wanted, as 2009 models ship next month, selling $80 over the current MSRP (I got mine $50 below MSRP). I just took my new bike home today and took it for a spin: I am very happy with this purchase…although I may replace the stock saddle: too stiff.

I hope I get to build up the discipline to ride this often enough to stay fit.

Update: I failed to mention that prior to shopping for a “real” bike, I bought one of those “cheap” bikes sold at Costco. Suffice to say, I’m not going to make that same mistake anytime soon. I learned that lesson the hard way: bikes sold at stores like Costco, Wal-Mart and even those huge sports equipment stores like Dick’s and Sports Authority are designed with one thing in mind: to be sold. These bikes are generally one-size-fits-all and made of cheap components.

I’m just a n00b on bikes but I knew I made the mistake the first few minutes I rode the Costco bike (a Schwinn Midtown bike): shifting gears is retarded and rough, heavy, one size too big, and…did i mention heavy? So I let this as a fair warning for my 7 readers looking to buy a serious bike: skip your local Wal-Mart and Costco…go to your friendly neighborhood bike shop…and definitely avoid those brands that are sold in Wal-Mart/Costco: Schwinn, GT and Mongoose. Yes, I know, those are really good brand names……well make that “used to be good brand names.” If you do your intarwebs researching, these brands are owned by Pacific Cycles, the manufacturer who supplies those “el-cheapo” bikes to your local superstores.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 8:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Biking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.