So you know what your frame size is, what general type of bike you want, and how much you are willing to spend. Now you have some choices to make: where/how to buy the bike, what to look for in terms of frame material and components, and what your “hard line” criteria will be versus features that don’t matter a whole lot to you.
First, where to shop. Your general choices are a bike shop, a sporting goods store, general buy/sell sites like Craigslist, and bike-specific sites like Perfecto or Bike Exchange. You could also shop discount stores (Walmart e.g.), but I’d strongly recommend against it, so let us never speak of it again. OK. Here are the pros and cons of each, as I know them:
– Bike shop. Pros: you know what you’re buying, it’s brand new and usually covered by warranty, the salesperson (usually) knows a lot about bikes, the bikes are (usually) all of decent quality. Cons: expensive, expensive, and expensive! The markup on new bikes and accessories at a bicycle shop is like 300-800%. Don’t get me wrong; most of them need to mark prices up just to keep their doors open, and I’m proud to support my local shop by buying spare tire tubes, lights, accessories, and yes sometimes a bike there. But please know that there are options out there that are SO much cheaper, if that’s important to you.
– Sporting goods store. Pros: same as a bike shop, except that the staff usually know nothing or next to nothing about bikes, although they’ll act like they know plenty. Also, the quality on average is not good, although I’ve been pleasantly surprised once or twice by the bikes that a sporting goods store had in stock. Cons: expensive, though not as much so as a bicycle shop. But still expensive. You can occasionally find good deals on OK bikes on sale, especially toward fall (or spring for the previous year’s models). Only shop at sporting goods stores if it’s absolutely imperative that you buy a new (not used) bike, and you’re on a tight budget (like less than $600), is my advice. Even then you’ll need to shop the sales, but you may find something.
– Online marketplace like Craigslist or Ebay. Pros: can be quite cheap, and people sell some quality used bikes for less (need the cash, don’t know the value of what they have, or just trying to build up some good karma). Cons: good chance that what you’re buying is stolen (if you care…if not, well alright then). Also, there are a lot of creeps, low lifes, and overall bad people running around selling stuff online…but hopefully you knew that already and take appropriate precautions.
– Online bike classifieds like Perfecto or Bike Exchange. Pros: what you’re buying probably isn’t stolen, cheaper than buying new, on Perfecto you can look at the seller’s Strava profile (if they’re on Strava and have their account linked) and see whether they are an actual cyclist. Cons: more expensive than buying from Craigslist, and I have no experience with these sites so I can’t vouch for how awesome they are. But it’s worth at least looking into.
Now, the topic of frame materials. Unless you’re buying an inexpensive cruiser (which is probably a steel alloy frame) or an inexpensive any-other-kind (which is probably an aluminum alloy frame), there are a few materials bikes are made out of, with the pros and cons of each as I know them below:
Titanium: once only found on $7,000+ bikes, and still typically on expensive bikes only, titanium frames are increasingly found on cheaper and cheaper bikes, especially used ones. A search on Bike Exchange showed me a couple that were $2000-3000. Having never ridden titanium, I can’t judge what it’s like, but I keep reading that it combines the light weight of carbon with the bump-smoothing comfort of steel.
Carbon fiber: like titanium, this material was once rare and reserved for the spendiest of bikes, but it’s gotten cheaper to the point where I’ve bought excellent carbon road bikes for $600-900. Pros: it’s light and very stiff, making it perfect for climbing up hills quickly. Also it’s more comfortable than the lighter aluminum frames (note: most aluminum-frame bikes today have carbon forks…use caution when buying an all-aluminum bike!). Cons: can be expensive, not as comfortable as steel on long rides, and I’ve heard it breaks when hit very hard, although I’ve never witnessed that (and if you experience that kind of impact while riding, your frame is probably the least of your problems anyway).
Aluminum: before the Carbon Age began, aluminum was pretty much it for lightweight frame material. The pro racers of the 1970s and early 80s rode on aluminum. Now it can be found on department store-brand bikes that run as little as $350 new. In my opinion there are still plenty of good aluminum bikes to be found out there…it’s largely a matter of personal taste and preference. Pros: light, cheaper than most, stiff for climbing (but not as much so as carbon). Cons: not the most comfortable, kind of like carbon, but unlike carbon aluminum can seem to actually amplify the tiny little bumps in the asphalt, to where the “road buzz” makes your arms and hands tingle, which isn’t pleasant. But again, that doesn’t hold true for every aluminum bike…most of the road bikes I’ve seen lately have forks made out of carbon that dampen the road buzz to some degree.
Steel: good old steel, once the only material, then much maligned by people like me as too heavy, is making a comeback. New technology is producing lighter and lighter strong steel alloys all the time. Also, people like me are realizing that a lighter bike isn’t necessarily a better bike…being able to move and walk around after a century (100-mile ride) is pretty dang important, and on a good steel bike you can do that without sacrificing much in added weight. Nothing (except for titanium, which I haven’t ridden) is as comfortable as steel…it takes the buzz out of the road and flexes when it needs to. It isn’t as stiff as, say, carbon when climbing a hill, but just as they are making lighter steel all the time they are making stiffer (but not brittle) steel too. Pros: everything I just said. Cons: can be heavy, or can be light but expensive. I am a big fan of steel now and use it almost exclusively when training.
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