Advice needed!

[Samantha Nolan]

Hello all!

I love to commute to my work. I just wanted to know about a good bicycle below $200. Can someone recommend a good brand. The distance to travel is about 3 km.

[Cataboo]

Where are you located? With your budget range, I'd suggest checking your local craigslist and seeing what there is used around you.

[Melalvai]

I do NOT recommend anything from a department store. You will get a much better bike if you buy used.

Bike fit is really important and can make all the difference of whether or not you will keep riding or not. Test ride a bike before you buy it, or you can also get a good idea of your bike size by going to a bike shop and test riding several bikes. That way at least you know if you ride a 15" or if women specific design is comfortable for you, that sort of thing. Then even if you can't test ride a used bike you have some idea of whether it might fit you or not.

[Eden]

Deductive reasoning says this poster is probably in Australia (uses km and $$) or someone who has recently come to the US.

I agree with look for a used bike. There's little on the market that is under $200 new that will be very good. That said 3k is not very far, and if its also flat, a cruiser might do just fine for you - and those, even a decent one like a Trek are not very expensive - you might be able to find one under $250, especially at this time of the year. Be forewarned though - if you get bitten by the cycling bug, you will outgrow a bike like this pretty quickly.

[Cataboo]

She could be in Canada.

Trek 800s go for fairly cheap on craigslist and aren't bad commuter/beater bikes. Vintage mixtes or old 10 speed road bikes would probably also be good choices that she could find cheap for $200. but without knowing the country/location - it makes it hard to predict whether there will be much on craigslist or what the offerings will be.

[emily_in_nc]

I just bought a really nice, barely used cruiser (single speed) off craigslist for $180. It would be fine for a 3 km commute that was flat. With hills, you'll need gears. I agree with all who said to try to find a used bike as $200 is a very small amount to pay for a bike. If you don't know your size pretty much to a "t", I'd avoid ebay. With craiglist, at least you can take it on a short test ride. Also, many bike shops offer a small selection of used bikes.

Good luck!