How did you choose your bike?

I've been riding for a little under a year. At that time I walked into the closest bike shop, told them that I wanted to do a 70 mile race with a friend and hadn't biked before, wanted a fairly cheap bike, and they rolled out the Giant OCR3 that I have. I rode it around the parking lot and took it home. I've got about 2000 miles on it now and it's a decent bike, but is a bit large for me (too long of a reach to the shifters and brakes, even after I put WSD handlebars on it, which DID help). I'd also like a little nicer bike with better components since I seem to have stuck with cycling.
I really don't have any women cycling friends around to discuss bikes with, so I was wondering how you all chose what you ride? I know absolutely nothing about bikes other than my Giant. Did you visit different shops and ride what they had available? Living in Phoenix, I am lucky to have a lot of shops around, but some of the people in some of the shops talk down to me or don't seem to have the time for me. The shop I bought my present bike from has great people and I'll probably go back there to talk to them first, but I don't want to limit my options, either.
Any suggestions?

I'm glad you brought this up.
One day a few years ago, my husband took me into a bike shop and put me on a bike and said happy mother's day. It's a nice bike, a lightweight raleigh hybrid. But it wasn't MY choice and it wasn't My idea, so even though i did appreciate it (I rode it on the STP a 200 mile ride) it left me wanting a bike of my own,,, that was really MY idea, etc etc.

I measured myself and decided that I was a 49cm person, and found a Bianchi Veloce on ebay and bought it. It's a way cool bike. it's the first road bike i ever had, and i'm still learning to ride it. I spent a fortune getting it to fit me. then purely by accident i got onto a Bianchi Volpe 44cm bike and discovered that
it felt QUITE DIFFERENT in a good way. I test rode the Volpe yesterday and yup, it's probably the right size for me. It was really funny, the volpe has shimano components and i couldn't figure out how to work the shifters.
I had to roll it back to the store and get a little lesson before i could ride it!
The owner of the LBS said to me, as you get to know bikes, you make discoveries along the way; that bikes you previously thought fit you well didn't. It's an experiential thing, a process.
when we were kids, and tremendously resilient and flexible, we could ride any size bike. But then again, did we ride 40 miles or 100 miles in a day? Probably not!

Your Giant has taken you this far down the road. Maybe now it's time to get a different bike. Try not to rush into it. But listen to the gals on here. Some of them have SEVERAL bikes now.

I agree entirely with mimitabby that it's a self-discovery process, and how you learn to find your bikes will be similar to how you like to learn about other things. Myself - I'm a very self-reliant learner, and so I enjoy trying to figure out things like bike fit by doing my own research -- including joining this great forum! -- while others would prefer to seek professional assistance from the get-go. I also have no hesitation about buying/selling used stuff in general, so it was natural for me to experiment with bikes by buying and selling online. Many others, of course, prefer going the local route so that they can test-ride as extensively as possible. Everyone's got their own style of learning, and shopping!

I also agree that it's very important to work with the LBS that makes you feel like a valued customer. I have a lot of highly reputable LBSs in my area, but I ended up going with a tiny shop that doesn't carry a lot of bikes, just because the owner treats me really well and is willing to work with the way I like to learn. Meaning, he's not offended if I bring him bikes and parts that I've researched and bought on my own - but he will not hesitate to offer his advice to me at the same time. It's a good dynamic where it feels like we're both learning from each other.

I went to 2 LBS' (when I lived in Corpus) and even went to Houston(hometown) to search their bike shops. I tried about 8-10 different bikes, women specific & men's specific. Like you, I wanted a starter bike, but at the time knew I would probably/possible want to upgrade in the future. I ended up with the men's Giant OCR 3.....it was just the most comfortable for me, in my price range. I've only changed out the pedals & seat, but the way my body is shaped, it fits me to a tee:D

As for my mountain bike....it seems to be a slightly different process. I'm now in Aggieland & when I explained what I wanted, the guy told me he didn't have anything in my size, but did my measurements & currently has 3 bikes on order for me to try out. I've already put down a deposit, so I will go with him(he offers lifetime maintenance) and when those 3 arrive, I'll go from there.

Anyway, good luck, but definitely shop around!

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Originally Posted by paigette

. I've only changed out the pedals & seat, but the way my body is shaped, it fits me to a tee:D

Anyway, good luck, but definitely shop around!

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See, here's the thing. After riding with straight handlebars for my whole life, i really had no idea what a road bike was supposed to feel like... as i said, i'm still figuring it out. All i knew was that pain was unacceptable. Once i got the bike to the no-pain condition, i could start focussing on other stuff, like how it felt to handle on hills, bumps, curves...stopping..

Mt, the same thing happened to me! I walked into a bike shop, not knowing anything about fit and not wanting to spend too much money on a bike I wasn't sure I would ride. I also ended up with an OCR3 that was too big for me, rode it a year and finally figured out it was too big. I now have a WSD bike, and it's much more comfortable, and I'm much happier. Ride lots of different bikes, pay for a fitting if you have to, and read everything you can get your hands on (there's a ton of stuff here). The bottom line, though, is fit. It should just feel right, like slipping into your favorite pair of jeans. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

KB

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions! I think I will definitely look at WSD bikes since I've got a very short torso.
Mimi, you hit it spot on about riding when we were kids! My body could do anything back then. Unfortunately, for the past year in the back of my mind this little voice kept saying "no pain, no gain", but I think I'd be a lot happier if I had the perfect bike for ME.
I have a big "test" to pass on Nov 17, and I think I'm going to buy myself a new bike if I pass! :D In the meantime I'm going to check out the local shops. I see that a couple of you like the Bianchi....any other favorites out there?
And any other 5'2" gals that can give me a ballpark size bike that you ride?

Hi mtkitchn,

I'm 5'2" and a half (!!!), and I have comfortably ridden bikes in the 44.5 cm (Terry Isis) to 46 cm (Aegis Swift) range. Basically, I need a bike with a top tube around 19" or just a wee bit longer so that I can get a long enough stem on the bike for good handling. I would have probably been more comfy on the 44 cm Swift as the standover of the 46 cm is just a little high for me (it has a flat, not a slanted) top tube. So....I'd say I am probably a 44 cm gal. My inseam is around 28" to 28.5", depending on who is doing the measuring. I also like short and shallow handlebars (have Salsa Pocos on my Swift and Bike Friday) and prefer Campy to Shimano, though I have bikes with both.

Anyway, this is just a ballpark for you -- I know some gals my height who ride 48-49 cm bikes, but not this chick! :D

Emily

My story starts out unusual, but it's not too different. I started out on spin bikes beause of injuries that took out weight-bearing exercise. The bikes helped that part, but as I got into better cycling shape and learned about how to train like a cyclist indoors versus doing all the aerobics class stuff (most of which I couldn't do because it was too much hard work out of the saddle), I started to learn how cycling would already add to my colored injury history. From researching and getting advice from fit experts plus spending time with my physical therapist, I knew how my cleats needed to be positioned and somewhat how the bike should fit to keep overuse injuries at bay as much as possible. Given the infinite fit adjustments you can make on a real bike versus an indoor bike, I knew at least how I wanted the bike to make my body feel. This led me to consider full carbon bikes and certain other componentry features. As for the total package, I wanted a bike that I could improve on but wouldn't be too agressive. And I also place a high value on quality--what's the most bike I can get for a good price, staying below where the prices start to get obscene.

So I made a few trips around to the shops and just talked to people. I learned which shops had good maintenance and service policies, which ones might cut me some deals, and which ones were snobby and treated me like an idiot. Then I started asking about the different brands and price levels and components.

I figured out some bikes I wanted to test and I focused on the overall size, reach, agressiveness of body position, and handling at first. A few bikes I couldn't get back to the shop fast enough. I tried different sizes and women's bikes to compare. I told the managers helping me what I liked and disliked about each model and we started narrowing things down more. The last thing to focus on was the quality of the 'ride', including the gearing. The bikes I was leaning towards the most I rode around a couple different days. I wanted to see if I'd be hurting later on from a bike that I thought would be ok at the time.

Then with the fit not being 100% (I couldn't decide if my problem was too big bars or too long of a stem or both), I took home my final purchase for a while and rode. Eventually, I figured out which component I wanted to change first. And I'm happy with that decision. I don't think i'll need to change the other. I think this bike will last me a LONG time.

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Originally Posted by aicabsolut

Then with the fit not being 100% (I couldn't decide if my problem was too big bars or too long of a stem or both), I took home my final purchase for a while and rode. Eventually, I figured out which component I wanted to change first. And I'm happy with that decision. I don't think i'll need to change the other. I think this bike will last me a LONG time.

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what bike is it? Forgive me, I forgot if you already told us!

mtkitchn, as you're shopping around make sure to try bikes with different choices of wheel size. You'll find that some manufacturers choose to put 700c wheels on their smallest WSD bikes - I think both Bianchi and Specialized fall into this category. Others change to 650c wheels for their smallest sizes - Trek, Cannondale, several others. Then there's Terry, which does the 24 in/700c combo. Each of these choices has different advantages and disadvantages. You can get comparable standovers and top tube lengths in all of these types, but the geometries are distinctly different.

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

what bike is it? Forgive me, I forgot if you already told us!

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I was wondering the same thing and looked up her "intro" post. She has a Specialized Roubaix Comp. Sweet.

I love my Bianchi Eros Donna, but it bums me out that men's geometries really don't fit me. It would be nice to have more choices.

My very first bike was a Giant, I didn't know any better and couldn't afford any better. Still it suited me fine during my first 2 years.
In those 2 years I saw more brands and I grew to love a brand called Duell. There were handbuild frames made at a local factory and my club bikeshop was one of his dealers.

Now that I am on the look out again I choose to do it differently. I spend my time looking through forums, looking at pictures of other bikers to see what brands they were riding and looking for webpages of professional bikeshops within an hour cardrive from me. Then I made a list of top 5 brands/types and started looking for shops that were selling them. If I found a shop then I went in to have a closer look and a chat to see if the guy helping me made me feel at ease. There have been times that I walked out of the shop vowing that I would never put one foot in there again, some guys really can talk you down. Eventually 2 brands were left of which I choose the one in my signature because the guys from the shop actually listened to me for a change and were happy to explain things to me.

Okay, my first "adult" bike I bought because I was on a blind date (matchmaker.com) with a guy who told me to get a Trek 5200. Little did I know at the time that he got a referral bonus from the bike shop.

Seriously, I had been riding on my 12 year old Specialized Hard Rock and training for an AIDS Ride. I had been riding about five months and had already done a few self-supported centuries on my 40-pound bike. I did some research and decided I was going to spend as much as I could afford ($2,500). I narrowed it down to the Trek and a few others.

So, I went into the shop the date recommended, rode the Trek 5200 and another bike around the block, and picked the Trek.

I've come a long way since then.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

I was wondering the same thing and looked up her "intro" post. She has a Specialized Roubaix Comp. Sweet.

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Yep, that's right. Though I'm tall-ish and long-backed (it's a 54cm), so I didn't think my bike would be too useful to this thread. I just put on Dolce bars and a Jett saddle, but that's as girly as it gets so far ;)

Maybe I should add that this article (and emailing the author via the cyclingnews forums) helped me a lot, even though I haven't yet put on the seatpost. I'm trying to tweak the components I've got, but I may need to do this after all. I'm still having some issues with my right side. (I am the opposite of the norm referred to in this
article..my right side hurts from sacrum to foot but I drop my left hip some and have subpar range of motion in the left hip and at the left SI joint):

http://www.cyclefitcentre.com/pdf%20...ETRY_final.pdf

You can find the (LONG) details of my injuries and difficulties on a spin bike last year and with bike fit in general by reading this post on the Cyclingnews website: http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?...ers05-08#Lower