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The Right Road Bike
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New to road riding? Returning to road riding after time away? Need a bike? Here are our six best tips for selecting the right road rig.
One, always buy the bike with the best frame at the price point you're considering. Components wear out and are easily replaced, but you'll have the same frame for as long as you own the bike. If the bike comes with a 50-tooth big `ring and you decide you want a 53t big `ring next year, that's an easy, cheap replacement. If you decide next year that your 6-pound frame is just too darned heavy, well, that's a problem. Your first upgrade will probably be wheels. Enthusiast-level bikes come with good wheels, but not great wheels. Great wheels, which will be lighter and stiffer than the stock hoops, go on sale regularly and will make an immediate, noticeable improvement in the way your bike performs.
Two, don't spend more than a grand. If you stay with biking you'll develop specific likes and dislikes and you'll be ready to trade up in a few years. Since used bike values are low, you're better off having only 20% residual on a three-year-old, thousand-dollar bike than a three-year-old, $2,500 bike. If you don't stay with biking you've minimized your losses.
Three, don't spend less than $600. Less than that and the bike becomes the limiting factor in your performance and enjoyment of riding.
Four, don't order a bike online or by mail order that you haven't test-ridden somewhere. In fact, we advocate against ordering bikes online at all for less-experienced cyclists. Most bike shops have good prices these days and offer service a Web site can't. If you're an accomplished cyclist, can do all your own installation, setup, service, and repair, and have boxes full of specialty tools (headset press, bottom bracket wrenches, etc.), then mail order is a fun way to build your dream bike. For newbies with minimal knowledge and a pair of Vise-Grips, mail order can be the short road to disaster. And do buy from an actual bike shop, not a big-box retailer.
Five, test ride at least a half-dozen different bikes from different manufacturers and visit several dealers. Test ride a bike at least one size too big and a bike at least one size too small. By exaggerating the consequences of poor bike fit, you'll become sensitized to less profound size problems. If you need a different frame size or just a different stem length, it's best to know that before you plunk down your plastic. And women should test ride a few women-specific models, which most manufacturers now offer. Women's body proportions are different than men's and women-specific bikes reflect this in their geometry.
Six, understand your riding style and riding environment and get a drivetrain to match. For most beginners, whose power-to-weight ratio isn't favorable, a compact or triple crankset is a good idea. A compact crank has smaller `rings than a standard crankset, such as 34 and 50 teeth instead of 39 and 53 teeth. A triple crankset has three `rings, typically with 30, 39, and 53 teeth. If there are lots of hills where you'll be riding, get appropriately low gears. In our part of paradise - southeastern Indiana - we have frequent, short, steep hills. We recommend a triple with a tight cassette. A 30-39-53 crankset with a 12-25 or an 11-23 cassette is perfect. It gives you low gears for climbing, high gears for descending, and tight cog spacing so you don't get ridiculous variations in cadence (pedaling RPM) with each shift. Tip: always have a 16-tooth cog in the cassette. There's tremendous pressure within the cycling community to avoid triple cranks. We think that enthusiast-level road bikes intended for use in all but the flattest terrain should be geared as we described (triple crank, tight cassette). If you succumb to the pressure of style slaves in cycling, try to remember how important it was to gain their approval twenty years from now when the doctors are sucking the ruptured meniscus tissue out of your knees and you can't walk without assistance.