Conference noted::bicycle

    	See note 573.4 for pertinent notes.
    
    	Scott

    Depending on how much bicycling you expect to be doing, you might be
    better off with a basic 3 speed of the type available in many
    department and sporting goods stores.
    
    If you want to spend $200 to $300,  my own recommendation would be to
    look at a so-called "city" bike instead of the traditional
    touring/racing bike.  The city bikes are more stable and more rugged
    (albeit heavier) than touring bikes and, in my opinion, more
    comfortable to ride.  I got a Motobecane Citi-Becane a couple of years
    ago, and I swear by it for all my bicycling.
    
    I'm sure others in this conference can provide more detailed info on
    makes, models, prices, etc.  Also, consumer reports had a very
    informative article on mountain bikes and city bikes about a year and a
    half ago.

    If there's anything frustrate and turn someone off on a new activity
    it's using poor equipment!

    Check the notes referred to in the other responses, and go to a quality
    bike shop and try some bikes.  The sport is an equipment sport, for
    better or worse, and a good quality bike, fitted properly, makes all
    the difference!

    - Jim

    re .3	"The sport is an equipment sport,...."  Please personalize
    that statement, i.e. precede it with something like  "In my opinion".
    
    	Reg
    
    In  "MY"  opinion it is something very different,  "euipment"  is
    in the  "nice to have, but can get by pretty well with older and
    lower tech stuff"  category.  

    Cycling is NOT an equipment sport.  Put your average goon on a
    perfectly sized and tuned Guerciotti, and a seasoned rider on a
    random department store three speed, and see who finishes the ride.
    The human body and the human spirit together make up 90% of the 
    sport of cycling. 

    MATT

While one can ride anything for a bike, better bikes make the sport more 
enjoyable IN MY OPINION. When I worked in the bike shop during college, 
we had many examples of folks buying a bike from us and coming back to 
tell us that they rode much more because it was actually enjoyable to 
ride on a nice bike. At the time our shop opened, about the only 
competition for selling bikes were the department stores. While it's 
true that at least 94% of the folks in this conference could beat me 
riding a dep't. store bike, many folks find that having a bike that 
doesn't fit well and doesn't work right can be discouraging to their 
enthusiasm for the sport.

                                             ken

To take up the argument, I believe that cycling is very much an equipment
sport.  But not necessarily in the sense the bike is the main object, like at a
bike show you come and look a beautiful bikes.  Cycling to me is the enjoyments
of freedom, traveling great distances and seeing new things (as opposed to
running around a track or swimming laps) and of course the exercise.  The
bike is your tool, ask any handy-man and they will tell you the job is easy
with the right tool. 

A bike that does not function properly or is ill fit to your body can take
all the fun out of the sport we all love.

    You've obviously missed my point; there's a vast difference between riding
    any good quality bike, that has been fitted properly for you by an
    experienced cycle shop, and an unsafe department store piece of junk.

    I wasn't by any means suggesting that a beginner go out and buy a
    kilobuck "pro bike".  But a beginner needs somewhere to start, and
    a real bike shop is the best way to go.  (By "real", I mean an honest
    dealer like George Gamache...)

    - Jim

    I'm not saying this is the case with .0, but frequently people get
    ambitious about a sport, buy all kinds of expensive equipment, and then
    get bored or tired of the sport and let the equipment collect dust. 
    I've done this myself, primarily with exercise equipment.
    
    I certainly agree that have a good, well-tuned bicycle increases ones
    enjoyment of the sport.  But you can certainly get a feel for the sport
    with department-store-quality equipment.  If you give up on the sport,
    less is wasted.  If you become a wild enthusiast, you certainly won't
    mind investing in better equipment.

When I first started riding again about 1980 (I forgot how much I 
loved the activity when I turned 16 and got a drivers license) I 
bought a $200 Univega Nuovo Sport.   It even has steel rims.

I still love this bike.  It has taken me 25,000 miles including 
through Europe, California, Texas, many centuries, the Tour of New 
England, TOSRV-EAST and Velo-Vermont.

I am still comfortable on it even though I now also own a much 
better bike.

My Nuovo Sport and I have a relationship.  Steel wheels and all.

I don't think one needs an expensive machine to enjoy the sport or 
to be a good cyclist.  I do believe that 90% of cycling is in the 
cyclist.


	~Mike

I'm surprised that no one mentioned used machines as a good source of high 
quality at reasonable prices.  I'd have to throw in my vote with the "buy the 
most bike you can afford" school of thought.  But if all you can afford is
$200, then pick up a "want advertiser" and check it out.  There are some really
good buys in there for $200.00

i purchased a raleigh competition through the want ads for $300.

-rfl-